Canadian Gemini Office News

March 20, 2025

By Eric Steinbring (Canadian Gemini Office, National Research Council Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Calls for Proposals

Another springtime (in the northern hemisphere) brings three opportunities for Canadians to propose for time:

• First is the monthly CfP for Fast Turnaround (FT) time, at noon Hawai’i Standard Time (HST) on 31 March. The FT Call is at https://www.gemini.edu/observing/phase-i/ft/ft-cfp. Those are short, small proposals;

• On the same day (31 March) at 11:59 PM HST is the deadline for full proposals to the Large and Long Program (LLP) and Subaru Intensive Program (SIP) 2025 Call: https://www.gemini.edu/observing/phase-i-proposing-time/llp/2025-llp-call-proposals. These are big, need significant time, or are spread over many semesters – or both;

• And then, finally, is the 2025B Regular Semester CfP, at 4 PM (PDT) / 7 PM (EDT) on 2 April. Look here for the Canada-specific information about that Call: https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/products-services/technical-advisory-services/gemini-canadian-specific-information-phase-i

Although not so much for Gemini-South, there has been a somewhat concerning trend towards fewer Canadian requests for Band 1+2 time (statistically, getting the best 60% of conditions) in the North, which may be for several reasons, such as competing instruments and opportunities. For reference, Figure 1 is a plot of the oversubscription for available Canadian time on both North (blue) and South (red) in the last few years. Recall also that it is smart to imagine whether relaxed, Band 3 conditions (so the usable 80% of time) can help achieve your science – even if it means asking for more time to get the job done. There is a special section of the proposal to describe exactly this strategy for consideration by the TAC. If instead, Band-4 conditions (essentially just needing the dome to be open!) would work, you can always try a Poor Weather proposal.

Figure 1. Oversubscription for Regular-Semester Canadian Band 1+2 time on both North (blue) and South (red) in the last few years.

Relatedly, there was a nice uptick recently in Canadian requests for the FT program, including for instruments in the North. Note that FT is a separate (quick) proposal system that does not go through CanTAC, and involves 10% of Canadian Gemimi time. FT can be a very good fit when a proposal needs a fairly modest amount of time and would benefit from not waiting until the bigger full-semester Call. Remember that there is always Director’s Discretionary time available (currently up to 5% per telescope) for those things that cannot wait, and are scientifically important enough not to. And finally, it is worth mentioning a couple of new instrument modes on Subaru requestable via exchange time are AO3k (the new adaptive optics deformable mirror) and the availability of PFS (Prime Focus Spectrograph). Good luck with all of your proposals.

Strategic Planning Survey

Farther off on the horizon is to imagine what Gemini should look like in the 2030s. Gemini is now formulating a new Strategic Vision plan, guided by the needs of the user community, together with all the partners and community stake-holders. What are your scientific priorities for Gemini, and how should Observatory operations change (if at all) to better work towards those? What new capabilities do you think should be built to achieve those? Your thoughts on this long-range plan for the next decade are sought. Go to https://www.gemini.edu/about/gemini-strategic-planning for more, and fill in the survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScEkv2fiXwPZYXD05zBIo3eMhVF8jPwgHDWWYRdouKxSakxIg/viewform. It is open until 12 June 2025. Make sure your voice is heard!