New and Notable Changes in 2022B

The following announcements are notable for the 2022B semester. There are significant changes in 2022B, so please read through the below carefully. 

Dual Anonymous Review Process adopted by US, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina

  • All Gemini proposals requesting time from the US, CA, BR, or AR must be anonymized. Proposals which do not meet the guidelines will be penalised. This applies to proposals requesting time only from these partners, as well as joint proposals requesting time from multiple participants which include any of these partners. This requirement applies whether it is the PI or a co-I that has the relevant partner affiliation.

New 2022B Phase 1 template

  • All proposals to use Gemini in 2022B must use the new 2022B Phase 1 template. The template has been revised to enable the anonymous review process, and to make proposals requirements, such as page and figure limits, uniform across the partners. Starting in 22B, two attachments are required for the proposal so that team information can be separated from the science case.

AEON in PIT

  • The Gemini 2022B Phase 1 Tool includes an option to specify that the Gemini proposal is part of the Aeon multi-telescope-facility system. 

Synergy with JWST

Classical and Priority Visitor mode

  • Classical mode observing is NOT offered in semester 2022B. Priority Visitor mode is offered at both Gemini North and Gemini South; however if circumstances preclude having people on site, then awarded Priority Visitor time will revert to queue. The "Bring One, Get One" Student Observer Support Program remains unavailable.

North and South Shutdown Schedule

  • Both Gemini North and Gemini South expect to be shut down for primary mirror coatings during the 2022B semester: Gemini South: August 1 - August 24, 2022; Gemini North: October 03 - October 28, 2022. The dates are provisional, and depend on the pandemic situation.

F2 MOS available

  • NEW for 2022B - Gemini South Flamingos 2, a near-infrared imaging spectrograph, is available in multi-object spectroscopic (MOS) mode. The total number of masks per RA bin is limited by the requirement to thermal cycle the instrument for mask changes. The MOS field is 6' x 2', and the number of slits is limited to 72 4.5" slits or 153 1.8" slits.

IGRINS:

  • IGRINS will be available throughout the semester except for two weeks before and during the 7-night GeMS/GSAOI runs. See the IGRINS at Gemini page for important information about writing IGRINS proposals.
  • The KASI IGRINS team were awarded a compensatory time of ~47 hours for this semster from Gemini, and a good fraction of this time will be allocated for the IGRINS proposal from the community.

Subaru Exchange Time:

  • New for 2022B, the Gemini community can propose shorter programs for Subaru's Service mode. These must be short programs of less than 4 hours duration including calibration and overheads, using one of IRCS, HDS, FOCAS, or SWIMS (imaging). Around 1 night is expected to be available in this mode for the Gemini community. Prospective investigators must carefully review the Service Program web page. PIs must indicate on the proposal whether regular or service time is requested. Service proposals are reviewed by the National TACs together with the regular proposals.
  • Subaru telescope downtime: Semester 2022B will be shortened so that the mirror coating and other engineering work can be done in the July 11 to September 30, 2022 period. 
  • Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) will  have two or three ovserving runs between October and January.
Call for Proposal for Gemini / 2022B

Observable Targets

  • Targets are generally limited to 
    • NORTH : 17 < RA hours < 13.5 and -37° < dec < +90° (Due to the shutdown (October 03-28), the time available at RA 21 to 06 hours is reduced by about 20%. )
    • SOUTH : 16 < RA hours < 12 and -90° < dec < +28° (Due to the shutdown (August 01-24), investigators with targets at RA 16 - 19 hours should have alternative targets available at later RAs.)
  • There are additional constraints as described in the target accessibility and instrument restrictions page.

