Gemini Observatory instrumentation: a review of the past, present,and future on our 10th anniversary

摘要

The tenth anniversary of Gemini Observatory operation provides a convenient reference point to reflect on the past, present, and future of the instrumentation program. The Observatory will soon meet a significant milestone: the last batch of instruments from the first three generations of instrumentation development will be commissioned by the end of 2011. This will represent a revolution for Gemini-South, which will have a suite of new or upgraded, state of the art instruments. Included in this suite will be extreme and multi-conjugate adaptive optics systems, new infrared imagers and multi-object spectrographs, and state of the art CCD detectors. The Observatory is on the cusp of a new era with the fourth generation of instrumentation. While the past represented building a whole new observatory, the future represents renewal and reinvestment, with plans for a new high-resolution optical spectrograph, new acquisition and guide units, upgraded and refurbished instruments, and improved methods for developing Gemini instrumentation.