Overview
Time available on each of Gemini North and South is distributed according to the Observatory participants' shares. Engineering time is reserved each semester; this includes engineering time in the queue, instrument performance monitoring, engineering time to accommodate visiting instrumentation, and instrument commissioning. Any unused engineering time is returned to science. The science time includes time used for all Observing Modes, including standard semester programs (this call), Large and Long programs, Fast Turnaround programs, and Director's Discretionary time. Time for limited-term partners is also reserved from the total science time each semester. The estimated time available for each participant and host institution is shown below. The 2021A time distribution applies no balancing of partner executed time, and assumes that participants involved in Large and Long Programs take their full 20%.
Gemini North 2021A
- 7.7 nights (4.3%) are reserved for engineering, this includes: engineering time in the queue, instrument performance monitoring, engineering time to accommodate visiting instrumentation, and instrument maintenance tasks.
- 173.3 nights have been made available for science, which amounts to 95.7% of the total time available.
- The science time also include:
- 7.8 nights for DD time, and 17.3 nights for host institution (U. of Hawaii).
- 0.5 nights for Limited term partners (Weizmann Institute of Science).
- 4 nights for CFHT community, use of Guaranteed Time in exchange for GRACES.
- The Table below shows the distribution of the time available per participant.
| Participant | Estimated Science Time Available (hours) | Time Reserved for Fast Turnaround programs (hours) [A] | Time Reserved for Large and Long Programs (hours) [B] | Estimated Time Available for this Call (hours) [C] |
| US | 1031 | 103.1 | 91 | 781 |
| Canada | 272.9 | 27.2 | 24 | 224 |
| Argentina | 46.6 | 4.7 | 0 | 39 |
| Brazil | 98 | 9.8 | 0 | 83 |
| Korea | 75.2 | 7.5 | 0 | 64 |
| Univ. of Hawaii (host) | 169.2 | 16.9 | 0 | 163 |
[A] - 10% of the available time is contributed by all participants and host institutions to the Fast Turnaround program.
[B] - Up to 20% of the available time is contributed by the United States, and Canada, to Large and Long Program.
[C] - As this time also includes weather loss and time lost to faults, approximately 80% of this time is allocated to programs during the ITAC process (~30% in Band 1, ~30% in Band 2 and ~20% in Band 3).
Gemini South 2021A
- 20 nights (11%) are reserved for engineering, this includes engineering time in the queue, instrument performance monitoring, engineering shutdown, engineering time to accommodate visiting instrumentation, and instrument maintenance tasks.
- 161nights have been made available for science, which amounts to 89% of the total time available.
- The science time also include:
- 6.5 nights for DD time, and 14.5 nights for host institution (Chile);
- 3 nights for CFHT community, use of guaranteed time in exchange for GRACES.
- 9.4 nights for the IGRINS team, use of compensatory time in exchange for making IGRINS available to the Gemini community.
- 4.5 nights of guaranteed time for the NGS2 team.
- 2 nights of guaranteed time for the Flamingos-2 team.
- The Table below shows the distribution of the time available per participant.
| Participant | Estimated Science Time Available (hours) | Time Reserved for Fast Turnaround programs (hours) [A] | Time Reserved for Large and Long Programs (hours) [B] | Estimated Time Available for this Call (hours) [C] |
| US | 865.4 | 87.0 | 79.7 | 655 |
| Canada | 229.1 | 22.9 | 21.1 | 186 |
| Argentina | 39.2 | 3.9 | 0 | 33 |
| Brazil | 82.2 | 8.2 | 0 | 70 |
| Korea | 63.1 | 6.3 | 0 | 54 |
| Chile (host) | 142.1 | 0 | 0 | 142 |
[A] - 10% of the available time is contributed by all participants and host institutions to the Fast Turnaround program.
[B] - Up to 20% of the available time is contributed by the United States, and Canada, to Large and Long Program.
[C] - As this time also includes weather loss and time lost to faults, approximately 80% of this time is allocated to programs during the ITAC process (~30% in Band 1, ~30% in Band 2 and ~20% in Band 3).