Gemini Observatory is a ground-based international observatory with 8.1 m telescopes in each hemisphere to provide all-sky coverage. We offer optical and IR imaging and spectroscopy. Laser adaptive optics systems provide near diffraction-limited image quality, taking advantage of our two excellent observing sites (Maunakea and Cerro Pachón). Each telescope keeps three of our larger suite of instruments mounted on the telescope at all times and switches between them routinely during the night. The nighttime operations are all conducted remotely from our base facilities located approximately one hour from the summits. Science Operations is responsible for the routine operation of the established instruments and is heavily involved in the commissioning phases of new instruments. We offer multiple avenues to request observing time (standard semester calls, annual calls for long and large programs, monthly calls for fast turnaround, and an always-available director’s discretionary time) and multiple ways to observe (classical, queue, eavesdropping). Here, we will describe our operation model — how we manage and meet the challenges of the nightly/daily science operations.
ALTAIR, the Gemini North single conjugated Adaptive Optics system has been Gemini AO facility instrument since 2003. Used every single night for the Gemini primary mirror tunning, ALTAIR has been allocated for GEMini NIR instruments science programs including the Near Infrared Integral-field Spectrograph (NIFS), the Near Infrared Imager (NIRI) and the Gemini multi-function spectrograph (GNIRS). In this proceeding, we propose to review the actual performances of our 20 years old AO system. We will also describe the main instrument failure (Slow focus camera, Deformable mirror) that we had to fix to keep ALTAIR alive until the GNAO instrument venue (5 years from now).
We review the multiple changes in Gemini Observatory operations over the past decade, and discuss their effect on scientific productivity. The initial mix of queue and classical programs, allocated by Partner-based Time Allocation Committees (TACs), has evolved to include “Large and Long” programs allocated from a pool by a dedicated TAC, a popular “Fast-turnaround” mode allocated by a novel “proposer review” system, and we are now receiving increasing numbers of visiting instruments, scheduled in blocks. Observations are carried out in queue (service), classical (visitor), and priority visitor (visitors execute both their own observations and the queue) modes. Gemini is already an important facility for following up time-domain discoveries. Looking ahead, Gemini South will be partnered by LSST on Cerro Pachón and both Gemini telescopes will put a significant fraction of observing time into responding to the LSST alert stream; we review Gemini’s positioning to fulfil this role and anticipate additional changes in our operational model, user software and data reduction to accommodate it.
Gemini North Observatory successfully began nighttime remote operations from the Hilo Base Facility control room in November 2015. The implementation of the Gemini North Base Facility Operations (BFO) products was a great learning experience for many of our employees, including the author of this paper, the BFO Systems Engineer.
In this paper we focus on the tailored Systems Engineering processes used for the project, the various software tools used in project support, and finally discuss the lessons learned from the Gemini North implementation. This experience and the lessons learned will be used both to aid our implementation of the Gemini South BFO in 2016, and in future technical projects at Gemini Observatory.
Gemini’s Base Facilities Operations (BFO) Project provided the capabilities to perform routine nighttime operations without anyone on the summit. The expected benefits were to achieve money savings and to become an enabler of the future development of remote operations.
The project was executed using a tailored version of Prince2 project management methodology.
It was schedule driven and managing it demanded flexibility and creativity to produce what was needed, taking into consideration all the constraints present at the time: Time available to implement BFO at Gemini North (GN), two years.
The project had to be done in a matrix resources environment.
There were only three resources assigned exclusively to BFO.
The implementation of new capabilities had to be done without disrupting operations.
And we needed to succeed, introducing the new operational model that implied Telescope and instrumentation Operators (Science Operations Specialists - SOS) relying on technology to assess summit conditions.
To meet schedule we created a large number of concurrent smaller projects called Work Packages (WP).
To be reassured that we would successfully implement BFO, we initially spent a good portion of time and effort, collecting and learning about user’s needs. This was done through close interaction with SOSs, Observers, Engineers and Technicians.
