to perform critical periodic maintenance on
the enclosure shutter drive motors, encoders, gear-boxes, and chains.
Figure 2.
View from the newly
installed Shutter Service
Platform at Gemini
North, installed to
facilitate safety and
accessibility during
shutter motor servicing.
Figure 3 shows the 150-foot telescoping
crane used later in the year at Gemini North,
which was required to pick up and place
the platforms into position. For the crane to
safely perform the lift, Gemini had to excavate and grade a level foundation pad and
limit the operation to wind speeds less than
20 miles per hour; both items impacted the
time and cost of the installation work.
Figure 3.
A 150-foot telescoping
crane was needed to
install the Shutter Service
Platform.
Figures 4-7 (below):
Visiting Instruments
Clockwise, from top left
(all at Gemini South):
Gemini’s new visiting-instrument policy, developed jointly by the Observatory and the
Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), allows a quick process for bringing a visiting instrument to the telescope on
a “once-off” basis. It also allows for the possibility of attracting a wider base of users
within the Gemini partnership, who may be
interested in the performance potential of
these instruments (without going the whole
way to facility class, which is a much larger,
and likely prohibitive, undertaking).
• Installing the base
plate of the first
platform.
• Fleshing out the first
platform.
• Working on the
completed platform.
• The installed
platforms, looking
like they belong
there even ahead of
painting.
The policy (see http://www.gemini.
edu/sciops/instruments/visiting-instrument-policy), was put into action
with the Differential Spectral Survey
Instrument (DSSI); a speckle camera,
which Gemini offered in the 2013B
Call for Proposals. The instrument
was used for eight nights on the telescope in July. Five science programs
were observed, including the DSSI
team’s own.
This plan worked out quite well, with
three of the five programs either
completed or nearly completed, and
two programs more than half completed; the shortfall was due to target position and filter availability, as
well as observing conditions, includ-
January2014
GeminiFocus
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