By Eric Steinbring (Canadian Gemini Office, National Research Council Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics)
Gemini North Celebrates 25 Years
The Gemini North telescope began operations back in 1999, showing off its shiny first-light photos at a dedication ceremony on Maunakea, Hawai`i later that year. It was the newest of the world-class 8-m telescopes at the time, especially well infrared optimized – including, for example, the use of protected-silver instead of usual aluminum-coated optics – and capable of among the best-possible imaging obtainable from the ground. Together with Altair, the Canadian-built facility adaptive optics (AO) system, it went on to famously capture the first direct image of a multi-planet system using NIRI (the Near-Infrared Imager) led by Christian Marois. Its superb image quality also helped test Einstein’s general theory of relativity by observing stars in the Galactic centre with NIFS (Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph), which contributed to the awarding of a Nobel Prize in 2020. Although both NIRI and NIFS are decommissioned, two new IFUs since added within GNIRS (Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph) cover similar low- and high-spatial resolution modes, and replace that utility. And still to come are GPI 2.0 (Gemini Planet Imager 2.0) for high-contrast AO imaging, as well as an updated, next-generation facility AO system to feed GIRMOS (Gemini InfraRed Multi-Object Spectrograph), another pan-Canadian-built addition to the North.
And You Get the Presents: IGRINS-2 is Now Available!
The Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrograph 2 (IGRINS-2) has been commissioned on Gemini North. This is a high-resolution (R~45,000) near-infrared spectrograph which can cover essentially the whole wavelength range from about 1.5 to 2.5 microns in a single exposure. That amazing feat is made possible due to its efficiently designed silicon immersion grating optical system. Now a facility instrument, it underwent a successful System Verification phase in July, demonstrating end-to-end software and operational procedures, and allowing it be offered for the first time in semester 2025A on a shared-risk basis. The processed data from this observing program, including e.g. high-resolution spectroscopy of possible exoplanet atmospheres and searches for metal poor stars, are being made publicly available in order to show IGRINS-2 capabilities to potential users (see: https://www.gemini.edu/instrumentation/igrins-2). Those should be familiar to some: it is a near-clone of IGRINS, which was a Visiting Instrument on Gemini South for several years and proved very popular, sometimes comparably so to GMOS-N and -S (Gemini Multi-Object Spectrographs), which are perennially the favourite, workhorse Gemini instruments – both North and South.
Reminder: The Regular-Semester 2025A Call for Proposals (https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/products-services/technical-advisory-services/gemini-canadian-specific-information-phase-i) deadline is Tuesday 1 October at 4 PM PDT (7 PM EDT). Note that some other partners differ, e.g. the United States 2025A deadline is the day before. That is also true for the usual monthly Fast Turnaround Call for smaller proposals, at noon Hawai`i time on Monday 30 September, which is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation here in Canada.