Available Hours

  • GN : 79 hours (for this queue/classical program call)
  • GS : 73 hours (for this queue/classical program call)

Instruments

  • NIFS (0.95-2.40 micron integral field unit spectrometer): available with or without AO capability. This instrument shares a port with NIRI and MAROON-X, hence it will only be available during specific blocks. NIFS is expected to be scheduled for two or three approximately one-month-long blocks during the semester. If the GNIRS IFUs are successfully commissioned in 2022, semester 2022B may be the last B semester where NIFS is offered.
  • GRACES: a high-resolution, R~67,500, optical (0.4-1 micron) spectrometer. Scheduled blocks to be determined with CFHT (where the instrument resides), based on demand. Semester 2022B may be the last B semester where GRACES is offered, as the agreement with CFHT currently does not extend past 23A.
  • GNIRS (1-5 micron spectrometer): As before, the short red camera is NOT available. YJHK imaging is available via the acquisition keyhole. Two new IFUs are expected to be commissioned in July/August 2022 and will be offered for Fast Turnaround proposals only in semester 2022B.
  • Check out the availability and restrictions of the instruments for 2022B semester in the following Gemini page : Link

Phase I Tool:

  • Please make sure you use Phase I tool (PIT) for 2022B (check this link for any update). 
Proposal Submission

There are several changes to the 2022B Gemini Phase I Tool, which are summarized below. Due to the number of changes, video meetings have been set up for March 10th 2022, for question and answer sessions. These sessions will be recorded and made available. More information is available in this Announcement.

Proposers must use Gemini Phase-I Tool PIT. The PIT is a downloadable application that is used to provide "front-page" information including the title, abstract, and contact info for the investigators. Instrument configuration details, target coordinates, and observing constraints are also included in PIT. As noted above, the new 2022B Phase 1 template must be used, and two attachements are required. Detailed help pages and video tutorials are available on the Gemini web site.

Please consider these suggestions and guidelines when preparing your proposal:

  • Please use the template that can be found at the PIT software distribution site (Latex and Word templates are available) to prepare the Essay section and team information and so on (please use GemPhase1_1_22B.docx/tex and GemPhase1_2_22B.docx/tex).
  • The scientific justification page has one-page limit for the text. Two additional pages can be used for references and figures. For page limits of other part of the essay, please refer to the description in the templates.
  • Be sure to include example Integration Time Calculator (ITC) output -- please see the instructions in the template.
  • When PI is a graduate student, please clarify who is his/her thesis advisor in the scheduling request section within the PIT.

For more details, please refer to Gemini’s page at https://www.gemini.edu/observing.

General Information

Observing Mode:

  • Target of Opportunity (ToO) mode will follow the general rules applied for the Gemini full partners (click here for more information). However, given the risk of ToO observation not being triggered in time, we will advise the Korean TAC to limit the allocation of the ToO program no bigger than ~30% of each band.
  • We encourage PIs to utilize Band 3 observations to greatly increase the chances of the program's getting data by relaxing observing conditions. 

Proposal Routes:
Regular proposal is available as it has been in the previous semester as follow:

  • Joint Proposal : Korean Gemini users can submit Joint Proposal by collaborating with the PIs of other Gemini international partners. (Joint Proposal)
  • Fast Turnaround (FT) program is available since Feb. 2019. FT runs by monthly-based submission and assessment. The total FT time per partner may not exceed 10% of the total partner’s time for a given semester. The time available for FT program in 2022B is 5 hours for Gemini-N and 5 hours for Gemini-S. (FT)
  • Poor weather program is available, and can be submitted at the time of regular Call for Proposal or any time during semester. Poor weather programs will be placed in Band 4, and neither the PI nor partner country will be charged for any time used. (Poor weather programs)
  • Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) is also available. It’s, in fact, been available for any astronomer worldwide. (DDT)
  • Subaru-Gemini exchange Proposal : Korean Gemini users can apply for observing time of the Subaru Telescope through the Time Exchange program. (Exchange Time)
  • Subaru HSC queue filler program : Gemini community can also propose Hyper Supreme Cam queue "filler" program. Filler programs are executed in poor observing conditions (typically seeing >1.5 arcseconds, and/or poor transparency), up to 35 hours can be requested by a filler proposal. Execution is not guaranteed: observations are made only when there is no other program in the HSC queue. In recent semesters, typically of order 15% of HSC time has gone to filler programs. Applications may be submitted once per semester, check the following page for the next deadline (Subaru CfP page). Proposals must be sent through the Subaru submission system (NOT Gemini), and are considered only by the Subaru TAC. Note that only a short text summary of the program is required, not a full detailed Science Justification. The HSC queue filler program takes no time exchange cost. (HSC filler programs)
  • Large and Long program (LLP) is not available as of now. There will be a discussion in the near future how to coordinate LLP for the Korean user community. (LLP)
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