All of these activities are strategically positioning both Gemini telescopes for user opportunities in the future as we look ahead
to Gemini’s place in the rapidly approaching
age of the next generation of telescopes.
It’s an extremely exciting time for Gemini
users watching (and anticipating) the Obervatory’s development. The following brief
summaries provide a taste of what the future
holds for Gemini instrumentation; watch
for further details on the Gemini website:
www.gemini.edu,
Facebook facebook.com/geminiobservatory,
and in this (now quarterly) electronic newsletter www.gemini.edu/geminifocus.
GeMS
Figure 2.
The Gemini Planet
Imager being tested on
the flexure rig at the
University of California
Santa Cruz.
The Gemini Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics
System (GeMS), along with its dedicated imager, the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI), has completed the transition
from a development project into Science
Verification (SV) observations. During this
transition, GeMS/GSAOI produced a variety
of very nice results, including a stunning
new image of the Orion Nebula “Bullets” region featured on the cover of this issue.
Semester 2013A queue observations are
currently on-going, as noted in the operations report starting on page 12 of this issue. As of the start of SV, the GeMS laser has
also been restored to full power (~
50W),
which provides better corrections (Figure1).
GPI
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) has started
acceptance testing at the University of California Santa Cruz and, so far, tests have been
going very much as expected. Currently, the
instrument is undergoing a range of flexure
tests (Figure 2), after which it will be moved
to a cold chamber for environmental testing. The deformable mirror has remained
stable since the last update and the replacement actuator has been successfully
masked. The team is still on track to deliver
the instrument to Gemini South as planned
in June 2013.
GRACES
The fiber procurement for GRACES (a feed
that carries Gemini’s light to the CanadaFrance-Hawaii Telescope’s instrument
called ESPaDOnS) has always been the key
element of this project’s success. The vendor has experienced trouble obtaining consistent performance from its fiber-end treatment (polishing and connectors) but recent
results show significant improvements, so
we expect a fiber delivery in the second
quarter of 2013.
The hardware needed to interface the fiber
into GMOS, at the Gemini end, and ESPaDOnS, at the CFHT end, is well underway,
having recently passed a thorough design
review with no major issues. Effort is now
18
GeminiFocus
April2013