sci13041 — Announcement
GeMS Science
August 28, 2013
The first refereed astronomical paper based on observations with the Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS) is now in press. Tim Davidge (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Canada) and colleagues from the GeMS and Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager teams observed the low-mass star cluster Haffner 16 and used pre-main sequence stars to determine its age. Disintegration of such low-mass clusters may account for the observed field population. The natural seeing conditions at the time of the observations were poor (85 percentile), yet the adaptive optics correction resulted in full width at half maximum better than 0.16 arcseconds in the K band (see image below). A Gemini web feature is posted and a preprint is available.
About the Announcement
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sci13041
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Images
This image of Haffner 16 illustrates that the GeMS AO system can successfully sharpen data even under relatively poor imaging conditions. With the correction, the point sources appeared spread by less than 0.16 arcseconds (full width at half-maximum, in the Ks band). This represents a significant improvement over the natural quality of the sky, which, on the night these data were obtained, was roughly 0.8 arcseconds – a value worse than average at Gemini South on Cerro Pachón. Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA