The Gemini Muti-Conjugate Adaptive Optics
System (GeMS) returned to the telescope
and began a series of engineering runs; a call
for System Verification proposals produced
some 29 applications, from which 13 were
selected. We also had a welcome visit from
François Rigaut, now based in Canberra,
Australia, to take part in one of the commissioning runs. The commissioning has proved
to be challenging, with a combination of
instrument problems and laser issues; a lot
of work remains to bring GeMS to early science operations, scheduled to begin within
2013A. However, every night on the telescope produces a system that is better understood and more easily run.
Gemini North
The Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrometer
(GNIRS) was removed from the telescope in
June – the commencement of a four-month
engineering period aimed at remedying mechanical unreliability apparent on the telescope since 2011. The engineering was carried out by the GNIRS team, and produced
significant improvements in positioning of
the acquisition mirror and grating drum. The
instrument recently returned to the telescope after successful lab testing, and recommissioning is ongoing.
Visiting Instruments
Gemini North welcomed a visiting instrument in the northern summer of 2012.
The Differential Speckle Survey Instrument
(DSSI), a speckle camera, and its team of investigators led by Steve Howell, came to the
telescope with an allocation of 10 hours of
Discretionary Time spread over a week of observing nights (see page 5 of this issue). Both
the instrument and the telescope performed
well, providing superb resolution. This visit
was truly exciting for everyone involved, and
it went about as well as we and the instrument team could have hoped.
The excellent results (and their quick publication) show how well a visiting instrument
can do at Gemini. A policy for visiting instruments has been under development and
was recently agreed upon by the Gemini
Board of Directors. It will be posted on the
web shortly. This allows for the offering of
successful visiting instruments to the community, and we anticipate doing this with
both Speckle and TEXES (a high-resolution,
mid-infrared spectrometer and previous visitor) in the 2013B call for proposals.
Andy Adamson is Associate Director of Operations at Gemini. He can be reached at:
[email protected]
One of the outstanding issues – replacement
of camera lenses with non-thoriated-coating
lenses – was not completely resolved, because the team discovered a crack in one
of the other lenses in the short-red camera
barrel. The risk of the crack propagating was
too great, so this lens will be replaced during
a short engineering break (approximately a
month) in the northern summer of 2013. The
thoriated-coated camera lens in the popular
short blue camera was successfully replaced,
leading to a factor of ~40 decrease in the radiation event rate on the detector.
December2012
GeminiFocus
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