Figure 2 . GHOST team members
( left to right ) Tony Farrell , John Bassett , Gabriella
Baker , Ross Zhelem , Peter Young , Lew Waller , Richard McDermid , Steve Margheim , and Manuel Gomez observe some of the first light captured by the GHOST Cassegrain unit at Cerro Pachón .
Credit : David Henderson
Figure 3 . Massimo Robberto , the new OCTOCAM Principal Investigator .
minute field-of-view , and verified that target acquisition ( both direct and via spiral search ) worked as expected in both the single target and two target modes . The team is enthusiastic about the performance of the GHOST Cassegrain unit and look forward to the arrival of the spectrograph from Canada ’ s National Research Council-Herzberg .
— David Henderson and Catherine Blough
OCTOCAM Making Great Strides
OCTOCAM — Gemini ’ s next generation imager and spectrograph — has had a busy start to 2018 . In January , a Quarterly Progress Review took place at George Washington University in the United States and at FRACTAL S . L . N . E . ( a private technological company specialized in astronomical instrumentation and scientific software working on the instrument ’ s optomechanicals ) in Madrid , Spain .
In March , Gemini Observatory announced Massimo Robberto of Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University as the new OCTOCAM Principal Investigator ( Figure 3 ). OCTOCAM also welcomed Todd Veach of Southwest Research Institute ( SwRI ) in San Antonio , Texas , as the OCTO- CAM Instrument Scientist .
Coming up , the Preliminary Design Review will take place at SwRI on April 4-5 , 2018 . John Troeltzsch of Ball Aerospace will chair the external review panel , which has deep expertise and a world of experience in instrumentation development and project management . OCTOCAM remains on schedule ( and on budget ) to be commissioned by the start of 2023 .
— Andrea Blank
TOPTICA Laser at Gemini South
After over two years of feasibility studies , specifications , design studies , tests , integrations , and validations , Gemini South ’ s new TOPTICA Phototronics AG laser had its first night of commissioning on October 26 , 2017 . It took only ten minutes for the upgrade project ’ s team of scientists , observers , and engineers to see our lovely five laser guide star constellation back on sky using the acquisition camera ; and it took them only three nights out of five to validate the laser ’ s performance ; during the tests , the laser did not suffer any faults , and its output power was very stable at 22 watts .
Since the commissioning , we have had two very successful science runs , during which the laser remained very stable with no faults occurring . Even with its power being much lower than that of its Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies predecessor , the return flux has been very sufficient to keep stable closed loop operation ( even during low sodium sea-
14 GeminiFocus April 2018
as the new OCTOCAM Prin-
cipal Investigator (Figure 3).
OCTOCAM also welcomed
Todd Veach of Southwest Re-
search Institute (SwRI) in San
Antonio, Texas, as the OCTO-
CAM Instrument Scientist.
Figure 2.
GHOST team members
(left to right) Tony Farrell,
John Bassett, Gabriella
Baker, Ross Zhelem,
Peter Young, Lew Waller,
Richard McDermid, Steve
Margheim, and Manuel
Gomez observe some of
the first light captured by
the GHOST Cassegrain
unit at Cerro Pachón.
Credit: David Henderson
minute field-of-view, and verified that target
acquisition (both direct and via spiral search)
worked as expected in both the single target
and two target modes. The team is enthusi-
astic about the performance of the GHOST
Cassegrain unit and look forward to the ar-
rival of the spectrograph from Canada’s Na-
tional Research Council-Herzberg.
— David Henderson and Catherine Blough
OCTOCAM Making
Great Strides
OCTOCAM — Gemini’s next generation im-
ager and spectrograph — has had a busy
start to 2018. In January, a Quarterly Prog-
ress Review took place at George Washing-
ton University in the United States and at
FRACTAL S.L.N.E. (a private technological
company specialized in astronomical instru-
mentation and scientific software working
on the instrument’s optomechanicals) in
Madrid, Spain.
In March, Gemini
Observatory
an-
nounced Massimo
Robberto of Space
Telescope Science
Institute and Johns
Hopkins University
Figure 3.
Massimo Robberto, the
new OCTOCAM Principal
Investigator.
14
GeminiFocus
Coming up, the Prelimi-
nary Design Review will
take place at SwRI on April
4-5, 2018. John Troeltzsch
of Ball Aerospace will chair
the external review panel,
which has deep expertise
and a world of experience
in instrumentation development and project
management. OCTOCAM remains on sched-
ule (and on budget) to be commissioned by
the start of 2023.
— Andrea Blank
TOPTICA Laser at Gemini South
After over two years of feasibility studies,
specifications, design studies, tests, integra-
tions, and validations, Gemini South’s new
TOPTICA Phototronics AG laser had its first
night of commissioning on October 26, 2017.
It took only ten minutes for the upgrade
project’s team of scientists, observers, and
engineers to see our lovely five laser guide
star constellation back on sky using the ac-
quisition camera; and it took them only three
nights out of five to validate the laser’s perfor-
mance; during the tests, the laser did not suf-
fer any faults, and its output power was very
stable at 22 watts.
Since the commissioning, we have had two
very successful science runs, during which
the laser remained very stable with no faults
occurring. Even with its power being much
lower than that of its Lockheed Martin Coher-
ent Technologies predecessor, ѡɕɸ)ٕ́ՙЁѼх͕)Ʌѥٕɥ܁ͽմ͕)ɥ