Figure 7.
Gemini South image
of NGC 3310 obtained
as a result of the
Australian Gemini
Cosmic Poll in 2015.
NGC 3310 is a grand
design galaxy about
50 million light
years distant that
likely collided with a
smaller galaxy about
100 million years ago
— warping its disk
and inciting bursts of
star formation (the
pink regions in the
galaxy’s arms).
20
Of the almost 1,800 Gemini papers in refereed journals, about 15% have at least one
Australian-affiliated author, reflecting the
collaborative nature of many of the programs’ allocated time. This works out at one
Gemini paper with Australian involvement
for every eight hours of Gemini time used.
Gemini data from Australia has contributed
to the PhD theses of 45 students at Australian institutions.
Australian Gemini
Cosmic Poll
Throughout Australia’s membership in the
Gemini Partnership, AusGO ran an annual
competition in which school students and
GeminiFocus
amateur astronomers competed to define
an observation to be done in queue time.
New AusGO staff member Elaina Hyde took
the 2015 Australian Gemini Image Contest
in a new direction by transforming it into
the “Australian Gemini Cosmic Poll.” Rather than requiring high school students or
amateur astronomers to propose suitable
targets as in earlier contests, the entire Australian public were invited to vote on one of
four categories of objects to be observed:
an individual galaxy, a galaxy pair, a planetary nebula, or another type of nebula.
In a spirit of friendly competition, each
AusGO staff member pitched their favorite
class of object in a short video. The science
and media technology platform
hosted the poll, and it received
more than 100 votes in the space
of two weeks; in the end, the “individual galaxy” category came
out on top, and the selected
target was NGC 3310. While the
observations were made active
in the Gemini queue, Elaina coordinated a “Live from Gemini”
video event with Peter Michaud
and André-Nicolas Chené, and
posted regular updates to the
AAO’s Facebook page and Twitter (@AAOastro, #ITSOaao) accounts. AusGO released the final
stunning image of NGC 3310
(Figure 7) just before Christmas
— a fitting way to mark the end
of Australian usage of Gemini’s
queue mode.
April 2016