Gemini staff contributions
News for Users
Gemini celebrates a major milestone with the recent handover of Base
Facility Operations at both sites. Meanwhile the Hamamatsu CCDs
in the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph at Gemini South (GMOS-S),
which initially experienced a number of mysterious problems, have
mostly been addressed during the past 20 months as described in
this update. Also included are notes on construction progress at the
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and Gemini’s work to ensure
integration into LSST’s network of follow-up observations. The visiting
Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES) recently completed
a wide-ranging set of community science programs at Gemini
North, and the new detectors for the Gemini-North Multi-Object
Spectrograph (GMOS-N) are doing science!
Gemini Now Operates Remotely in Both Hemispheres!
Figure 1.
Francisco Meza and
Herman Díaz work on
the Gemini South all-sky
cloud cameras which
are instrumental in BFO
implementation.
Credit: Manuel Paredes
On February 17, 2017, Gemini celebrated a final mile-
stone with the official handover of Base Facility Opera-
tions (BFO) at Gemini South. It took a year to complete
this important step and involved all departments
from Gemini South. About a year ago, Gemini North
reached the same milestone, so now both Gemini tele-
scopes operate routinely from the base facilities in La
Serena, Chile, and Hilo, Hawai‘i.
The move has a profound impact on our nighttime op-
erations, but so far with no losses in data acquisition
or on-sky observing efficiencies. The move to BFO also
significantly improves our environmental stewardship,
mostly due to fewer trips up and down the moun-
tains in both Chile and Hawai‘i. For Gemini users, this
April 2017
GeminiFocus
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