Science Operations Announcements

GS Telescope shutdown on February 21st due to P2WFS repairs

February 15th, 2022

It has been found after extensive troubleshooting that the Peripheral Wave Front Sensor 2 (P2WFS) has a mechanical issue and is out of order. To address this issue the P2WFS will have to be replaced in the telescope by a dummy unit while it is being repaired. We are planning for this intervention starting Monday February 21st and the removal and installation of the dummy unit will take two days and thus the telescope will not be available from the Night February 21st to 22nd.

Gemini North Observatory Restricted Operations

January 6th, 2022

The secondary mirror of Gemini North Observatory has had a non-functional xy positioner since Tuesday January 4, 2022. Troubleshooting actively continues, however the fault remains unresolved. On the night of Friday January 7, 2022, we started taking data for programs that can handle poor seeing, with targets that reach an elevation greater than 55 degrees. The lack of the xy positioner introduces coma into the images, which is worse at lower elevations. At the higher elevations the coma tail extends about 2 arcseconds, with an average delivered IQ of about IQ85.

DRAGONS v3.0.1 Patch Release Available

December 8th, 2021

A patch release of DRAGONS, v3.0.1, is now available.  This release includes bug fixes, small improvements, and fixes to the documentation.

If you already have DRAGONS v3.0.0 installed, a simple "conda install dragons=3.0.1" will update the package.  For further instructions and details, see http://www.gemini.edu/observing/phase-iii/understanding-and-processing-data/Data-Processing-Software.

Observing databases offline Dec 9

December 7th, 2021

The Gemini observing databases will be offline for several hours on Thursday, December 9 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 2022A Observing Tool will be available after the update and will be required to access the observing databases.

New OT for non-sidereal target support

October 13th, 2021

Gemini will be releasing a new version of the Observing Tool (2021B.1.1.2) on Thursday, October 14, which includes several improvements, most notably support for the updated Horizons non-sidereal target database API.

The Gemini Observing Databases will be offline briefly on Thursday as each site is updated, during which time OT synchronizations and file transfers will be unavailable.

This version of the OT is highly recommended, especially for users with non-sidereal targets, but it is not required.

DRAGONS v3.0 Released!

October 13th, 2021

A new version of DRAGONS has been released.  This version offers improvements and fixes to the imaging support.  New in this version is support for GMOS longslit spectroscopy for quicklook purposes.  This new spectroscopy support is not approved for science quality reduction, but can be use for "quicklook" inspection of new data.   A quicklook reduction is intended to check the overall quality of the data, such as confirming the presence of the target(s) and whether the expected S/N has been achieved.

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