GeminiFocus 2017 Year in Review | Page 72

ing (once the summit road became accessible (Figures 10 and 11). Since we now operate in Base Facility Operations mode, we have learned to use our cam- eras to assess the situation with the dome and shutter. In doing so, we have detected some limitations; for instance, we have recognized that an in-situ inspection is manda- tory after any severe weather event. Figure 10. Gemini South telescope winter landscape. Figure 11. Gemini South day-crew member Claudio Araya, who helped clear snow and ice from the dome. Also, despite several power cuts during this period, our systems responded very well. To further optimize our op- erations and reduce fuel consumption, we have now enabled remote switching back to commercial power, once normal power is restored. This avoids running the genera- tor for unnecessary periods once commercial power is available but access to the summit is not an option. Figure 12 shows the weather losses at Gem- ini South over the period 2008-2016. The relatively reproducible year-to-year varia- tion in weather loss (at least until 2014) is why we started, a year or two ago at an international Time Allocation Committee meeting, to reduce the amount of sched- ulable time in the winter and increase the available time in the summer. Astroconda Now Recommended for Gemini Users Following some significant Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF) integration and testing work on Gemini’s data processing software, we now recommend that all new installations be performed using Astroconda, in place of Ureka; see instructions and further information here. New Version of GMMPS Released The recent release of the Gemini MOS Mask Preparation Software (GMMPS) version 1.4.5, offers full support for the new Gemini Multi- Object Spectrograph Hamamatsu detector array at Gemini North (GMOS-N), as well as support for FLAMINGOS-2 (F-2) at Gemini South. Commissioning for the MOS mode of F-2 is scheduled to commence in July 2017, boosting Gemini’s strength in the area of near-infrared spectroscopy. The new version of GMMPS is a major im- provement over its predecessor. Driven by the need to accommodate the new GMOS- N detectors, and in particular F-2, the source code was overhauled in many ways to make it more instrument-independent and modu- lar. These changes come with greater stability, internal consistency checks, many bug fixes, and new features including the following: • Safe placement and proper motion check of acquisition stars; • No more external band-shuffling files; Figure 12. Blue bars show the percentage of time rendered unobservable by weather, for Gemini South over the period 2008-2016. The orange trace shows the average per month over that same period. 70 GeminiFocus January 2018 / 2017 Year in Review