over the ensuing evenings verifying that the
software behaved as expected, and that the
atmospheric dispersion correction and guid-
ing met specifications. Based on the success
of the Front End (Figure 5), we are looking
forward to the arrival of the spectrograph it-
self in early 2019. Watch this space for more
news in the next few months!
Figure 5.
Posing with the
MAROON-X
Front End,
now installed
on Gemini
North. Left to
right: Gemini
mechanical
technician
Cy Bagano,
electronic and
instrumentation
technician
Eduardo
Tapia, day
crew member
Harlan Uehara,
Andreas, Julian,
Gemini assistant
astronomer Siyi
Xu, and Alison.
OCTOBER 2018
Gemini Observatory to Advance
Adaptive Optics and
Multi-messenger Astronomy
with NSF Award
Gemini recently received a multi-million dol-
lar award from the National Science Founda-
tion (NSF) to enhance its role in the era of
“multi-messenger astronomy” and improve
its adaptive optics (AO) capabilities. The
award funds major software and operation-
al upgrades at both of the Gemini 8-meter
telescopes for rapid follow-up studies of
transient sources, as well as a state-of-the-
art multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO)
system for wide-field, high-resolution imag-
ing at the Gemini North telescope on Mau-
nakea in Hawai‘i.
The new funding will be used in part to
develop automated systems to trigger fol-
low-up observations and quickly deliver
science-ready data to astronomers through
automated data processing pipelines. “With
this funding Gemini will significantly ad-
vance multi-messenger and time-domain, or
transient-source, astronomy,” said Anne Kin-
ney, Head of the Mathematical and Physical
Sciences Division at NSF. “We’ve witnessed
a surge of astronomical discoveries in areas
such as gravitational waves, exotic varieties
of stellar explosions, and collisions within
our own Solar System where a full under-
standing depends critically upon rapid char-
acterization of the discoveries using ground-
based facilities like Gemini,” Kinney added.
January 2019 / 2018 Year in Review
The award will also fund the development of
an advanced MCAO system for high-resolu-
tion studies at Gemini North, building on the
experience developed from the world-lead-
ing Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive op-
tics System (GeMS) facility at Gemini South.
Gemini will work with visiting instrument
teams, including the team developing the
Gemini InfraRed Multi-Object Spectrograph
(GIRMOS) and the broader community, to
develop additional instruments for the new
AO system.
Credit: John White,
Gemini Observatory
“Deep all-sky surveys such as the Large
Synoptic Survey Telescope will not only
revolutionize the study of transient sourc-
es, but also revolutionize our view of what
we think of as the ‘static Universe,’ including
galaxies, quasars, and other distant objects
that appear unchanging on human time-
scales,” added Gemini’s Chief Scientist John
Blakeslee. “With the new MCAO system in
the North, and GeMS in the South, Gemini
will be the only ground-based observatory
capable of obtaining near-infrared imaging
across the entire sky with a spatial resolu-
tion and field of view comparable to the
James Webb Space Telescope.”
GeminiFocus
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