The Gemini Opportunity—An Update

Despite the fact that the UK has announced that they will remain in the Gemini partnership, it is likely that over the next few years, and perhaps months, there will be an opportunity for change. The UK funding agency, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), has indicated their interest in selling some of their Gemini time. The international agreement allows this, though Gemini Board approval would be needed to sell time outside of the current partnership. Discussions that have been reported suggest that the UK will seek to sell 12% of the total Gemini time and that Australia would like 4%, leaving up to 8% of the total Gemini time as a possible increment to the US share.

Why should we be interested? As detailed in the last edition of Currents, US proposers oversubscribe the available Gemini time by a large factor, typically 4-6. Papers based on Gemini data are being written and published at a rate commensurate with other similar facilities. Most important, however, is the opportunity to change the relationship between Gemini and the US community in a way that ensures a close alignment between the capabilities and operations modes that the community desires and those that Gemini provides.

With its international partnership responsibility and independent Board structure, Gemini has taken the position of formulating its plan based on a broad range of input from the partner countries, including interactions both with the national project offices and with individuals from the communities. Consequently, the capabilities that Gemini offers do not flow from a strategic vision of the entire US ground-based optical-infrared system.

There are certainly reasons for thinking that this is the time for consideration of a change in this arrangement. The most recent AAAC report (2008) states, “While recent metrics of publications per telescope have shown that Gemini is at parity with other 8-meter-class telescopes, there is a perception within significant sections of the US community that Gemini is not yet playing in the same league as the ESO VLT, Keck, and Subaru.” Furthermore, the report notes that “Coherent planning across these facilities [Gemini and NOAO], within the context of a national optical-infrared observatory, would minimize overhead and optimize limited resources… A larger role (share) in Gemini for the US might facilitate the development of a stronger national capability in optical-infrared astronomy.”

In concert with this perspective, NOAO has just initiated a community study of the large telescope (6.5-10 m) part of the US system, including Gemini. This study will have goals and will be carried out in a way similar to the recent ReSTAR committee study. It will focus on what the community desires in terms of capabilities and access to telescopes in this size range. Larry Ramsey, from Pennsylvania State University, will chair this committee. The committee is expected to issue its report about a year from now.

That year-long timescale, however, is too long for the more limited question that is being posed now, and so, as we promised would be the case for Currents, we are asking for your input. We have established a simple survey, with which you can send us your answers to the following questions:

• Bearing in mind that any purchase will need to be accompanied by a marginal budgetary commitment, is there a strong need for the US to acquire additional nights on Gemini and should this be set as a high priority for NSF?
• Is there a benefit in seeking to acquire these through an additional share of Gemini as an alternative to simply buying nights?

The AURA member representatives will provide feedback to NOAO on this issue at their April meeting. However, we hope to receive input from the broader NOAO community as well. So please respond to the survey to make your views known! We will report on the results of this survey in the next issue of Currents.