Month: August 2017

2017B Day 1: Too Cold from The Old Pueblo

It’s not thaaaaat cold, just above 0C [32F]. But you have to remember we left months straight of 38C+ [> 100 F] in Tucson. Our blood is thin, you know?

MagAO is ready to bolt on the telescope tomorrow. We spent today unpacking the ASM, moving it up to the summit, cooling Clio, and doing startup checks and cleaning on the NAS. With no new things to install and test, and nothing broken* after the last run, it was an easy day.

There was a big snow storm a few weeks ago. Here are the remnants by the Clay.

Katie spent the day making it snow inside Clio, but this was already there.

I think Vizzy doesn’t remember me.

Vizzy scrambles across the clean room awning.

The real problem is the wind. James Herriot called it a lazy wind — it can’t be bothered to go around you, it just goes through.

*That we remember.

2017B Day 0: Arrived at LCO

Guess what… we’re back! Laird, Jared, and I made it safely to LCO after 27 hours of travel. Clio is already on the vacuum, pumping down since Tuesday thanks to Jorge Bravo. The sunset was cold and beautiful.

Top: At sunset time, a picture towards the snow-capped Andes to the East. Bottom: Clio is where I left it, and evacuating nicely already.

And by the way, Kesha’s back too. Hopefully our 2017B run will be just as powerful and beautiful as this new work of hers:

Short-and-sweet 2017B Blog Rules:

  1. There must be a post every day.
  2. There must be a song-of-the-day every day.