Gemini staff contributions
News for Users
Figure 1
(bottom left).
Excitement mounts after Gemini hosts two new visiting
instruments that promise to push polarization boundary
observations at Gemini North. Work progresses on the cutting-
edge radial velocity spectrograph MAROON-X and its Front End
components. The new TOPTICA fiber laser for Gemini North nears
commissioning. After a complete disassembly, lens bubbles have
been eliminated in the collimator assembly of GMOS-S. Gemini
South’s annual shutdown is a rousing success as efficiency
improves. Now a shutdown at Gemini North is underway.
Polarimetry Abounds at Gemini North
In July and August 2018, we had the pleasure of two visiting instruments pushing the bound-
aries of polarization observations at Gemini North. First Jeremy Bailey and Daniel Cotton
(both University of New South Wales) arrived to test their “new-to-us” instrument HIPPI-2
(Figures 1 and 2). Designed to capture the direct polarization signatures of exoplanets, this
instrument has been in use at the 3.9-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope with spectacular
results (Bott et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 459: L109, 2016). The
Gemini visit also went well, and though the instrument has not been made available
for science observations yet, these initial tests will be very helpful in characterizing
the polarization characteris-
tics of the Gemini North tele-
scope. We hope to include
HIPPI-2 in a future Call for
Proposals, so please remem-
ber to check the list of visit-
ing instruments whenever a
new call comes out!
October 2018
GeminiFocus
Jeremy Bailey (left)
and Daniel Cotton
(right) attach their tiny
HIPPI-2 instrument
to the bottom port of
Gemini North, with
help from Harlan
Uehara (Maunakea Site
Manager, center).
Credit: Alison Peck
Figure 2
(bottom right).
Harlan Uehara (rght)
and Gemini North’s
Senior Instrumentation
Engineer John White
(right) position the
ballast weight assembly
so that it attaches to the
instrument port around
HIPPI-2. The ballast
weight is necessary to
balance the telescope
because HIPPI-2 weighs
much, much less than the
facility instruments!
Credit: Alison Peck
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