tion (R = 45,000), has been on Gemini South
for 50 nights in 2018A. A stalwart team of
postdocs, students, and faculty from Korea
and the United States are supporting the
instrument, and the observations are going
very well. We are discussing possibilities for
a longer visit in the future. You can find more
information on IGRINS’ commissioning and
first light on page 19 of this issue of Gemi-
niFocus.
‘Alopeke (a contemporary Hawaiian word
for “fox”) is an agile dual-purpose speckle
imager that provides diffraction-limited
performance on an 8-meter telescope. This
upgraded version of its older sibling, the Dif-
ferential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI)
now has its own special location on Gemini
North: mounted between the Gemini Cali-
bration Unit and the Instrument Support
Structure, so that we don’t need to remove it
between observing runs. ‘Alopeke will con-
tinue to be offered regularly to provide out-
standing imaging capabilities.
DSSI is still performing well, having spent a
few nights on Gemini South this year for a
terrific observing run, capturing upwards of
100 targets per night. Next year, keep an eye
out for another upgraded and permanently
mounted version of DSSI, called Zorro, to ap-
pear at Gemini South.
High-precision polarimeters now abound
at Gemini with the promise of two new
and exciting visiting instruments: POLISH-2
(aimed at exoplanet reflection polarimetry)
and HIPPI-2 (designed to capture the di-
rect polarization signatures of exoplanets).
POLISH-2 will have its first observing run
in 2018B; we look forward to hosting this
instrument for a few nights in August on
Gemini North and seeing the great science
it can do. HIPPI-2, visiting from the Univer-
sity of New South Wales, is scheduled for
commissioning soon; it may be ready to join
the party in the next few semesters.
18
GeminiFocus
Planning Ahead
We are also very excited to be preparing
for MAROON-X — a new visiting exo-Earth
finder from the University of Chicago. This
fiber-fed, red-optical, high-precision, radial-
velocity spectrograph is expected to not
only identify and characterize nearby habit-
able exoplanets, but ultimately make a cred-
ible search for life on planets outside the
Solar System. Currently, it is scheduled to be
deployed at Gemini North next year, and we
are in the process of installing an enclosure
in the Pier Lab that will help regulate the
temperature and vibration environment for
this advanced instrument. The instrument
itself is expected to be commissioned on
Maunakea in early 2019. Look for more re-
ports on the results of testing next year, with
a full description of the exciting capabilities
that MAROON-X will bring to Gemini.
Looking even further ahead, we are work-
ing with a great team of folks from several
institutions in Canada to bring the Gemini
Infrared Multi-Object Spectrograph (GIR-
MOS) to Gemini around 2024. GIRMOS is
an ambitious project designed to provide
Gemini with high performance multi-object
adaptive optics, and the ability to carry out
simultaneous high-angular-resolution spa-
tially resolved infrared spectroscopy of four
objects within a two arcminute field when
used with the Gemini Multi-conjugate adap-
tive optics System.
These are only a few of the visiting instru-
ments planned for deployment on the
Gemini telescopes in the next several years.
You can find more information on these and
others at this link. Watch for announcements
later this year to see what will be available
for the 2019A Call for Proposals!
July 2018