December 2014 – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

MagAO 2014B Day 42: Coming Home/Party in the USA

We’re home!!!

And we had a good trip back:

Cocina Fusion — Laird, Jared, and I enjoyed cerveza y papas fritas at our new fave spot in La Serena a.k.a. Havana.

Delicioso — Lunch in La Serena yesterday as we got on our way.

after our nice nap and meal at the Hilton. — Laird and I walking to the terminal in Santiago

We took this photo to torment Laird. — Hmm, wouldn’t you know it, the Admiral’s Club in Dallas has wasabi peas.

Bear Down. — A-Mountain in Tucson (exactly centered in this crop) from the plane

My house is in this shot somewhere too! — Tucson!!! From the air, we could see Arizona Stadium, the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, and the pool where I swim! A little bit up/left of center here.

And look, there are Christmas decorations everywhere! When we left it wasn't even Halloween yet — Jumping for joy to be home!

It was a good run. 37 nights on sky, good weather, good telescope, good AO, good crew, good astronomers… good data! Thanks to all who made this run a success.

42 days away from home is a long time. But from our pre-astronomer lives, Jared and I are both used to long deployments in remote areas. (Although the bottom of the ocean is a lot more remote than Namibia!). Anyway, we quite enjoyed coming home:

and are celebrating being back home in the USA:

MagAO 2014B Day 41: Gone Away/Glad You Came

Hello, it’s MagAO’s favorite mascot, Vizzy.

ASB — Here I was enjoying an afternoon nap at the sunny safe wall spot

Phones — But I had to clear out and find a better spot with fewer 2-legs making clicky noises with their small electronic devices

Laird, Jared, and Katie left on Day 41. Here are some pictures from their last couple days at LCO this year.

Adios — Laird and Juan pose after taking off Clio

ASM Izuzu — The ASM goes down hill to park by my nice napping spot

Adios Amigos — Jared and Katie say goodbye to Clay and Baade

Thanks Alberto! — Alberto made a cappuccino for Katie on Thanksgiving

Spinach — Jared a.k.a. PopEye in his natural state.

One happy couple — Jared and Laird by the NAS and ASM

We'll see you next time! — Katie must be sad to leave me. Laird and the driver load up the van. Clay and Baade in the background.

Selfie — Katie, Laird, and Jared in the ASM

I miss them.

I’m glad they came.

2014B Day 41: Not really switched over

According to the blog, we were working the night shift for 36 nights (see Povilas, the blog can be useful). That means we’re almost completely nocturnal at this point, and not doing so well at this “awake during normal hours” thing. We have an overnight flight from Santiago to Dallas tomorrow night — it may be a long one.

happy family — The MagAO team took in one last sunset.

MagAO is all packed up and ready for its ~6 month rest. It’s well deserved — we really made the system work hard this time.

but I had to make them — Katie and Laird wrapped up the ASM. This is to keep dust out.

or a guard of asses — The Burro herd came up to see Katie and me off on our last morning. They formed a guard of honor for us along the road.

no babies were found during an exhaustive search — A trio of Storks (!) caused a bit of a commotion by perching on the DIMM this morning.

you'll be back — Katie took some time to say goodbye to the gorgeous view from Cerro Manqui.

As we used to say in the Navy, just a wake-up to go. We leave at 10 am, and then it’s time to celebrate.

2014B Day 40: Switched back over

Yesterday was day 40 and we switched back over to a day schedule, but the blog server was down so here I am posting now. Thanks to the 4th-floor at CAAO for getting us running again!

A few final pix from our last night on-sky — night 39:

Only 1 AU away! — Sunrise on our last night observing — the run ended when the AO loop opened due to confusion with a nearby G2V star. You can see the sunlight coming around the baffles — I snapped this pic just before the loop opened. And then got a couple pictures of the final dome closing on MagAO 2014B.

Pretty — Fog in the morning after our last night.

Or hello — Jared waves goodbye from the Clay catwalk

Day 40 was a short day for me. Laird had gone to bed at midnight on our last observing night, so we saw him at breakfast as he was just getting up but we were just going to bed. He pulled the ASM with the crew in the morning. Then Jared got up after a few hours sleep to help uncable the NAS, which they pulled next. Finally I got up in the afternoon after several hours sleep, to find that Laird Jared and the crew had already pulled Clio too! They were very fast this time!

I think we broke our Sagan Fellow — Such tired

Lovely. Didn't need a flashlight! — I went for a walk after dinner down to the original scopes, and saw the moon rise over the Clay & Baade.

Cuz we're switched back over. — Sunset on Day 40 — not the start of the night, but the end of the day.

She's a bit skittish. — A vizcacha sighting at the clean room! I dub her Vizita.

The staff here have taken such good care of us this run. They sent up my yogurt for breakfast that I had at 7:30pm, and a plate of delicious food for dinner every night. On Day 40, they were concerned that I didn’t go to lunch or dinner but also didn’t ask for una plata at night, so they sent Jared with some pizza. Thanks! It was delicious. My usual observing dinner:

Gracias! — Dinner while observing — Una plata de la cena por favor.

We made it 40 days. I hope I can still swim when I get back!

2014B Day 39: Last Night… Farewell AOistas

“Ultima noche nadie se enoja”… Old Chilean saying, “on the last day (night) nobody gets mad”, so finally the last night for this run is here Katie and Jared can’t wait for it to be over, just a few minutes ago they both say “last target of the night !”… I know the feeling, so my hat’s off to you guys, the run must have has broken some kind of record, so this is what you deserve once you get down:

While listening to:

Cheers, nos vemos en Junio !