A highly-ranked FT program is not competing against an already-started Band 1 queue
program, and vice versa.
Third, we value the transparency the present
system provides. We can very clearly state
what happened to the FT programs during
their observing nights, rather than having
them ”disappear” into hundreds of hours of
other programs. We may have to rethink this
approach, as we see how things progress, but
for now we’ll simply monitor and evaluate.
Monitoring the FT program will be an important part of our team’s work in the next few
months. We’ll be gathering statistics, soliciting user feedback, and also preparing a report for the oversight committees’ meetings
in May. Once we have sufficient data for a
reliable evaluation, we (in conjunction with
the oversight committees) will make a decision about the program’s future — should
it continue in similar or modified form? Be
scaled up and expanded to Gemini South?
Or be stopped entirely?
We will be sure to share our evaluation and
assessment with our user communities.
Meanwhile, regular updates can be found
on the FT blog.
Rachel Mason is an associate astronomer at
Gemini North. She can be reached at:
[email protected]
April 2015
GeminiFocus
21