GHOST Update

GHOST team in North Ryde, Australia. Clockwise around the table: Jon Nielsen, Tony Farrell, Peter Young, Jennifer Dunn, Steve Margheim, Vlad Churilov, Ross Zhelem, Mick Edgar, Lew Waller, Richard McDermid, John Bassett, Greg Burley, Mike Ireland, John Pazder

The Gemini High Resolution Optical SpecTrograph (GHOST) project continues to move forward. In mid-May, representatives from all four organizations involved with GHOST met at the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) in North Ryde, Australia to plan the upcoming test phase of the project. This was the first large-scale meeting of the project members since the critical design review in early 2016, and was considered a very productive week.
 
Parts of GHOST will start to travel at the end of this year, with the AAO-built Cassegrain unit and prototype optical cable assembly heading to Gemini South for testing. The AAO-built slit viewing assembly and science-grade optical cable will travel shortly thereafter, along with the controlling computer loaded with software from the Australian National University, to NRC-Herzberg in Victoria, Canada for integration with the spectrograph and thermal enclosure built there. A little over a year from now, we expect these assemblies to leave Canada on the final leg of the journey for Chile, where, coupled with Cassegrain unit, GHOST will begin testing and commissioning on the Gemini South telescope.