Santa Barbara Research Center has delivered six IR arrays, with two of them appearing to be of science quality in preliminary cold tests. Four more hybridizations are in process, and the remaining two attempts will be deferred until next year to take advantage of technology improvements. Preliminary results indicate that noise specifications will be met. The unit is expected to be delivered to the University of Hawaii this summer. NOAO expects EEV to deliver the science grade CCD arrays this summer.
Software development is on schedule.
The first GMOS camera with fully integrated detectors and controllers is expected to be delivered to Canada this Fall. USGP personnel have been directly and indirectly involved in the queue-scheduled operation of the WIYN Telescope on Kitt Peak since the inception of operations on this telescope. As Gemini will be queue-scheduled for a significant fraction of the time, we believe this experience can supply valuable information both to the Gemini operations team and to the national Gemini offices. Now that the WIYN queue has been in operation for two years, its success can be evaluated by quantitative comparison with the predicted outcome of classically scheduling the same proposals on the same nights. A comparison of queue and classical scheduling shows that the queue delivers improvements very similar to the predictions of simulations done before the queue was implemented.