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.
As part of the Gemini Instrument Upgrade Program GNIRS has gained two new optical sub-systems, namely the LR-IFU and the HR-IFU. The commissioning of both IFUs has now been completed.
The 2024B Gemini Observatory Call for Proposals has been released. Proposals are being accepted for observations from 1 August, 2024 to 31 January, 2025. Gemini North and Gemini South are expected to have 153 and 157 nights available for science, respectively. A new version of the Phase I Tool (PIT) has been released to support proposal submissions.
GNIRS recently began showing an issue that affects every 8th column on the top right quadrant of the detector, an issue that impacts all GNIRS modes. This issue first appeared on the 25th of October, 2022. Investigations to mitigate or fix the issue are currently ongoing. For the time being, PIs are advised to consider all pixels associated with these columns as bad pixels and not to use them for science and/or calibrations.
Letters of intent are now solicited for new Gemini Large and Long Proposals, to begin in semester 2024B. Letters are due by February 12 2024, and full proposals by April 1 2024.
GNIRS has been reinstalled on the telescope after the extended shutdown and is ready for science use as of June 6, 2023. All slit spectral modes along with imaging are available. Both the Low Resolution and High Resolution IFUs are now installed and are undergoing commissioning. They will be released for science use at a later date.
The 2023B Gemini Observatory Call for Proposals has been released. Proposals are being accepted for observations from 1 August 2023 to 31 January 2024. Gemini North and Gemini South are expected to have 162 and 141 nights available for science, respectively. A new version of the Phase I Tool (PIT) has been released to support proposal submissions.
Gemini is now accepting proposals for observing time in Semester 2023A. The submission deadline varies with participant. A new version of the Phase I Tool (PIT) has been released to support proposal submissions.
GNIRS has been reinstalled on the telescope and is ready for science use as of July 4th, 2022. All issues with the filter wheels have been fixed and other refurbishment projects have been completed. All slit spectral modes are now available in addition to imaging. The Low Resolution (natural seeing) IFU is installed and is undergoing commissioning. It will be released for science use at a later date. Fabrication of the High Resolution (AO-assisted) IFU is ongoing and is expected to arrive in Hilo at the end of 2022.