Andy Adamson (with multiple contributing authors, see page 16 for list)
Operations Corner
After an extremely eventful year for Gemini Operations in 2012, including
the end of the NICI exoplanet campaign and a large number of Target of
Opportunity programs, the Operations team plans to continue improving
overall service to our users in 2013.
For most observatories the twice-annual Calls for Proposals are a highlight of the operational
year. It is no different here at Gemini. With many new capabilities coming online, the Semester
2013B Call is particularly exciting for us. In addition to significant progress with facility instruments at Gemini South, two visitor instruments (one new; one previously-established) are
offered at Gemini North, with access dependent on demand.
More guide modes are now available with the Gemini Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics System (GeMS)/Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI) system, and this is accompanied
by a significant relaxation in condition constraints. These more relaxed constraints come as
a result of experience gained during the course of System Verification and execution of the
2013A queue programs. Significantly more time is also available with this system when compared to Semester 2013A. The long-awaited FLAMINGOS-2 near-infrared imager is also offered, both in imaging and long-slit modes, on shared-risk basis.
The Call for Proposals at Gemini North included two visiting instruments: the Differential
Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) and the Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES).
DSSI is a dual-channel speckle camera offering diffraction-limited r