April 2016
Figure 17 . Average program completion across
Bands 1 , 2 , and 3 ( blue , orange , and grey , respectively ), for all semesters since 2010A .
Top : Gemini North . Bottom : Gemini South .
April 2016
How the Queue Responds to Adversity
All observatories attempt to complete science programs against a variety of competing factors : weather , equipment failures , earthquakes , etc . Queue scheduling attempts to preferentially complete programs blessed with the highest science ranking by the Time Allocation Committees ( TACs ), whatever the competing factors put in the way . Weather losses , commissionings , earthquakes , and other events in recent years have given us quite a roller-coaster ride , and it ’ s interesting to see how queue scheduling ( recently the largest part of the Gemini science program ) has responded to these challenges . Here we look at an exceptional semester ( one with good conditions and more science time than originally planned ) and a bad semester ( affected by weather and technical problems ) and summarize the results .
Recent Challenges
Figure 17 shows the average program completion rate of Bands 1-3 over the past five years . Many factors are at play in these plots , but we can single out examples of exceptionally good and exceptionally bad semesters .
For instance , Semester 2012A at Gemini South was particularly good , because more science time became available when the Observatory cancelled planned commissioning work . The most recent semesters at Gemini
40 GeminiFocus January 2017 | 2016 Year in Review