Rachel Mason
Fast Turnaround Program
Pilot Underway
The new Fast Turnaround program enjoyed a successful launch and is
proving popular with our user community. Work continues behind the
scenes to monitor and improve the process, including the novel peer
review scheme.
In the October 2014 issue of GeminiFocus we reported on progress towards launching the
Fast Turnaround (FT) program. The pilot scheme is now well underway, and we are pleased
to report that participation and feedback have been encouraging so far.
To recap, the FT program offers monthly opportunities to submit proposals for observations
that will be executed starting roughly a month after each proposal deadline. To enable this
rapid response, proposals are reviewed by the Principal Investigators (PIs) or designated
Co-Investigators of other proposals submitted during the same cycle. The experimental
scheme has been in operation at Gemini North since January of this year, accounting for
10 percent of the available telescope time for Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the University of
Hawaii (UH), and the rest of the US community.
The FT program moves quickly, and we are constantly gaining experience and receiving
feedback. This article is therefore necessarily a snapshot of the first few weeks of the system.
With that in mind, the following is an overview of the first 1.5 cycles.
Cycle Overview
The first Call for Proposals, with a January 31st deadline, elicited an enthusiastic (and encouraging) response. We received 17 valid proposals, requesting 60 hours of observing
time. Since Gemini dedicates three nights per month to the program, and because the
April 2015
GeminiFocus
17