has gone very well, thanks to the diligence
and care that the instrument team have put
into the design and construction, and the
excellent support we have received from the
Gemini engineering staff.
We achieved first light on the same day as
installation (Figure 4), and spent a few hours
over the ensuing evenings verifying that the
software behaved as expected, and that the
atmospheric dispersion correction and guid-
ing met specifications. Based on the success
of the Front End (Figure 5), we are looking
forward to the arrival of the spectrograph it-
self in early 2019. Watch this space for more
news in the next few months!
Figure 4.
Celebrating first light
with the MAROON-X
Front End. From left to
right: Gemini senior
instrumentation
engineer John
White, Gemini
Instrument and user
support scientist
Alison Peck, and
University of Chicago
representatives Julian
Stuermer and Andreas
Seifahrt.
Credit: Siyi Xu, Gemini
Observatory
Figure 5.
Posing with the
MAROON-X Front
End, now installed
on Gemini North.
Left to right: Gemini
mechanical technician
Cy Bagano, electronic
and instrumentation
technician Eduardo
Tapia, day crew
member Harlan
Uehara, Andreas,
Julian, Gemini
assistant astronomer
Siyi Xu, and Alison.
Credit: John White,
Gemini Observatory
January 2019
GeminiFocus
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