sci13057 — Announcement

On-sky Engineering and Integration for GPI

November 13, 2013

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) has reached another major milestone with the start of integration on the Gemini South telescope. GPI received its first starlight for engineering tests on the night of November 11-12. Since then, adaptive optics loops have been closed and starlight passed to the science instrument, the integral field spectrograph. Completion of this current on-sky run will leave the instrument ready to progress to the commissioning stage, scheduled to begin in December. See the latest Gemini webfeature for more information.

 

About the Announcement

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sci13057

Images

sci13057a

Image of a GPI control screen capture showing the test-star Theta 1 Orionis B1 (blocked by the coronagraph), with cluster members B2, B3, and B4 also visible in the field (lower right blue image). Ultimate scientific performance will improve over this first engineering exposure.

sci13057b

The happy GPI team in the Cerro Pachón control room. The GPI commissioning team at the Gemini South control room assembles for the first night of commissioning on November 11, 2013. From left to right: Naru Sadakuni, Andrew Cardwell, Marshall Perrin, Stephen Goodsell, Fredrik Rantakyro, Bruce Macintosh, Jeff Chilcote, Dave Palmer, Dmitry Savransky, Sandrine Thomas, Les Saddlemyer, Jennifer Dunn, Ramon Galvez, Carlos Quiroz, Markus Hartung. Not shown, working from the La Serena Base Facility: Kayla Hardie, Pascale Hibon, Andrew Serio, and Cristian Urrutia.