Contributions by Gemini staff
Figure 1 (top).
Image from the westpointing cloudcam,
showing a moonlit UKIRT
and a nice meteor in the
background. Cloudcams
are used as part of the
Base Facility Operations at
Gemini North.
News for Users
Figure 2 (bottom).
A summary of news of relevance to Gemini’s users during 2015.
January 2016
Operating Gemini North from the Base
Not what you want to
see. This image from the
north-facing cloudcam, on
a night in mid-November,
shows the Keck and IRTF
domes in the foreground,
with approaching cirrus in
the background.
Gemini North is now operating every night from the base
facility on North A’ohoku Place in Hilo. We’ve been working for more than a year to make this possible, developing
and implementing new monitoring and control capabilities; gradually we confined the night staff to the summit
control room, to gain confidence that we hadn’t missed
anything before relocating to sea level.
Once we had cameras and microphones up and running
on the observing floor, and a reliability upgrade to the
mirror covers, we removed the need for night staff to be
in the dome; we could now open or close the dome or
telescope mirror covers remotely. As evaluating weather
was the most challenging task for the night staff, we installed additional weather sensors outside the building to
monitor sky conditions, precipitation, and summit-level
fog (Figures 1 and 2). Software enhancements ensure that
the dome will close automatically should the network
link from Hilo go down while the dome is open, and we
then encounter precipitation. In November, we started
trial operations from the base (Figure 3), with the help of
members of the day crew who stayed late in case of problems at startup. After a month of trials, which resulted in a
lot of useful feedback, we were ready to “fly solo.”
January 2016
2015 Year in Review
GeminiFocus
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