The award will also fund the
development of an advanced
MCAO system for high-resolu-
tion studies at Gemini North,
building on the experience de-
veloped from the world-leading
Gemini Multi-conjugate adap-
tive optics System (GeMS) facil-
ity at Gemini South. Gemini will
work with visiting instrument
teams, including the team devel-
oping the Gemini InfraRed Multi-
Object Spectrograph (GIRMOS)
and the broader community, to
develop additional instruments
for the new AO system.
“Deep all-sky surveys such as
the Large Synoptic Survey Tele-
scope will not only revolution-
ize the study of transient sourc-
es, but also revolutionize our view of what
we think of as the ‘static Universe,’ including
galaxies, quasars, and other distant objects
that appear unchanging on human time-
scales,” added Gemini’s Chief Scientist John
Blakeslee. “With the new MCAO system in
the North, and GeMS in the South, Gemini
will be the only ground-based observatory
capable of obtaining near-infrared imaging
across the entire sky with a spatial resolu-
tion and field of view comparable to the
James Webb Space Telescope.”
SCORPIO
Under the leadership of Massimo Robberto
(Space Telescope Science Institute) and the
management of Pete Roming (Southwest
Research Institute), Gemini’s next-genera-
tion instrument — the Spectrograph and
Camera for Observations of Rapid Phenome-
na in the Infrared and Optical (SCORPIO; for-
merly OCTOCAM) — continues to make solid
progress toward the Critical Design Review.
Following a recent Quarterly Progress Meet-
October 2018
ing (see Figure 1) held at George Washington
University in August, the team are on track
to hold the Optical Critical Design Review by
the end of November. On completion, the
team will seek permission to purchase long-
lead optical components for the instrument,
including the collimator and camera optics
for each of the eight channels.
Other areas of the instrument’s design are
progressing well. Recent additional func-
tionality include a mechanized cover, air
purge system, and pupil imager.
Figure 1.
The SCORPIO team —
from the Space Telescope
Science Institute,
Southwest Research
Institute, George
Washington University
(GWU), FRACTAL, and
Gemini Observatory — at
the SCORPIO Quarterly
Progress Meeting at GWU.
Credit: Alexander van der
Horst
The project remains on schedule to complete
the design phase in 2019, delivery in 2021,
and commissioning before the end of 2022.
Looking Forward to the
Gemini Infrared Multi-Object
Spectrograph
The Gemini InfraRed Multi-Object Spectro-
graph (GIRMOS) is a powerful new instru-
ment being built for Gemini by a Canadian
consortium of universities, led by the Uni-
GeminiFocus
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