The 8m Gemini South telescope is entering an exciting new era of AO operations, which put it at the forefront of astronomical AO in terms of both wide field AO, and extreme-AO systems. Major milestones achieved were the successful commissioning of GeMS, in 2012, and GPI, in late 2013 and early 2014. Currently we are operating two of the worlds most advanced astronomical AO systems. Gemini, running primarily in queue, must balance the promise of AO with the demands of the community to use non-AO instruments. We discuss the current state of the two AO systems, and their operational models. The preparations that go into planning each AO run, the difficulties in scheduling around non-AO instruments, and the differences between scheduling LGS AO and non-LGS AO are discussed.

Date Published: 6 August 2014
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 9149, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems V, 914924 (6 August 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2055637

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9149:
Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems V
Alison B. Peck; Chris R. Benn; Robert L. Seaman, Editor(s)