The 12 Days of Solstice – Day 7: Celebrating the Visiting Instruments

Welcome to Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice! This is a joyous countdown to the longest, or shortest (depending on which hemisphere you live in) day of the year! Visit our blog each day from December 11 – December 22 for Gemini-themed crafts, cartoons, playlists, videos and much, much more.

Today we celebrate Gemini’s visiting instruments. The observatory supports 4 instruments as facility-based instruments that are available each semester for use, but we also support visiting instruments. These are instruments built by  teams outside of Gemini who bring and install their instrument for a limited period of time on Gemini’s telescopes.  Coupling Gemini’s large aperture with these instruments creates new exciting opportunities for science. We have a strong and growing visiting instrument program. Two instruments current coming to Gemini in the 2018A semester are ‘Alopeke and IGRINS. You can learn more about these instruments with a sneak peak of the Gemini instrument trading cards, part of the Gemini Card Game being developed by the User Support Group at Gemini. The instrument card packs will be available at the Gemini booth at the 231st American Astronomical Society Meeting.