camera). Elliott Horch, Steve Howell, Mark
Everett, and David Ciardi made up the team
of Principal Investigators (PIs).
Gemini offered DSSI as a visitor in the 13B
Call for Proposals. On the basis of proposals
received, the instrument was scheduled for
eight nights on the telescope in July -- for
convenience, before the formal start of 13B
but using time from the later semester. Five
science programs were scheduled, including
the DSSI team’s own.
These were executed in a “mini-queue” run
by the visiting team in close consultation
with the PIs.
This plan worked out quite well, with three
of the five programs either completed or
nearly completed, and two programs more
than half completed; the shortfall was due to
target position and filter availability, as well
as observing conditions, including the loss
of a complete night to the passage of Tropical Storm Flossie.
The science included measuring the diameters of nearby stars, Kepler exoplanet confirmations, and observations of Pluto and
Charon — a wide range of exciting science
observations for a niche capability. It is expected that the instrument will be offered
again for 2014B; its capabilities and performance are summarized here: http://www.
gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/dssi-specklecamera-north.
Farewell to NICI, Welcome
FLAMINGOS-2
For some time Gemini has been preparing
various changes to Gemini South’s instrument complement, and now those changes
are upon us: The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI)
is currently on site, being readied for the sky;
the Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics Spectrograph (GeMS) has already been
scientifically productive, and we expect to
October2013
accept it into operations before the end of
the year; and, finally, FLAMINGOS-2 is back
on the telescope and has attracted a lot of
proposals for Semester 13B.
This flurry of new instrumentation at Gemini
South means that something has to give,
and with T-ReCS already removed from the
complement, that something is the Nearinfrared Camera and Imager (NICI). Strictly
speaking, NICI remains a backup option in
case of problems with GPI. If all goes well
with GPI, however, observing time with NICI
on Gemini South will have ended in early
2013B. Despite some hardware and computer problems in the last few weeks of operation, 70 percent of the 2013A NICI programs
received more than 75 percent of their requested data.
FLAMINGOS-2 (F2) also continues to move
toward operations, even ahead of a formal
acceptance (see update on page 21). Recently the On-Instrument Wavefront Sensor
(OIWFS) developed an alignment problem
during commissioning observations. We
opened the instrument for very quick maintenance. At the time of writing, the OIWFS is
once again being closed and cooled down
after its CCD detector was realigned to take
account of an apparent shift in the optics
barrel; we intend to make a permanent,
long-term fix to the root problem.
In the short term, however, we aim to protect the 13B science programs as far as possible. For current information on F2 status
see the F2 Status and Availability page at:
http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/
flamingos2/status-and-availability.
New: Large and Long Programs
at Gemini
Gemini will be offering a new proposing
mode, for Large and Long Programs (LPs),
with first observations in Semester 2014B.
GeminiFocus
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