GNIRS camera turret locked at Short Blue

In early April 2024, the GNIRS camera turret experienced a mechanical issue​, ​likely due to the dragging of a bearing that helps drive the movement of the turret. It has been assessed that GNIRS could no longer reliably shift between its long and short cameras​. ​A soft lock on the camera turret ​has been put in place, which fix​es the​ location of the turret to the short blue camera. For programs that require the long cameras, i.e., those targeting extremely bright sources, employing L/M-band imaging or spectroscopy, or those with the HR-IFU, observations will be taken on a best effort basis and, if scheduled, will likely be scheduled in blocks. Discussions about when to perform mechanical intervention to replace the camera turret bearing and to perform other GNIRS-related work are ongoing.