GeminiFocus 2016 Year in Review | Page 46

Australian-affiliated author , reflecting the collaborative nature of many of the programs ’ allocated time . This works out at one Gemini paper with Australian involvement for every eight hours of Gemini time used . Gemini data from Australia has contributed to the PhD theses of 45 students at Australian institutions .
Figure 23 . Gemini South image of NGC 3310 obtained as a result of the
Australian Gemini Cosmic Poll in 2015 . NGC 3310 is a grand design galaxy about
50 million light years distant that likely collided with a smaller galaxy about 100 million years ago
— warping its disk and inciting bursts of star formation ( the pink regions in the galaxy ’ s arms ).
Australian undergraduate students , who spent a summer at Gemini South carrying out research projects with Gemini staff and becoming excellent ambassadors for Gemini within the Australian community .
� The Australian Gemini School and Amateur Astronomy Contests . Since 2009 , these contests have inspired school students ( and more recently amateur astronomers ) to suggest targets to image with GMOS-S , resulting in some awe-inspiring color pictures of galaxies and nebulae .
� A Joint Proposals Database . Established and operated by the Australian Gemini Office ( AusGO , now hosted by Gemini ), this database enables the sharing of one technical assessment for joint proposals , thereby improving collaboration and efficiency across the Partnership .
� With the participation of Gemini staff , the AusGO ran two very successful Observational Techniques workshops ( in 2011 and 2014 ), with a legacy of online talks and tutorials .
Of the almost 1,800 Gemini papers in refereed journals , about 15 % have at least one
Australian Gemini Cosmic Poll
Throughout Australia ’ s membership in the Gemini Partnership , AusGO ran an annual competition in which school students and amateur astronomers competed to define an observation to be done in queue time .
New AusGO staff member Elaina Hyde took the 2015 Australian Gemini Image Contest in a new direction by transforming it into the “ Australian Gemini Cosmic Poll .” Rather than requiring high school students or amateur astronomers to propose suitable targets as in earlier contests , the entire Australian public were invited to vote on one of four categories of objects to be observed : an individual galaxy , a galaxy pair , a planetary nebula , or another type of nebula .
In a spirit of friendly competition , each AusGO staff member pitched their favorite class of object in a short video . The science and media technology platform hosted the poll , and it received more than 100 votes in the space of two weeks ; in the end , the “ individual galaxy ” category came out on top , and the selected target was NGC 3310 . While the observations were made active in the Gemini queue , Elaina coordinated a “ Live from Gemini ” video event with Peter Michaud and André-Nicolas Chené , and posted regular updates to the AAO ’ s Facebook page and Twitter accounts . AusGO released the final stunning image of NGC 3310 ( Figure 23 ) just before Christmas — a fitting way to mark the end of Australian usage of Gemini ’ s queue mode .
44 GeminiFocus January 2017 | 2016 Year in Review