First performance of the GeMS plus GMOS system-1. Imaging

Abstract

During the commissioning of the Gemini MCAO System (GeMS), we had the opportunity to obtain data with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS), the most utilized instrument at Gemini South Observatory, in 2012 March and May. Several globular clusters were observed in imaging mode that allowed us to study the performance of this new and untested combination. GMOS is a visible instrument, hence pushing MCAO towards the visible. We report here on the results with the GMOS instruments, derive photometric performance in term of full width at half-maximum (FWHM) and throughput. In most of the cases, we obtained an improvement factor of at least 2 against the natural seeing. This result also depends on the natural guide star constellation selected for the observations and we then study the impact of the guide star selection on the FWHM performance. We also derive a first astrometric analysis showing that the GeMS+GMOS system provide an absolute astrometric precision better than 8 mas and a relative astrometric precision lower than 50 mas.