Facility

This image features the Gemini North telescope during laser guide star operations (LGS). This time lapse image consists of roughly 40 images edited together to create a star trails image, with an attenuation on the earlier images, which makes the earlier images appear to fade out. Shot near the summit of Maunakea, the glow of nearby Waimea can clearly be seen reflected in the low cloud cover. Also prominently featured in the image are the new photovoltaic (PV) panels that have been installed at all of the Gemini Observatory facilities.

A one hour time-lapse sequence at the Gemini North telescope shot from the University of Hawai‘i's 88" telescope telescope catwalk. The dark skies above Maunakea show a deep field of stars before moonrise.  The dome is illuminated (and reflected in the photo voltaic panels) by the tail-lights of a few passing cars.

Esta extraordinaria fotografía tomada con un lente ojo de pez desde el interior del domo del Telescopio de Gemini Sur, muestra el telescopio fijo en su montura alt-acimutal, apuntando justo lo suficientemente alto hacia el cielo para que su inmenso espejo primario de 8 metros sea visible. 

This stunning photograph, taken with a fish-eye lens from inside the Gemini South dome, shows the telescope in its altazimuth mount, pointing just high enough so that its giant 8-meter primary mirror is visible. 

Esta extraordinaria fotografía muestra los domos de Gemini Norte (al frente) y del telescopio Canadá-Francia-Hawai'i en la penumbra antes del amanecer. La imagen, obtenida durante el "COLOSSOS Large and Long program" sobre el estudio de los colores de los objetos del Sistema Solar, muestra a la Vía Láctea arqueada por encima de los domos como un caballete cargado de nieve.

This remarkable photograph shows the Gemini North and Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope domes in the pre-dawn twilight. The image, taken during the COLOSSOS Large and Long program program studying the colors of of Solar System objects, shows the Milky Way arching over the domes like a snow-laden trestle. The crescent Moon (the bright object at right) is being caressed by the delicate band of zodiacal light — a belt of dust in the plane of the inner Solar System illuminated by the Sun. 

On January 22, 2011, a new era in high-resolution astronomy began with the successful propagation of a 5-star sodium laser guide star “constellation” in the skies over Cerro Pachón in Chile. The images here clearly show this monumental event and the five laser-produced stars shining in the sky (inset). 

El Telescopio Gemini Norte de 8 metros, Frederick C. Gillett, se encuentra cerca de la cumbre de Maunakea en Hawai'i - un volcán inactivo por largo tiempo-, ubicado a 4.214 metros de altura, en el aire seco y estable del Pacífico Norte. Gemini Norte fue diseñado y construido, en parte, para proporcionar la mejor calidad de imagen posible desde tierra para los telescopios de su tamaño. 

The 8-meter Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope is located near the summit of Hawaii’s Maunakea — a long dormant volcano rising 4,205 meters into the dry, stable air of the North Pacific. Gemini North was designed and built, in part, to provide the best image quality possible from the ground for telescopes of its size. 

The dome of Gemini North almost vanishes in this magical image that utilizes a trick of photography to create the illusion. 

The “invisible” dome was made by taking a series of digital images of the Gemini North dome as it rotated with the shutter open. The images were then merged into a single frame to create the illusion of a half shell. 

The effect presents a fully unobstructed view of the 8-meter Gemini North telescope nestled on its altazimuth mount — a view that would be impossible to capture otherwise.