Gemini Update: The Gemini Opportunity

In recent weeks the Gemini partnership has gone through a period of turmoil, during which it was first announced that the UK had withdrawn, and then that statement was reversed. We expect the UK participation in Gemini to be clarified over the next few weeks, and we will keep the US community informed about what is happening and what the implications are. Watch the NOAO web site and future issues of Currents for upcoming details.

The Revised Partnership

Equally or more important is how the Gemini partnership will change over the longer term. From the US perspective, we believe that it is in our community’s interest to acquire as large a fraction of the available time as is possible. Gemini time is highly oversubscribed (typically 4-6 when calculated as nights requested divided by nights charged); we usually receive as many proposals for Gemini as for Kitt Peak and CTIO telescopes combined; the community is successfully turning Gemini observations into published papers. We also believe that a larger US share will result in a closer connection between Gemini and the US community, and that might result in different decisions about how to operate Gemini and what capabilities to provide.

These issues are significant ones, and, just as we have argued for the smaller telescopes, we believe that they are best considered in the context of the US system of ground-based O/IR facilities. It seems appropriate to convene a community discussion on exactly this point: what are the capabilities (instruments, observing modes, types of access, numbers of nights) that the community needs on the current generation of large telescopes, and how can Gemini and the non-federally-funded facilities best address these needs. This becomes the large-telescope version of the ReSTAR committee, and we are in the process of establishing this panel to solicit broad community input and to provide such a report by the end of 2008. Again, watch the NOAO web site and future issues of Currents for upcoming details.