writing, the Observatory has implemented
the majority of the Transition Program. Ongoing developments continue in 2016 on
projects that enable additional energy savings, reduce expenses (such as restructuring
lab space at Gemini South for use as office
space), and support for the transition to Base
Facility Operations at Gemini South.
Changes that Affect Our Users
Users are most directly affected by changes
within Science Operations. Table 1 summarizes these changes as well as those within
Engineering Operations, which indirectly
impact our users.
Table 1. Changes affecting our users.
Change
Description
In early 2013 we changed the quality assessment on queue data to be done primarily
Reduced (and
changed) data quality at night by the observer. Only Band 1 data receive additional checks during the day. In
addition, we have implemented an automatic data quality assessment pipeline, which
assessment
covers all imaging and acquisition observations. Users are encouraged to review their
data promptly and contact us in case of issues. The fraction of observations that have to
be repeated has not increased due to these changes.
Non-research queue
observers
We have gradually phased in non-research staff members as queue observers. The goal is
for non-research staff to perform 75% of the queue observing. This has been the case at
Gemini North for several semesters and we expect that Gemini South will reach a similar
level within 1-2 semesters, as training is completed.
Base Facility
Operations
We have moved nighttime operations to the Gemini North Base Facility. The same will
take place at Gemini South in 2016. Visiting observers are (positively) affected by this
change, which also saves a total of about $400,000 annually in lodging, meals, and
transportation costs.
Archive
We have implemented an archive that serves all science (and engineering) data from
the Amazon Web Services. The archive went through extensive reviews by the Users
Committee, staff from the National Gemini Offices, and repeat users of Gemini. Full
implementation was in place by December 2015, and the move saves us more than
$200,000 annually. The archive is available here: https://archive.gemini.edu
Priority Visitors
Principal Investigators of Large and Long programs and selected Band 1 programs can
now visit Gemini as Priority Visitors. They can take their own data (if conditions allow) or
execute queue observations. This arrangement improves our contact with users, while
saving a small amount of staff effort.
Four facility
instruments +
adaptive optics at
each site
The two Gemini telescopes will each operate with a maximum of four facility instruments
and a facility adaptive optics system. This ensures that we (with the reduced staff) have
sufficient effort to support these instruments.
Reductions in
engineering staff
A reduction in engineering staff, coupled with the above-mentioned limitation on facility
instruments, means that we will not be able to support future major instrument rework
or instrument building (such as on FLAMINGOS-2 and Canopus). Thus, any instruments
procured in the future will have to meet requirements prior to arriving at Gemini. The reduced
engineering staff may also mean that major technical faults have a longer response time.
April 2016
GeminiFocus
11