3 Director’s Message
Kissler-Patig
Markus
5 Featured Science: Ground-based Transit Spectroscopy of an Exoplanet Atmosphere
Jacob Bean, Kevin Stevenson, Jean-Michel Desert, and Marcel Bergmann
11 Science Highlights
Nancy A. Levenson
14 Operations Corner
Andy Adamson
20 Instrumentation Development Report
Scot Kleinman, Bernadette Rodgers, and Chad Trujillo
25 Progress Report from the Users’ Committee for Gemini
Pauline Barmby
27 Gemini Interns: A Glimpse to the Future
Peter Michaud
29 Two Images Released from Australian Contests
On the Cover:
GeminiFocus October 2013
GeminiFocus is a quarterly publication of Gemini Observatory
670 N. A‘ohoku Place, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720 USA
Phone: (808) 974-2500 Fax: (808) 974-2589
Online viewing address:
www.gemini.edu/geminifocus
Managing Editor: Peter Michaud
Science Editor: Nancy A. Levenson
Associate Editor: Stephen James O’Meara
Designer: Eve Furchgott / Blue Heron Multimedia
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
October2013
GeminiFocus
2013 Australian Imaging
Contest selection of the
nebula Gum 85. Otherwise
known as the Nested
Egg Nebula in Serpens,
Gum 85 forms part of the
Serpens OB2 association.
The image combines two
pointings of the Gemini
Multi-Object Spectrograph
at Gemini South. This
image is one of two
contest winners sponsored
by the Australian Gemini
Office; this one selected by
amateurs, and the other,
selected by students, is
featured on page 29.
2