Markus Kissler-Patig
Director’s Message
Instruments at the fore… and more!
As 2013 progresses, we can already look back on an exciting year for instrumentation at
Gemini. Indeed, after the Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS) started
first science in 2013A, FLAMINGOS-2 finished its commissioning and is now ready for science
in 2013B, and finally the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) has arrived on Cerro Pachón!
I am particularly thrilled by GPI’s arrival at Gemini South. This unique and powerful worldclass instrument will give our users the ability to image with unprecedented contrast not
only exoplanets, but also circumstellar disks and Solar System objects. In the first half of
this year, nearly a decade after we developed the first concept for this complex instrument,
GPI was extensively tested at the University of California Santa Cruz where it was built. The
instrument successfully passed its Acceptance Review in July and was shipped to Cerro
Pachón in August.
The U.S. and Canadian consortium of over a dozen institutions (see: www.planetimager.org)
unpacked and rebuilt GPI in record time, leaving it assembled on Cerro Pachón by the end
of August. As this issue goes to e-press (early October), final tests are being conducted on
the flexure rig before mounting the instrument on the telescope later in October (see GPI
update starting on page 23 of this issue). Stay tuned for GPI’s first and what promises to be
spectacular images in November!
Meanwhile, the first GeMS/Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI) paper has appeared — a study of young cluster stars led by Canada’s Tim Davidge, and published from
System Verification data, all of which has now become public. A summary of this result is
featured as a science highlight in this issue on page 12. In 2013A, 11 of the 12 regular science
programs using GEMS were executed, and more time has been allocated in 2013B (see GeMS
update on page 22 of this issue).
October2013
GeminiFocus
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