GRACES Update

The Gemini Remote Access to CFHT ESPaDOnS Spectrograph (GRACES) project will bring high spectral resolution optical spectroscopy to Gemini via a fiber connecting the Gemini North telescope to ESPaDOnS, an existing spectrograph at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. A recent milestone is achieving good performance (focal ratio degradation less than 5%) after polishing the ends of short fiber segments. An important future step is to test the performance over the full 270-meter fiber length. The remaining hardware is expected to arrive at Mauna Kea for integration in the middle of 2013, with on-sky commissioning toward the end of the year.