GPI to Start Acceptance Testing

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) has concluded its characterization stage at the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics at the University of California Santa Cruz. The team spanning eight US and Canadian institutions will begin the acceptance test stage on February 19, which will last about three months. This will be followed by a pre-delivery review and then plans for shipping to Gemini South. Instrument characterization has already produced some great lab results (see following figure). 

This image shows a still from data slices of a single 60-second exposure using an incandescent light source through the GPI telescope simulator and using atmospheric turbulence phase plates. The known planetary system of HR8799 has been superposed on the image, showing the direct detection of the planets without further processing. (The known planets in HR8799 are labeled a-e.) Useful low-resolution spectra could be extracted from even such a short exposure.