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AAS 239

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Events

Gemini Observatory and its partners will have many events at the 239th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), hosted this year in Salt Lake City, Utah, 9 – 12 January 2022.

For all of NOIRLab's activities, please visit NOIRLab@AAS 239.

Visit Gemini Observatory at the NOIRLab Booth in the NSF Pavillion!

Come during Exhibition Hall open hours and ask us about:

DRAGONS Tutorial

Monday 10 January, 2022: 9:30-11:30 AM MST, Meeting Room 251D

The DRAGONS (Data Reduction for Astronomy from Gemini Observatory North and South) splinter session will teach the participants how to use and customize their usage of DRAGONS. We will focus on the command-line interface. The participants will be able to run the commands themselves and will be given some simple exercises throughout the class to solidify the learning. To fully participate, the attendees should install the software before the session. Installation instructions and a preview of the workshop can be found here.

Stars and the ISM with Gemini’s Fast Turnaround (FT) Observations - Hosted by the US NGO

Tuesday 11 January, 2022: 9:00-10:30 AM MST, Meeting Room 250E

The US NGO at NSF's NOIRLab proposes a Splinter Session at the AAS Meeting #239. This session is part of a planned series where scientists show their results based on specific Gemini observing modes, the variety of which is unique among observatories.  The main topic of the currently proposed session is: “Science with Gemini’s Fast Turnaround (FT) Observations: Stars and the ISM”. While the science topic will span from white dwarfs to star clusters and the ISM, all invited speakers have used the FT mode as an ad hoc method to get their science results, and they will talk about their experience on how the FT mode has impacted their science. Past Splinter Meetings of this series include extrasolar planets, solar system targets, and extragalactic topics.  This session will have Gemini scientists available for a Q/A session on the FT and other Gemini observing modes.  We plan to invite ~6 speakers, selected among those with well-cited refereed papers based on their Gemini data, and where the FT portion of their program constitutes an essential part of their science observations. We will follow the presentations with a short Q&A forum with Gemini scientists.

Meet the Maunakea Observatories

Tuesday 11 January, 2022: 6:30-8:00 PM MST, Meeting Room 250B

The Maunakea Observatories are a collaboration of nonprofit independent institutions withtelescopes located on Maunakea on the island of Hawai‘i. Together, the Observatories makeMaunakea the most scientifically productive site for astronomy world-wide. In this session, wewill have presentations covering all facets of Maunakea astronomy, including sciencehighlights, new technologies, community engagement, and outreach. Representatives fromeach Maunakea observatory will be available to answer questions, and we will provide ampletime for interaction and Q&A.

Time-Domain Astronomy at NSF's NOIRLab

Wednesday 12 January, 2022: 10:00 - 11:30 AM MST, Meeting Room 155D

The advent of wide-field cameras and large-area surveys has ushered in a golden age of time-domain astronomy. With the avalanche of alerts delivered by ZTF and LSST, and the limited resources for follow-up, we will need infrastructure to sift through millions of alerts on a nightly basis and trigger follow-up in a timely manner to catch the rarest of the rare. As the focal point of US ground-based astronomy, NSF's NOIRLab is building a time-domain infrastructure based on its suites of public tools and services, from alert broker and science platform to a coordinated network of telescopes. The ultimate goal is to provide the astronomical community an end-to-end follow-up system with minimal human interactions to maximize the science return from time-domain surveys.

NSF's NOIRLab Open House

Wednesday 12 January, 2022: 7:30 - 9:00 PM MST, Meeting Room 251D

Connect with NSF’s NOIRLab! Here’s your chance to engage, in person, with the friendly staff at NOIRLab. In this social event, you’ll get the briefest of updates on NOIRLab activities and then join discussions on topics of interest to the US ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy community. Do you want to know more about spectroscopy reduction with DRAGONS, how to engage with early data products from Vera C. Rubin Observatory, or what we’re doing to develop and embed a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture throughout NOIRLab’s workforce, facilities, and many audiences? We anticipate lively conversation around the Decadal Survey recommendations, new capabilities at our facilities, how we’re dealing with COVID-19 (and how you're dealing with it as well!) and how we can better support your science in 2022. 

NOIRLab is the whole package, from proposal to data collection and analysis and then dissemination of results to a broad community. Through our facilities — the international Gemini Observatory, operations of Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Mid-scale Observatories (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory [CTIO] and Kitt Peak National Observatory [KPNO]) and the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) — we enable breakthrough discoveries in astrophysics for a diverse and inclusive community. We are privileged to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O'odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

Come share a drink and chat with us — we’ve missed you, and encourage you to connect with NOIRLab at our Open House! 

