Site construction continues to go well at both sites. The start of dome assembly on Gemini North was delayed due to bad weather in January but has progressed. Pre-assembly of the first telescope steel structures has been completed in the fabrication plant in France and testing with the azimuth drive assemblies will take place in March. The telescope will then be disassembled and shipped to Hawaii in May. The primary mirror destined for Gemini North will be completing its turn on the grinding station at REOSC in France and will be repositioned to the polishing station by April. This mirror is scheduled to ship to Hawaii in November. The mirror blank for Gemini South is scheduled to ship from New York to France in April to begin grinding.
The project remains on schedule and on budget, with first light scheduled for December 1998 in Hawaii and June 2000 in Chile. Photo updates of construction in progress are available at www.gemini.edu.
Kathy Wood