Gemini staff contributions
Figure 1 (top).
The GHOST spectrograph
in the lab prior to the
installation of the inner
enclosure.
Credit: NRC-HAA
On the Horizon
This review highlights instrumentation development efforts
made in 2019 to advance the Observatory’s capabilities to do
leading science, especially in the era of multi-messenger and
time-domain astronomy.
Figure 2 (bottom).
The GHOST
spectrograph with
inner enclosure and
assemblies for blue and
red detectors.
Credit: NRC-HAA
JANUARY 2020
GHOST on the Move
For the past six months, the assembly, alignment, and test of Gemini’s High-resolution Op-
tical SpecTrograph (GHOST) in Victoria, British Columbia,
has gone very close to plan; we expect to ship the instru-
ment to Gemini South in February 2020.
The newest instrument chosen for the Gemini South tele-
scope, GHOST was designed, and is being built and tested,
by a partnership of organizations: Australian Astronomical
Optics (AAO)-Macquarie University, the National Research
Council Canada (NRC)-Herzberg, the Australian National
University (ANU), and Software Design Ideas. During the
latter half of 2019, the AAO, which designed and built
GHOST’s Slit Viewer Assembly and Optical Fiber Cable,
made multiple visits to NRC-Herzberg, where they partici-
pated in each sub-assembly’s integration and testing with
the spectrograph.
The spectrograph (Figures 1 and 2) has performed ex-
cellently during the Acceptance Testing of the past few
months. Test results for resolution, throughput, and stabil-
ity all look great in the lab. We will repeat the verification
of these and other performance requirements after all
is re-assembled at Gemini South. Having developed the
data reduction and instrument control software, the ANU
and Software Design Ideas were also key participants in
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GeminiFocus
January 2020 / 2019 Year in Review