Dr. Alison B. Peck Profile

Dr. Alison B. Peck

Instrument Program Scientist at Gemini Observatory

SPIE Involvement:

Conference Program Committee | Symposium Chair | Editor | Author

Proceedings Article | 10 July 2018 Presentation + Paper

Gemini infrared multi-object spectrograph: instrument overview

Suresh Sivanandam, Scott Chapman, Luc Simard, Paul Hickson, Kim Venn, Simon Thibault, Marcin Sawicki, Adam Muzzin, Darren Erickson, Roberto Abraham, Masayuki Akiyama, David Andersen, Colin Bradley, Raymond Carlberg, Shaojie Chen, Carlos Correia, Tim Davidge, Sara Ellison, Kamal El-Sankary, Gregory Fahlman, Masen Lamb, Olivier Lardière, Marie Lemoine-Busserolle, Dae-Sik Moon, Norman Murray, Alison Peck, Cyrus Shafai, Gaetano Sivo, Jean-Pierre Veran, Howard Yee

Proc. SPIE. 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Spectrographs, Stars, Gemini Observatory, Imaging spectroscopy, Adaptive optics, Infrared spectroscopy, Infrared radiation, Galactic astronomy, James Webb Space Telescope

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Proceedings Article | 10 July 2018 Presentation + Paper

Visiting instruments as part of a strategic plan

Alison Peck, Andrew Adamson, Scot Kleinman, Laura Ferrarese, Stephen Goodsell, Markus Kissler-Patig

Proc. SPIE. 10704, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems VII

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Telescopes, Spectrographs, Gemini Observatory, Aerospace engineering, Spectroscopy, Polarimetry, Exoplanets, Infrared spectroscopy, Gemini Planet Imager

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Proceedings Article | 6 July 2018 Presentation + Paper

IGRINS at the Discovery Channel Telescope and Gemini South

Gregory Mace, Kimberly Sokal, Jae-Joon Lee, Heeyoung Oh, Chan Park, Hanshin Lee, John Good, Phillip MacQueen, Jae Sok Oh, Kyle Kaplan , Ben Kidder, Moo-Young Chun, In-Soo Yuk , Ueejeong Jeong, Soojong Pak, Kang-Min Kim, Jakyoung Nah, Sungho Lee, Young-Sam Yu, Narae Hwang, Byeong-Gon Park, Hwihyun Kim, Brian Chinn, Alison Peck, Ruben Diaz, Rene Rutten, Lisa Prato, George Jacoby, Frank Cornelius, Ben Hardesty, William DeGroff, Edward Dunham, Stephen Levine, Larissa Nofi, Ricardo Lopez-Valdivia, Alycia Weinberger, Daniel Jaffe

Proc. SPIE. 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Telescopes, Spectrographs, Astronomy, Electronics, Stars, Gemini Observatory, Infrared spectroscopy, Space telescopes, K band

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The Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) was designed for high-throughput with the expectation of being a visitor instrument at progressively larger observing facilities. IGRINS achieves R∼45000 and > 20,000 resolution elements spanning the H and K bands (1.45-2.5μm) by employing a silicon immersion grating as the primary disperser and volume-phase holographic gratings as cross-dispersers. After commissioning on the 2.7 meter Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory, the instrument had more than 350 scheduled nights in the first two years. With a fixed format echellogram and no cryogenic mechanisms, spectra produced by IGRINS at different facilities have nearly identical formats. The first host facility for IGRINS was Lowell Observatory’s 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT). For the DCT a three-element fore-optic assembly was designed to be mounted in front of the cryostat window and convert the f/6.1 telescope beam to the f/8.8 beam required by the default IGRINS input optics. The larger collecting area and more reliable pointing and tracking of the DCT improved the faint limit of IGRINS, relative to the McDonald 2.7-meter, by ∼1 magnitude. The Gemini South 8.1-meter telescope was the second facility for IGRINS to visit. The focal ratio for Gemini is f/16, which required a swap of the four-element input optics assembly inside the IGRINS cryostat. At Gemini, observers have access to many southern-sky targets and an additional gain of ∼1.5 magnitudes compared to IGRINS at the DCT. Additional adjustments to IGRINS include instrument mounts for each facility, a glycol cooled electronics rack, and software modifications. Here we present instrument modifications, report on the success and challenges of being a visitor instrument, and highlight the science output of the instrument after four years and 699 nights on sky. The successful design and adaptation of IGRINS for various facilities make it a reliable forerunner for GMTNIRS, which we now anticipate commissioning on one of the 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes prior to the completion of the Giant Magellan Telescope.

Proceedings Article | 4 August 2014 Paper

The ALMA assembly, integration, and verification project: a retrospective analysis

B. Lopez, L. B. Knee, H. Jager, N. Whyborn, J. McMullin, R. Murowinski, A. Peck, S. Corder

Proc. SPIE. 9150, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VI

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Telescopes, Astronomy, Calibration, Adaptive optics, Synthetic apertures, Antennas, Radio astronomy, Systems modeling, Lead

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The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a joint project between astronomical organizations in Europe, North America, and East Asia, in collaboration with the Republic of Chile. ALMA consists of 54 twelve-meter antennas and 12 seven-meter antennas operating as an aperture synthesis array in the (sub)millimeter wavelength range. Assembly, Integration, and Verification (AIV) of the antennas was completed at the end of the year 2013, while the final optimization and complete expansion to validate all planned observing modes will continue. This paper compares the actually obtained results of the period 2008-2013 with the baselines that had been laid out in the early project-planning phase (2005-2007). First plans made for ALMA AIV had already established a two-phased project life-cycle: phase 1 for setting up necessary infrastructure and common facilities, and taking the first three antennas to the start of commissioning; and phase 2 focused on the steady state processing of the remaining units. Throughout the execution of the project this lifecycle was refined and two additional phases were added, namely a transition phase between phases 1 and 2, and a closing phase to address the project ramp-down. A sub-project called Accelerated Commissioning and Science Verification (ACSV) was carried out during the year 2009 in order to provide focus to the whole ALMA organization, and to accomplish the start-of-commissioning milestone. Early phases of CSV focused on validating the basic performance and calibration. Over time additional observing modes have been validated as capabilities expanded both in hardware and software. This retrospective analysis describes the originally presented project staffing plans and schedules, the underlying assumptions, identified risks and operational models, among others. For comparison actual data on staffing levels, the resultant schedule, additional risks identified and those that actually materialized, are presented. The observed similarities and differences are then analyzed and explained, and corresponding lessons learned are presented.

Proceedings Article | 28 July 2010 Paper

ALMA: status report on construction and early results from commissioning

Richard Hills, Richard Kurz, Alison Peck

Proc. SPIE. 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Telescopes, Astronomy, Oscillators, Interferometers, Receivers, Adaptive optics, Antennas, Phase measurement, Optical correlators

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