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Instruments

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This page shows Gemini's current facility and visiting instruments, retired instruments and future instrument complement. The expected instrument availability for the coming semester is given in the current Call for Proposals; information for the current and previous semesters (and the next semester when finalised) can be found in the schedules section.



Gemini North Instruments


Visible Near-IR Mid-IR Other facilities
*Expected to be available in Semester 2013B. See instrument web pages for details.
Facility Instruments
GMOS (multi-object, long-slit and IFU spectrograph and imager) NIRI (1-5µm imager) GCAL (facility calibration unit)
  NIFS (1.0-2.5µm integral field spectrograph) ALTAIR (facility natural/laser guide star AO system)
  GNIRS (1-5µm long-slit and 0.9-2.5µm cross-dispersed spectrograph; formerly at Gemini South)    
Visiting Instruments
DSSI/Speckle*(diffraction-limited optical imager) TEXES* (10-20µm high resolution spectrograph)

Gemini South Instruments


Visible Near-IR Mid-IR Other facilities

*Instrument expected to be decommissioned during 2013B pending successful commissioning of GPI. Not available for 2013B programs.

**Instrument not currently available. See instrument pages for details.

***Instrument expected to be available in imaging and long-slit mode on a shared-risk basis in 2013B pending successful System Verification in 2013A. See instrument pages for details.
Facility Instruments
GMOS (multi-object, long-slit and IFU spectrograph and imager) NICI*(coronagraphic imager) GCAL (facility calibration unit)
  GSAOI (high-resolution imager for use with Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics system "GeMS")   GeMS (Multi-conjugate adaptive optics system)
  GPI** (adaptive-optics imaging polarimeter/integral-field spectrometer)    
  FLAMINGOS-2*** (multi-object spectrograph)    
Visiting Instruments
       



Future Instruments

Instruments that are in the process of being built, tested, and commissioned are listed in the tables above. Information about Gemini's instrument development program, including plans for the future "Aspen" instruments, may be found on the Future Instrumentation Plans page. A summary of Gemini's ongoing adaptive optics program is also available.


Retired Instruments

The following instruments are no longer available for science use. Their web pages will be available indefinitely, to support data processing and analysis of distributed and archived data, but may not be updated.


  • The Acquisition Cameras are no longer offered for science use.
  • bHROS, a high-resolution optical spectrograph, has been retired.
  • CIRPASS (near-IR Integral Field Unit spectrograph) was offered as a visiting instrument, loaned by the University of Cambridge, during 2002-2003.
  • Phoenix (high resolution spectrometer)
  • Flamingos-I (near-IR imager and multi-object spectrometer) was offered as a visiting instrument, loaned by the University of Florida, on Gemini South.
  • Hokupa'a-36 / QUIRC (natural guide star adaptive optics system and its near-IR camera) was offered as a visiting instrument, loaned by the University of Hawaii for early science on Gemini North. It is has since been replaced by the facility AO system Altair.
  • Michelle (10-20µm imager/ spectrometer; imaging polarimetry)
  • NIRSPEC (near-IR spectrograph on Keck) was offered to the Gemini community for limited use during 2000-2001.
  • OSCIR (mid-IR imager/spectrometer) was offered as a visiting instrument, loaned by the University of Florida for early science on Gemini North and, more recently, on Gemini South. It was replaced by the facility mid-IR instruments Michelle and T-ReCS.
  • T-ReCS (formerly known as MIRI; imager and spectrometer)