Safety Improvements,
North and South
A major safety milestone was
passed at Gemini South (and
in July will be passed at Gemini
North), with the installation of
platforms to enable access to
the dome shutter drive motors.
This will facilitate their removal
and replacement in a much safer and secure manner than has
been possible before (Figure 4).
Changes in Data
Checking
Gemini North users in semester
2013A will have noticed changes in the amount of data checking per formed. This is driven by
the reduction of Gemini’s budget and the need for staff astronomers and
Science Operation Specialists (SOSs) to use
their efforts where it has the most impact.
Similar changes will follow in the south also.
At night, the observer takes responsibility for
setting quality assurance flags to the best of
his or her ability, using a variety of tools including data checking programs and the environmental sensors.
During the day all band 1 data will be
checked as usual, as well as any programs
where a check is deemed to be necessary
by the Queue Coordinator (up to a limit of
30 percent of the night’s data in total). Other programs, including band 4 and classical
programs, are not checked, and may be left
with their quality assessment state set to
“UNDEFINED” if the nighttime observer was
unable to review them in real-time.
This change represents a considerable cultural shift for Gemini staff; our dedication to
our product is strong. However, the change
is unquestionably necessary and has already
produced effort savings in the north. We will
July2013
gratefully accept help from Principal Investigators (PIs) in ensuring that we minimize
any negative effects, and we appreciate the
positive attitude received from 2013A PIs.
Of course (and as always) if you, on inspecting your data, believe that it fails to meet the
standard requested in your proposal, then
you are more than welcome to contact the
head of science operations at the site (north
or south) and request a review. If we agree,
we’ll gladly take the affected data anew as
long as the target is still accessible. The moral
is, get in quickly and have a look at your data.
Good advice at any time!
Figure 4:
Photos, clockwise
from top left:
Installing the base plate
of the first platform.
Fleshing out the first
platform.
Working on the
completed platform.
The installed platforms,
looking like they belong
there even ahead of
painting.
For much more detail, check out the data assessment web page at: http://www.gemini.edu/
sciops/data-and-results/quality-assessment
And Finally...
... don’t forget — the Phase II deadline is July
16th for Semester 13B!
Andy Adamson is Gemini’s Associate Director of
Operations and can be contacted at:
[email protected]
GeminiFocus
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