vatory would select one that would move
forward through the next stages of conceptual design, and eventually to construction.
The 4+AO Challenge and Visitor
Instruments
One of the challenges of working within the
4+AO (four instruments plus adaptive optics) model is providing exciting niche capabilities. It was striking at the Gemini Science
Meeting in San Francisco (see pages 36-39)
how much interesting new science people
now want to do with high-resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy on large-aperture telescopes. But, developing a new facility-class
instrument to offer this capability would be
expensive and take many years. While producing transformational results in several
fields, it would likely not receive enough use
semester-after-semester to justify dedicating one of those valuable four instrument
slots for a decade or more.
This is an excellent example of a niche capability at which Gemini can excel. However,
to offer such a capability to its community,
Gemini must seek creative alternatives to
the traditional model of building facilityclass instruments that are then operated
continuously on the telescope for a decade
or more. This is where the STAC believes visitor instruments can play a key role in Gemini’s portfolio of capabilities offered to users.
High-resolution, mid-infrared spectroscopy
can be made available to users if the Texas
Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES,
see: http:// www.gemini.edu/?q=node/10231)
is brought back as a visitor instrument.
As we said in our 2012B report: “The STAC
views a vibrant visitor instrument program
as a key part of its vision for greater community engagement, bringing new capabilities
to the community quickly, and providing
more niche capabilities than are available
with the facility workhorse instrument suite.”
42
GeminiFocus
The STAC recognizes that a visitor instrument program must be managed carefully
to ensure that Observatory resources are
not over-burdened or over-committed and
the visiting instruments are not only scientifically desirable but productive as well. The
STAC is working with the Observatory on finalizing a new Visitor Instrument Policy that
lays out the principles and requirements for
visiting instruments. In line with the current draft of that policy, the STAC endorsed
Gemini’s plans to offer community access to
TEXES and the Speckle Camera in a visitor instrument mode in 2013B.
The STAC continues to believe that Largeand Long-term Programs (LLPs) are a valuable component of the overall ensemble of
observing projects at Gemini. Additionally,
by encouraging more LLPs across the entire
partnership it benefits the overall scientific
output of the Observatory. In resolution 3.8
of our 2012B report, we made a set of recommendations to the Board. The Board has
since formed a working group to consider
these recommendations and decide a path
forward. Stay tuned in early 2013 for more
on this initiative.
These are just a few of the topics covered in
the STAC’s 2012B report. I encourage you to
read the full report and the Observatory’s
response once it is available at the URL provided at the start of this article.
The STAC’s 2013A meeting will be in Tucson,
Arizona, in April and its 2013B meeting in
La Serena, Chile, in October. Please contact
your STAC representatives or myself with
questions and input. Next year promises to
be another busy year for both the Observatory and the STAC, with many consequential
decisions needing to be made. We greatly
value your input.
Henry G. Roe is an astronomer at Lowell Observatory and Chair of the STAC. He can be reached
at: [email protected]
December2012