Science Operations Announcements

GS observing database offline Jan. 26 during UPS maintenance

January 20th, 2017
The Gemini South observing database will be offline for most of the day on Thursday, January 26, during continued maintenance to the Uninterruptible Power Supplies on Cerro Pachon. All GS ODB services including program sync, attachment transfer, guide star catalogs, image servers, and ITC calculations will be unavailable. Services at Gemini North should not be affected.

Feedback requested on new proposal/observation tools

January 18th, 2017
Gemini is starting a project to significantly reimagine our proposal and observation preparation tools and we invite feedback from the community. If you can participate in an approximately 30 minute interview about your use of the current tools, then please sign up at https://goo.gl/CAiSvw You may also fill out the following short (5-10 minute) questionnaire before January 31, 2017. https://goo.gl/oAExk9

Gemini North January NIFS and laser access cancelled

January 12th, 2017

The repair of the Gemini North laser system is proceeding but insufficient progress has been made to offer the laser this month. Because all but one NIFS program requires the laser, this also means we will not be doing the NIFS/NIRI swap this month, as previously planned. NIRI will remain on the telescope and NIFS will not be available. We remain optimistic that we will be on-line for the planned February NIFS+LGS run. Updates will be posted.

Delay to Gemini North NIFS Laser Run

January 5th, 2017

The Gemini North laser system has developed a hardware fault. We are working on a repair which is proceeding quite well but the final prognosis is still not known. January's NIFS+LGS run is delayed and shortened, and may even have to be cancelled. We are optimistic that we will be on-line for the planned February NIFS+LGS run. Updates will be posted.

Observing databases offline Dec 6

December 5th, 2016

The Gemini observing databases will be offline for several hours on Tuesday December 6 while we perform software updates.

During this time the following services will be unavailable:

  • Observing Tool synchronizations, file transfers, and non-sidereal target queries
  • Phase I Tool guide star probability queries

The new 2017A Observing Tool should be available on Wednesday December 7 and will be required to access the observing databases.

Please check this site for further announcements.

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