Gemini Planet Imager One Button Approach

TL;DR

The paper describes the development of a simplified one-button interface for the Gemini Planet Imager, integrating complex adaptive optics, science, and calibration systems for efficient operation.

Contribution

It introduces a coordinated sequencing approach that unifies multiple subsystems into a near one-button operation for the GPI.

Findings

Achieved a streamlined operational interface for GPI

Successfully synchronized multiple complex systems

Enhanced efficiency of astronomical observations

Abstract

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is an "extreme" adaptive optics coronagraph system that is now on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. This instrument is composed of three different systems that historically have been separate instruments. These systems are the extreme Adaptive Optics system, with deformable mirrors, including a high-order 64x64 element MEMS system; the Science Instrument, which is a near-infrared integral field spectrograph; and the Calibration system, a precision IR wavefront sensor that also holds key coronagraph components. Each system coordinates actions that require precise timing. The observatory is responsible for starting these actions and has typically done this asynchronously across independent systems. Despite this complexity we strived to provide an interface that is as close to a one-button approach as possible. This paper will describe the sequencing of these systems both internally and externally through the observatory.