lens work) performing in time, we leave
open the option to begin only with imaging
and long-slit modes. We feel it is important
to get FLAMINGOS-2 on the telescope and
collecting some real data while we obtain
additional experience with the instrument
and plan the next stage of improvements.
Figure 5.
New collimator (L1)
lens for FLAMINGOS - 2
mounted in redesigned
cell. The cell and glass
are equipped with
temperature sensors to
monitor thermal cycles.
Scott Kleinman is Head of the Instrumentation
Program at Gemini. He can be reached at:
[email protected]
FLAMINGOS-2
A very active and dedicated team, lead by
Patricio Gonzalez, Percy Gomez, and Gabriel
Perez are working hard to resolve problems
with FLAMINGOS-2 and get it ready for scientific use in early 2013. The broken lens
mentioned in the last issue of GeminiFocus
has been replaced and the lens mount redesigned to eliminate the mechanical stresses
that the original mounts produced in the
lenses (Figure 5).
Benoit Neichel leads the GeMS program at
Gemini South. He can be reached at:
[email protected]
Maxime Boccas is the Associate Director for
Development at Gemini. He can be reached at:
[email protected]
There is still some concern over the thermal
stresses since the lens that broke is in the
Multi-Object Spectrograph dewar, which
experiences regular thermal cycling in order
to change masks. While we have made some
thermal improvements, a more complete
solution would require significantly more
time to implement. Given the community
demand for this instrument, we have decided to concentrate on getting the instrument on-sky as soon as possible. Once the
instrument is back on the telescope, we will
mitigate the thermal risk by reducing the
number, and increasing the lengths, of the
thermal cycles.
We currently estimate restarting FLAMINGOS-2 commissioning in May 2013. If we
cannot get the multi-object spectroscopic
mode (and its associated thermal cycling
December2012
GeminiFocus
33