Gemini Brings 2016 to a Successful Close
Markus Kissler-Patig
Director ’ s Message
Gemini Brings 2016 to a Successful Close
Gemini is looking back at the rapid passing of a another successful year — the first full one after the transition to operating the Observatory on a 25 % reduced budget , which translates to ~ 25 % less staff . Of course a few things are moving forward more slowly , but , overall , the Observatory is as productive as ever and continues to operate smoothly . In fact , we have introduced several new and innovative ideas into our operations and instrumentation programs , as described in the following overview .
With December comes the end of the first full year of Base Facility Operations at Gemini North — that ’ s a full year without nighttime staff at the telescope on Maunakea . Both our telescope operators and observers have been enjoying the increased oxygen in Hilo , and we have not seen any negative impact on our technical downtime . To the contrary , from the control room in Hilo the team operating the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument ( DSSI ) established a new record this past January for the number of targets (> 130 ) observed in a single night !
The first night of Base Facility Operations at Gemini South began on November 14th , as described in this issue ’ s News for Users for January 2017 . We still retain the option of observing from Cerro Pachón or Maunakea — especially in instances where a visitor instrument requires it — but we anticipate that summit observers will be rare in the future .
2016 was also the first full year of Fast Turnaround programs , which offer researchers in the Gemini community 10 % of the time on both telescopes every month ; participants typically obtain their data as quickly as six weeks after applying for time . Additionally , the Subaru community joined this Gemini program in May in exchange for time on the Subaru telescope . We continue to improve the Fast Turnaround schemes and will gradually offer all modes and all instruments in the regular Call for Proposals .
January 2017 | 2016 Year in Review GeminiFocus
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