GeminiFocus July 2016 | Page 17

Contributions by Gemini staff On the Horizon Despite some technical issues, installation of the GMOS-N new detector system is progressing. Other updates include progress on the new Toptica Photonics GeMS laser, the release of the Gen 4#3 Request for Proposals for worldwide solicitation, and the start of the GHOST project’s build phase. GMOS CCD Update The GMOS-N CCD upgrade project encountered some technical delays and is now back on track for installation later this year. The reason is because the latest Astronomical Research Camera (ARC) controllers (which are different from those in GMOS-S) created unexpected technical issues, such as high read-out noise (RON). Tim Hardy from Canada’s National Research Council Herzberg (NRC-H) helped debug the GMOSN detector system, getting its performance closer to that of the already-installed GMOS-S system. We have been able to lower the RON from 5.6 electrons-root mean square (erms) down to 3.9erms (current GMOS-S performances). We also replaced the two original cable sets that were found to be erratic, and repaired two new boards designed to mitigate electrostatic dam- Figure 1 (left). Bias image with the new GMOS-N focal plane array while adjusting the vertical clock voltages to optimize the full well. Figure 2 (right). Sum of 10 acquisitions from GMOS-S to reveal the very low level pattern. July 2016 GeminiFocus 15