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Demonstration Science Program

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Demonstration Science Program on Gemini South and Gemini North

The Demonstration Science program offers an opportunity for community involvement in the initial scientific use of several visiting instruments on the Gemini telescopes.

The Demonstration Science program will pursue three separate scientific themes, one each using FLAMINGOS I (a near-IR multi-object spectrograph and imager on Gemini South), Phoenix (a near-IR high resolution spectrograph on Gemini South) and CIRPASS (a near-IR integral field unit spectrograph on Gemini North). The emphasis for FLAMINGOS will be on the MOS mode; CIRPASS may be fed by the Hokupa'a adaptive optics system.

Each theme will be allocated about 1 week of telescope time. The intent of the Demonstration Science program is to develop the observing procedures and produce data sets for the community that illustrate the capabilities of the Gemini telescope and will be of immediate scientific interest. Participants in the Demonstration Science program will be asked to waive their normal proprietary time period with the intention of releasing the Demonstration Science data products within 2 months of completion of the observations.

Gemini will be forming international Demonstration Science teams (one for each theme) to work closely with the Gemini Observatory staff to define the projects, their scientific goals and observations, execute the observations, and participate in the data reduction and preparation of data products.

Letters of Interest for participation in the Demonstration Science program should be submitted by e-mail directly to Gemini (demoscience@gemini.edu). These may take the form of a specific scientific program (submitted by individuals or pre-formed teams) or a more general expression of individual interest in a broad scientific theme. The deadline for Letters of Interest is 15 July 2001.

In all cases, the Letter of Interest must be less than two pages long and should briefly describe your scientific interests, scientific and technical rationale if defining a specific program, your proposed role(s) and responsibilities. Proposers for the Demonstration Science program should be prepared to travel to Hawaii or Chile to participate in the execution of observations and data reduction.

Selection of the Demonstration Science themes and definition of the Demo Science teams (which may be drawn across multiple proposing teams and individuals) will be by Gemini Observatory together with the Gemini National Project Scientists. Each team will be led by a member of the Gemini scientific staff.

All questions concerning the Demonstration Science program should be made using the Gemini HelpDesk. This web-based system will send the request to your National Gemini Office staff in the first instance who will escalate it to Gemini staff if necessary.

Further technical descriptions of the telescope and instrument capabilties are available on the Gemini web site (and local mirrors), in particular: FLAMINGOS I, Phoenix and CIRPASS.

The nominal dates for Demonstration Science observations are:

  • FLAMINGOS I : early October 2001
  • Phoenix: mid December 2001
  • CIRPASS: late January 2002


Last update June 3, 2001; Phil Puxley


Gemini Observatory Participants