Current and future facility instruments at the Gemini Observatory

Abstract

At the present time, several new Gemini instruments are being delivered and commissioned. The Near-Infrared Coronagraph has been extensively tested and commissioned on the Gemini-South telescope, and will soon begin a large survey to discover extrasolar planets. The FLAMINGOS-2 near-IR multi-object spectrograph is nearing completion at the University of Florida, and is expected to be delivered to Gemini-South by the end of 2008. Gemini's Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics bench has been successfully integrated and tested in the lab, and now awaits integration with the laser system and the Gemini-South AO Imager on the telescope. We also describe our efforts to repair thermal damage to the Gemini Near-IR Spectrograph that occurred last year. Since the last update, progress has been made on several of Gemini's next generation of ambitious "Aspen" instruments. The Gemini Planet Imager is now in the final design phase, and construction is scheduled to begin shortly. Two competitive conceptual design studies for the Wide-Field Fiber Multi-Object Spectrometer have now started. The Mauna Kea ground layer monitoring campaign has collected data for well over a year in support of the planning process for a future Ground Layer Adaptive Optics system.