We are go for IGRINS!

IGRINS team members from the University of Texas Austin and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), with the help of Gemini staff, successfully completed the commissioning of IGRINS on Gemini South ahead of schedule. The instrument shipped from Texas to Chile and was checked out and installed when it arrived a couple of weeks later. Commissioning began with daytime connectivity tests to ensure that IGRINS could be operated from the base facility using the Visiting Instrument Interface (VII), saving the team and supporting staff from having to travel back and forth to the summit. These activities were successful, and the expert team was able to achieve first light on the first night of testing!

IGRINS has a strong track record of diverse and innovative science results, providing both broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution covering the H and K windows, from 1.45 to 2.5 microns, in a single exposure. We are now looking forward to science observations beginning on April 21st. IGRINS observations will be carried out by instrument team members in several blocks over the next three months.

Prof. Daniel Jaffe of UT Austin is the IGRINS PI. Dr. Chan Park of KASI is deputy PI and KASI’s instrument PI. The IGRINS visit to Gemini is supported by the US National Science Foundation under grant AST-1702267 (PI- Gregory Mace, University of Texas at Austin), and by the Korean GMT Project of KASI.