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A motorized laser Beam Injector Module (BIM) has been designed to integrate the new Toptica SodiumStar 20/2 laser to the Beam Transfer Optics (BTO) subsystem of the Gemini South telescope. The main goal is to inject the new laser beam co-axially to the BTO optical axis without altering the optical path of the current Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies (LMCT) sodium laser. The optical design consists of a custom high-power attenuator offering two power modes, an opto-mechanical laser switch to commute between the two laser guide star facilities within a short period of time and a set of tip-tilt picomotor mirror mounts for BTO optical alignment. The motorized module is remotely controlled via an EPICS command interface by the laser operator that can propagate both lasers consecutively on sky for the measurement of the sodium layer guide star photon return. The laser beam factor quality and optical characteristics of the beam injector output beam have been measured within the Gemini South Laser Guide Star (GS-LGS) requirements. This paper presents a general overview of the new sodium laser facility and the beam injector optomechanical design. It reports on the optical calibration, laser beam characterization, telescope integration and BTO optical alignment.

Adaptive Optics (AO) systems aim at detecting and correcting for optical distortions induced by atmospheric turbulences. The Gemini Multi Conjugated AO System GeMS is operational and regularly used for science observations since 2013 delivering close to diffraction limit resolution over a large field of view. GeMS entered this year into a new era. The laser system has been upgraded from the old 50W Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies (LMCT) pulsed laser to the Toptica 20/2W CW SodiumStar laser. The laser has been successfully commissioned and is now used regularly in operation. In this paper we first review the performance obtained with the instrument. I will go then into the details of the commissioning of the Toptica laser and show the improvements obtained in term of acquisition, stability, reliability and performance.

Sodium guide star technologies for Adaptive Optics (AO) have been around for over 20 years. During this time, the technologies for the lasers used to excite the mesospheric sodium have been in constant development, with the goals being not only to excite as much sodium as possible, but to do so efficiently, while producing a round guide star, and while offering a reliable facility. The first lasers in use were dye lasers with a liquid gain medium, while these lasers were able to produce sodium guide stars, the liquid dye used was toxic and flammable. The second generation of guide star lasers used sum-frequency-mixed solid-state lasers. These lasers provided excellent return but were notoriously difficult to calibrate and maintain, requiring a full-time laser engineer on staff. The current third generation of sodium guide star lasers use Raman fiber amplification to generate a laser that is very efficient at exciting sodium with a good spot profile and offer a high degree of reliability. The Gemini South observatory for the last few years has been in the process of obtaining one of these third-generation lasers, a Toptica Sodium Star 20/2 while maintaining its second-generation Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies (LMCT) 50W CW Mode-locked laser. In October of 2017 successful on-sky commissioning of the Toptica laser was executed while the LMCT laser was still active and in operations. During the course of the commissioning run both lasers were used on sky in close in time in possible. We present a comparative study of the performance of each laser.

Both Gemini telescopes, in Hawaii and Chile, are located in highly seismic active areas. That means that the seismic protection is included in the structural design of the telescope, instruments and auxiliary structure. We will describe the specific design features to reduce permanent damage in case of major earthquakes. At this moment both telescopes have been affected by big earthquakes in 2006 and 2015 respectively. There is an opportunity to compare the original design to the effects that are caused by these earthquakes and analyze their effectiveness. The paper describes the way the telescopes responded to these events, the damage that was caused, how we recovered from it, the modifications we have done to avoid some of this damage in future occasions, and lessons learned to face this type of events. Finally we will cover on how we pretend to upgrade the limited monitoring tools we currently have in place to measure the impact of earthquakes.

GLAS (Ground-layer Laser Adaptive optics System) provides a Rayleigh Laser Guide Star (LGS) upgrade to the existing NAOMI AO system at the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope on La Palma. Installation of the GLAS upgrades commenced in 2006 with on-sky commissioning taking place from May 2007. Commissioning was very successful and AO correction was first observed during the August 2007 observing run. Here we present an overview of the opto-mechanical systems that have been installed and commissioned, including the LGS launch system, LGS safety systems and LGS Wave Front Sensor, concentrating on the integration of the various optical and optoelectronic components.

The Nasmyth Adaptive Optics for Multi-purpose Instrumentation (NAOMI) on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) has been developed recently into a common user AO (Adaptive Optics) instrument to accompany OASIS (Optically Adaptive System for Imaging Spectroscopy), a multi-slit spectrograph and INGRID (Isaac Newton Group Red Imaging Device) an Infrared detector. The most recent changes are the addition of an Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) to be used for the optical wavelengths and a Dichroic Changer mechanism to select either a pass band or IR light for the Universal Science Ports (UPS). Future developments on NOAMI are planned as it is due to house the GLAS WFS (Ground Layer Adaptive optics System Wave Front Sensor), a wave front sensor for the future Laser Guide Star (LGS) system to be installed on the WHT in 2006. This paper describes the changes made with respect to the science ports and the changes to be made for the GLAS WFS; focusing on the GLAS WFS and the optical path and interface to the NAOMI adaptive optics system.

This paper describes an engineering programme to retrofit an improved mechanism control system to the Isaac Newton Group Red Imaging Device (INGRID), the infrared camera at the William Herschel Telescope. INGRID is an operational instrument and engineering upgrades need to be considered carefully with a view to minimising risks to the instrument and ensuring that it is back in service on the due date. A number of alternative mechanical arrangements were considered; different stepper motor candidates were assessed together with the electronics to drive them. Motor drive parameters were optimised to increase the speed of optical setup. Finally, different technologies were considered for improving the arrangements for sensing the position of the instrument's mechanism wheels. The paper reports on the results of this programme and lessons learned.