The Gemini North Observing Database will be offline for ~1 hour for hardware maintenance starting at ~10am HST on January 9. During this time Observing Tool synchronizations and file transfers will be unavailable. Please check this site for further announcements.

UPDATE @ 12:00 HST Jan 9: Work is ongoing due to a failure of a critical component. We do not yet have an estimated completion time.

UPDATE @ 14:30 HST Jan 9: Spare parts are being delivered and we expect the database to be back online by 17:00 HST.

The 2014A version of the Gemini Observing Tool is now available for download.

This is a required update which includes significant changes. Please see the quick-start guide in the download directory and the "Getting Started" video tutorial.

We recommend that everyone download their programs from scratch from the ODBs rather than import from XML.

We have updated the Gemini Observing Databases in preparation for the upcoming 2014A semester. The 2013B Observing Tool is not compatible with the new database, and we are currently working on resolving several small issues with the new 2014A OT which should be available on Monday December 9. Please see the OT installation web page if you would like a pre-release version of the 2014A OT:

The Gemini observing databases will be offline for several hours on Tuesday December 3 while we perform quarterly software updates. During this time Observing Tool access and file transfers will be unavailable, and web report forms will be offline. The new 2014A Observing Tool should be available on Wednesday December 4 and will be required to access the observing databases. Please check this site for further announcements.

We have received reports of the PIT freezing on startup on older versions of Mac OSX, and we are working to resolve the issue. We recommend that anybody who is planning on submitting 2014A proposals install and test the PIT as soon as possible. If you have any problems please submit a HelpDesk ticket at http://helpdesk.gemini.edu.

We have discovered that this problem is caused by a bug in Java version 1.6.0_51-b11-456-11M4508 and can be resolved by downloading the patched Java from apple.

The Gemini observing databases will be be offline for about an hour on Thursday, September 12 while some patches are installed. During this time the Observing Tool fetch/store and file transfers will be unavailable. The new 2013B Observing Tool, which is an optional but recommended update, will be available for download on Friday, September 13. Please check this site for further announcements.

The Gemini observing databases will be offline for several hours while we perform quarterly software updates. Gemini North will be offline on Thursday September 5, and Gemini South will be offline on Monday September 9. During these times the Observing Tool fetch/store and file transfers will be unavailable and web report forms will be offline. The new 2013B Observing Tool, which is an optional but recommended update, will be available for download on Tuesday September 10. Please check this site for further announcements.

During the week of August 19-23 there wil be maintenance to the microwave equipment that connects La Serena to Cerro Pachon. As a result, connections to the Gemini South observing database may be slow or intermittent. If your Observing Tool cannot connect to the database, please try again later. Also, various queue status web pages may not update normally. This work is part of the ongoing Gemini South engineering shutdown. Normal night operations are planned to resume on August 27.