April 2013
Markus Kissler-Patig
2 Director’s Message
Kissler-Patig
Markus
4 Science Feature Story:
The Earliest Near-infrared
Spectroscopy of a Type Ia Supernova
Eric Hsiao,
Howie Marion, and Mark Phillips
8 Science Higlights
Nancy A. Levenson
Director’s
Message
12 Operations Corner
Transforming Gemini —
Changes Ahead
17 Instruments Update
As we enter the year 2013, major changes
take effect within Gemini. For one, as of December 31, 2012, the United Kingdom is no
longer a partner of the Gemini Observatory.
Although we knew this a few years in advance,
the UK, a founding partner of Gemini, leaves
behind a gap that is hard to fill. On behalf of
Gemini, I would like to express our gratitude
to the UK community for their important contributions to this great Observatory.
Andy Adamson
Scot Kleinman, Maxime Boccas, and
Peter Michaud
20 Giving Back
Peter Michaud, Maria Antonieta García, and
Janice Harvey
On the Cover:
See page 24
GeminiFocus April 2013
GeminiFocus is a quarterly publication
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GeminiFocus
As an immediate consequence of the UK’s
withdrawal, Gemini sees its budget cut by
about 20 percent. The Observatory will need
to adjust to this constraint over the next
three years, during which time it will use accumulated carry-forward funds to smooth
the transition. A vigorous plan is in place to
adapt the operations costs, but, needless to
say, some of the services that users are accustomed to will be reconsidered.
These losses will be compensated by new
initiatives, both in instrumentation and operations. As described in the last issue of the
GeminiFocus, new facility instruments are
underway, and we will be welcoming more
visiting instruments in the future. In 2013, I
April2013