Cyber Incident Update for Astronomy Community

Following the 1 August cybersecurity incident both Gemini North and Gemini South have successfully performed night-time science observations from the base facilities. Gemini North has performed science observations with GNIRS, GMOS, and NIRI, and will continue to bring additional instruments online. Gemini South successfully observed with Flamingos-2, IGRINS, and GHOST for about a week, prior to the start of its planned engineering shutdown on 2 October. Gemini South will be in shutdown until 10 November. 

At present, the Observatory is not accepting Director’s Discretionary time or Poor Weather proposals. Fast Turnaround proposals will be accepted for Gemini North this month. The Fast Turnaround time at Gemini South for the rest of 2023 was allocated for the GHOST special shared-risk call. We anticipate proceeding with 2024A semester observations as planned. Gemini is also not able to receive Target of Opportunity (ToO) triggers at this time. We are working to restore tools so that we can accept ToO triggers and 2024A Phase II programs. 

The distribution of the DRAGONS and Gemini IRAF Conda packages to the community has been impacted by the cybersecurity incident and the subsequent shutdown of the network systems. Users who wish to install these packages should contact their National Gemini Offices. Updates to DRAGONS and Gemini IRAF for GHOST, GNIRS IFUs, and GMOS-S have also been delayed. 

We are continuing to work to return the Observatory back to normal operations.