Figure 4.
GIRMOS PI Suresh
Sivanandam (University
of Toronto, Dunlap
Institute; in shadow at
the front of the room)
presents the agenda
to the Review Panel,
project members, and
participating Gemini
staff at a GIRMOS
Conceptual Design
Review held at HAA
in Victoria, British
Columbia.
Credit: Marcin Sawicki
(Saint Mary’s University)
spectrographs (R = ~3,000 and 8,000) that
can each observe an object independently
within a 2-arcminute field of view.
GIRMOS is in the very early stages of de-
velopment, and the team, led by Suresh
Sivanandam (Principal Investigator; Univer-
sity of Toronto, Dunlap Institute) and Dar-
ren Erickson (Project Engineer; HAA), have
been working extremely hard to complete
a conceptual design for the instrument and
to identify the resources needed to make
the project a success. We are very happy to
report that they passed their Conceptual
Design Review on September 18, 2019, fol-
lowing a very exciting few days of presen-
tations and discussions at the Dominion
Astrophysical Observatory, in Victoria, Brit-
ish Columbia (Figure 4). We look forward to
continuing to work with this great team as
they move forward to the next stage of the
project. Congratulations to the team!
Multiple Opportunities
to Use IGRINS
You probably remember when the visiting
Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrometer
(IGRINS) came to Gemini South in 2018.
This cross-dispersed near-IR spectrograph
— with a resolving power of R = 45,000,
covering the H and K windows (from 1.45
to 2.5 microns), in a single exposure, provid-
ing both broad spectral coverage and high
spectral resolution — had a very high over-
subscription rate. A large number of very
impressive programs were observed, but
20
GeminiFocus
even with the exceptional instrument team
supporting 50 nights of observing, we were
not able to fit in all of the great science that
was proposed.
If you missed your chance to use IGRINS in
2018, never fear! We are delighted to an-
nounce that IGRINS will join us once again
at Gemini South for several semesters, start-
ing with 2020A. If you were not able to get
your proposal in for the 20A deadline, don’t
despair, keep your eye out for IGRINS in the
next several Calls for Proposals.
20th Anniversary Gemini
Science Meeting
Gemini Observatory invites its international
user community to Seoul, Korea, for a spe-
cial 20th anniversary Gemini Science Meet-
ing (GSM) celebrating 20 years of science
operations and a look forward to even more
exciting things to come. Hosted by the Part-
nership’s newest member, the topics will
include the latest scientific results from
Gemini, news on current instrumentation
projects, updates on operations develop-
ments, and lively discussion of Gemini’s stra-
tegic plans for the coming decade. The GSM
will take place June 21-25, 2020, followed
by the K-GMT Users’ Meeting on June 26th.
(See poster, next page.) For information and
updates, see the Gemini Science Meeting
2020 website.
October 2019