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The Gemini Telescopes: first results and future developments
Matt Mountain (Gemini Observatory)
The first Gemini 8-m telescope has successfully past the first stage of
commissioning on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and I will present some of these
results. I will also give a brief status report on the second
telescope in Chile which is still proceeding ahead of schedule. With
less than a year to go to operations hand-over of Gemini North, the
Science Operations Team is preparing our partners and the Observatory
for our first call for proposal in January 2000. In addition, the
Observatory is moving forward with the next phase of its
instrumentation and facilities development program. This includes an
ambitious adaptive optics system being developed both to give constant
Strehl ratios over corrected field of views ~ one arc-minute on Gemini
and as a precursor for systems required for the "Next Generation" ELT
or MAXAT telescopes. How the Gemini Telescopes and these new systems
lead us to directly consider 50m - 100m telescopes for the "Next
Generation" of Optical/IR ground-based observatories will be briefly
discussed.
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