Rachel Mason
Gemini’s Fast Turnaround
Program: It’s About Time
Gemini’s Fast Turnaround program is intended to greatly decrease
the time from having an idea to acquiring the supporting data. The
program combines frequent proposal submission opportunities,
rapid review, and fast preparation and execution of observations.
A pilot program is now gearing up to launch at Gemini North in
January 2015.
As any observational astronomer knows, the path from having that outstanding idea to
publishing the breakthrough paper is not necessarily smooth, or quick. Ideas can languish
for months as you await the next proposal deadline, then it takes time to transform the initial spark into a sober yet attention-grabbing proposal. Weeks pass as the Time Allocation
Committee (TAC) evaluates your work — positively, of course. You then have to wait for the
observatory to turn the TAC’s ranked list of proposals into a set of accepted programs that
fits into the available time and other constraints. Next comes the process of defining your
observations and waiting for them to be executed (or waiting for your turn at the telescope
to arrive)… and even then the journey hasn’t ended.
Having the data in hand is just the beginning of the long process of reduction, analysis,
and paper writing, which always seems to involve a lot more head-scratching and toothgnashing than you ever foresaw at the start.
This is the way things work, and on the whole it serves the community well enough. Sometimes, though, the length of time between idea and data just doesn’t suit our needs. For
instance, what if an unexpected astronomical event has occurred, or a discovery has been
made that sorely needs follow-up? Or, you have a great but risky idea for an observing
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GeminiFocus
October 2014