In early April 2024, the GNIRS camera turret experienced a mechanical issue, likely due to the dragging of a bearing that helps drive the movement of the turret. It has been assessed that GNIRS could no longer reliably shift between its long and short cameras. A soft lock on the camera turret has been put in place, which fixes the location of the turret to the short blue camera. For programs that require the long cameras, i.e., those targeting extremely bright sources, employing L/M-band imaging or spectroscopy, or those with the HR-IFU, observations will be taken on a best effort basis and, if scheduled, will likely be scheduled in blocks. Discussions about when to perform mechanical intervention to replace the camera turret bearing and to perform other GNIRS-related work are ongoing.
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Instrument Announcements