Science Operations Announcements

IMPORTANT: MacOS 10.14.6 and 10.15 incompatibilities with data reduction software

October 11th, 2019

As of this week's v10.15 release, MacOS is no longer capable of running the 32-bit Astroconda IRAF distribution needed by Gemini IRAF. For the time being, Gemini IRAF users on Apple machines are advised to continue using MacOS 10.14 or earlier, or to install Astroconda in a virtual machine with a compatible OS. Gemini will look into providing a ready-made VM image to help with this while we are migrating our data reduction tools to Python.

Suspension of Gemini North Operations Continues

July 31st, 2019

Gemini North remains closed for observations. We would at this time have been in the scheduled engineering shutdown, but the continued lack of reliable access to Maunakea has delayed the start of that work. With the approaching Hurricanes Erick and Flossie bracketing the weekend, a small crew ascended to the summit this morning (31-Jul) to leave the facility in a safe state. Once we regain reliable summit access we will commence and complete the shutdown, but to limit the loss of time in 2019B have deferred the planned primary mirror coating until 2020.

Observing databases offline June 3

May 29th, 2019

The Gemini observing databases will be offline for several hours on Monday, June 3 while we perform software updates.

During this time the following services will be unavailable:

  • Observing Tool synchronizations and file transfers
  • Phase I Tool guide star probability queries
  • Target of Opportunity triggers

The new 2019B Observing Tool should be available on Tuesday, June 4 and will be required to access the observing databases.

North Observing Database Offline April 17

April 16th, 2019

The Gemini North observing database will be offline for several hours on Wednesday April 17 starting at 9:30am for hardware maintenance.

During this time the following services will be unavailable:

  • Observing Tool synchronizations and file transfers (Gemini North programs only)
  • Phase I Tool guide star probability queries

Please check this site for further announcements.

2019-Apr-17 @ 13:45 HST: access to the Gemini North observing database has been restored.

Pages