Once we had a clear understanding of the requirements, we took the approach of implementing the "bare minimum" necessary technology that would meet them and that would be maintainable in the long term.
Another key element was the introduction of the "gradual descent" concept. In this, we increasingly provided tools to the SOSs and Observers to prevent them from going outside the control room during nighttime operations, giving them the opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the new tools over a time span of several months. Also, by using these tools at an early stage, Engineers and Technicians had more time for debugging, problem fixing and systems usage and servicing training as well.
KEYWORDS: Gemini Observatory, Telescopes, Systems modeling, Ferroelectric materials, Observatories, Phase modulation, Systems engineering, Lead, Environmental monitoring, Control systems
The aim of the Gemini Observatory’s Base Facilities Project is to provide the capabilities to perform routine night time operations with both telescopes and their instruments from their respective base facilities without anyone present at the summit. Tightening budget constraints prompted this project as both a means to save money and an opportunity to move toward increasing remote operations in the future.
We successfully moved Gemini North nighttime operation to our base facility in Hawaii in Nov., 2015. This is the first 8mclass telescope to completely move night time operations to base facility. We are currently working on implementing BFO to Gemini South.
Key challenges for this project include: (1) This is a schedule driven project. We have to implement the new capabilities by the end of 2015 for Gemini North and end of 2016 for Gemini South. (2) The resources are limited and shared with operations which has the higher priority than our project. (3) Managing parallel work within the project. (4) Testing, commissioning and introducing new tools to operational systems without adding significant disruptions to nightly operations. (5) Staff buying to the new operational model. (6) The staff involved in the project are spread on two locations separated by 10,000km, seven time zones away from each other. To overcome these challenges, we applied two principles: "Bare Minimum" and "Gradual Descent". As a result, we successfully completed the project ahead of schedule at Gemini North Telescope. I will discuss how we managed the cultural and human aspects of the project through these concepts. The other management aspects will be presented by Gustavo Arriagada [2], the Project Manager of this project. For technical details, please see presentations from Andrew Serio [3] and Martin Cordova [4].
KEYWORDS: Astronomy, Telescopes, Software development, Spectroscopy, Observatories, Calibration, Astrophysics, Data acquisition, Computing systems, Signal to noise ratio
Astronomy is changing. Large projects, large collaborations, and large budgets are becoming the norm. The
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is one example of this new astronomy, and in operating the original survey, we
put in place and learned many valuable operating principles. Scientists sometimes have the tendency to invent
everything themselves but when budgets are large, deadlines are many, and both are tight, learning from others
and applying it appropriately can make the difference between success and failure. We offer here our experiences
well as our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs on what we learned in operating the SDSS.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is the largest redshift survey conducted to date, and the principal survey observations have all been conducted on the dedicated SDSS 2.5m and 0.5m telescopes at Apache Point Observatory. While the whole survey has many unique features, this article concentrates on a description of the systems surrounding the dual fibre-input spectrographs that obtain all the survey spectra and that are capable of recording 5,760 individual spectra per night on an industrial, consistent, mass-production basis. It is hoped that the successes and lessons learned will prove instructive for future large spectrographic surveys.
Peregrine McGehee, Jon Brinkmann, Constance Rockosi, Dan Long, Stephanie Snedden, S. Kleinman, Atsuko Nitta, Michael Harvanek, Peter Newman, Eric Neilsen, Jurek Krzesinski
KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Mirrors, Data archive systems, Control systems, Observatories, Microchannel plates, Imaging systems, Fluctuations and noise, Human-machine interfaces, Binary data
The Telescope Performance Monitor (TPM) installed at the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) located at Apache Point Observatory provides access to real-time and archived engineering data. The modularity present in the underlying Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) toolkit allows the observers and operations staff to develop their own approaches to data access and analysis. These techniques are summarized and the use of the TPM to solve critical project issues including analysis and correction of thermal management problems are presented.
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