Flamingos-2 at Gemini South: Planned upgrades and upcoming support of multi-object spectroscopy

Thursday 13 January, 2022: 11:00 - 11:10 AM MST, Meeting Room 155C

Gemini Observatory plans to begin offering near-infrared multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) with Flamingos-2 (F-2) at Gemini South in mid-2022. Here, we present the current performance of the F2 MOS mode which allows simultaneous R~2000 spectroscopy of up to 150 targets over an area of 6'x2', and can support up to 9 masks per thermal cycle. The spectral resolution of R~2000 is provided by 0.54" slit widths matching the K-band IQ 70%-ile conditions seeing at Gemini South, covering any of the single bands J, H and K-long (1.9-2.5 µm). Under the same conditions and slit widths, the broad bands YJH or HK can be observed at R~700. Targets can be selected from F-2 pre-images or catalog sources, and the maximum number of targets allowable in a single mask depends on the sky subtraction strategy, with the options of nodding along the slits (100% of the exposure time on source) or offsetting to a sky position (50% on source). In addition to the upcoming MOS mode, F-2 currently offers long-slit spectroscopy, and broad and medium band imaging from 0.9 to 2.45 µm with sampling of 0.18"/pixel, image quality of 0.4", and field of view of 6.1'. We also discuss planned upgrades to improve the performance of the F-2 current modes. The current public Gemini IRAF package includes recipes and examples for MOS and long slit data reduction, and imaging data can be processed within the Gemini DRAGONS Python-based platform.

A new Gemini-North Adaptive Optics facility for the era of multi-messenger astronomy

Thursday 13 January, 2022: 11:10 - 11:20 AM MST, Meeting Room 155C

The Gemini-North Adaptive Optics (GNAO) facility is a queue-operated 4-laser-guide-star adaptive optics (AO) facility, which is currently being developed for the 8-m Gemini-North telescope as part of the NSF-funded "Gemini in the Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy" (GEMMA) program. The primary goal of the GNAO project is to provide the Gemini-North telescope with a state-of-the-art high-angular-resolution capability supporting rapid-response and multi-messenger astronomy and a wide range of science cases covering solar system to extragalactic studies. In addition to serving as a general AO facility for the telescope, GNAO will be optimized to work with its first-light instrument GIRMOS (Gemini InfraRed Multi-Object Spectrograph). GIRMOS is an innovative multi-arm integral field unit (IFU) spectrograph and imager developed by a Canadian consortium. The two primary AO modes offered by GNAO will be (i) a wide-field correction supporting the GIRMOS multi-IFU mode which will be coupled with multi-object AO for each IFU, and (ii) a narrow-field correction supporting the GIRMOS tiled IFU mode. Both GNAO modes will also be available for imaging. We present an overview of GNAO with a focus on the scientific opportunities that will be enabled by the new facility.

NSF's NOIRLab Town Hall

Thursday 13 January, 2022: 12:45 - 1:45 PM MST, Ballroom J

NSF’s NOIRLab is the US national center for ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy. At this panel discussion Town Hall, we will describe new capabilities at our facilities, our plans for the future, and our response to the Decadal Survey recommendations. Come share your thoughts on how NOIRLab can best serve the astronomical community in the future.

Through its facilities — the international Gemini Observatory, operations of Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Mid-scale Observatories (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory [CTIO] and Kitt Peak National Observatory [KPNO]) and the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) — NOIRLab is enabling breakthrough discoveries in astrophysics for a diverse and inclusive community. We are privileged to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O'odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

Gemini Program Platform: An Early Look at Gemini/NOIRLab’s Next Generation Observing System

Thursday 13 January, 2022: 3:00 - 3:30 PM MST, AAS Exhibit Hall Presentation Theater

The Gemini Program Platform (GPP) is the core of the next generation of Gemini operations software for proposal submission and observation preparation. Some major goals of the system are to make it easier to discover Gemini’s capabilities, to streamline proposal preparation, and to greatly simplify the Phase 2 process (detailed observation definition). GPP may become the basis of future NOIRLab and US-ELTP operations systems. We will review progress, demonstrate the current software, and take questions and feedback.

Personalized Support

On request! Reserve your time.

Once again this year, Gemini will be offering personalized help to the AAS meeting participants. If you have Gemini data, an active observing program, or even a vague idea of a project, you can  book an appointment in advance by email to SUS_inquiries@gemini.edu. 

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