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Semester 2025A Time Distribution

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Overview

Time available on each of Gemini North and South is distributed according to the Observatory participants' shares. Engineering time is reserved each semester; this includes engineering time in the queue, instrument performance monitoring, engineering time to accommodate visiting instrumentation, and instrument commissioning. Any unused engineering time is returned to science. The science time includes time used for all Observing Modes, including standard semester programs (this call), Large and Long programs, Fast Turnaround programs, and Director's Discretionary time. The estimated time available for each participant and host institution is shown below.


Gemini North 2025A

  • 16.5 nights (9.1%) are reserved for engineering, this includes: no nights of planned engineering shutdown, 6 nights of engineering time in the queue, plus a total of 11.5 nights for CEM2 testing, GPOL+NIRI commissioning, EPICS7 work, GPP XT testing, instrument performance monitoring, engineering time to accommodate visiting instrumentation, and instrument maintenance tasks.

  • 164.5 nights have been made available for science, which amounts to ~91% of the total time available.

  • The science time in 2025A also includes:
    • 7.2 nights for DD time,
    • 1.0 nights for the ‘Alopeke/Zorro instrument team, in exchange for community use of ‘Alopeke,
    • 3.8 nights for the MAROON-X instrument team, in exchange for community use of MAROON-X.
  • The Table below shows the distribution of the time available per participant.

Participant Estimated Science Time Available (hours) Time Reserved for Fast Turnaround programs (hours) [A] Time Contributed to Large and Long Programs (hours) [B] Other Pre-committed Time
(hours; total excludes any B3 time)
Estimated Time Available for this Call (hours) [C]
US 922.6 92.3 77.5 26.3 726.3*
Canada 238.4 23.8 20.0 0 194.3
Argentina 26.8 2.0 0 0 24.8
Brazil 85.7 8.6 0 0 77.1
Korea 92.4 4.8 0 0 87.8
Univ. of Hawaii (host) 159.8 0 0 0 159.8

[A] - Up to 10% of the available time is contributed by all participants, not including the host institution (University of Hawaii), to the Fast Turnaround program.
[B] - Up to 20% of the available time is contributed by the United States, and Canada, to the Large and Long Programs pool. This is not the actual amount of time in US and Canadian Large & Long programs in the semester.
[C] - As this time also includes weather loss and time lost to faults, approximately 80% of this time is allocated to programs during the ITAC process, distributed across Bands 1, 2 and 3.

* This value is an upper limit. The listed amount of available US time does not factor in additional possible deductions arising from special programs (i.e. space mission support commitments, etc.).


Gemini South 2025A

  • 26.4 nights (14.6%) are reserved for engineering, this includes: engineering time in the queue, 11 nights of planned engineering shutdown, FLAMINGOS-2+GeMS commissioning work, GeMS queue, GPP XT testing, instrument performance monitoring, engineering time to accommodate visiting instrumentation, and instrument maintenance tasks.

  • 154.6 nights are available for science, which amounts to 85.4% of the total time available.

  • The science time in 2025A also includes:
    • 6.7 nights for DD time,
    • 1.0 nights for the ‘Alopeke/Zorro instrument team, in exchange for community use of Zorro,
    • 5.0 nights for the GHOST science team.
  • The Table below shows the distribution of the time available per participant.

Participant Estimated Science Time Available (hours) Time Reserved for Fast Turnaround programs (hours) [A]* Time Contributed to Large and Long Programs (hours) [B] Other Pre-committed Time
(hours; total excludes any B3 time)
Estimated Time Available for this Call (hours) [C]
US 858.2 85.8 121.4 22.5 628.4*
Canada 221.7 22.2 31.4 0 168.2
Argentina 24.9 2.0 0 0 22.9
Brazil 79.7 5.6 0 0 74.1
Korea 86.0 4.3 0 0 81.7
Chile (host) 148.6 0 0 0 148.6

[A] - Up to 10% of the available time is contributed by all participants, not including the host institution (Chile), to the Fast Turnaround program.
[B] -  Up to 20% of the available time is contributed by the United States, and Canada, to the Large and Long Programs pool. This is not the actual amount of time in US and Canadian Large & Long programs in the semester.
[C] - As this time also includes weather loss and time lost to faults, approximately 80% of this time is allocated to programs during the ITAC process, distributed across Bands 1, 2 and 3.

* This value is an upper limit. The listed amount of available US time does not factor in additional possible deductions arising from special programs (i.e. space mission support commitments, etc.).