From the long days comes an even longer night with the first engineering night of the run. What follows is a brief recount of the 24 hours spent getting MagAO-X running. Today started bright and early with getting MagAO-X up the mountain.
MagAO-X slowly moving up the mountain. Credit: Jared
The final 200 meter climb resulted in the instrument finally getting to the summit and installed. The final vertical climb up the elevator was the fastest process of the whole day! It only took a mere 2 minutes, time lapsed in a cool 12 seconds below.
Credit: Eden
Once on the platform a myriad of tasks were then taken to get it into place. Starting with disassembling the cart and getting it onto the legs. After giving MagAO-X its legs back and getting it into its final position Warren, Eden, and Avalon graced us with this musical number, dubbed “Carol Of The Safety Toe Shoes”, to commemorate the moment.
Credit: Video – Eden, Performance – Eden, Avalon, and Warren
After this great composition the group aligning the instrument took a break as the Baade telescope posed for us! (It totally wasn’t because of some press)
Credit: Eden (Warren Used For Scale)
After seeing BAADE the team took a slight detour into the auxiliary building, specifically to see where the primary mirrors of the Baade and Clay telescope are re-aluminized. The students had fun with the acoustics!
Credit: Warren
We of course had to be inspected by the burros, they approved of our work.
Credit: Laird
And finnally after a long day of work the day ended and beckoned forth the night. So, as is per tradition, the team got together and was able to get one final photo with the last vestiages of light.
Credit: Carla (Telescope Operator)
And thus as day faded into night we continued to work. There were some communication issues that were still working on, but Warren was able to align PIAA. We were also able to get on sky later in the evening. The image below is an image of our first target of the run Theta 1 Orionis B.
Credit: Roz
So with a long 12 hour work day which continued into the night we were reminded of the song “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. As even though the team was presented with different challenges through the day; we never stopped believing.
The long days spent waiting for a resolution to the trucking strike were unwanted but provided unusual tranquility on a mountain normally full of activity. Starting work yesterday morning brought welcome relief to have control back in our hands: turning wrenches and aligning optics was made sweeter by the ennui and uncertainty we had experienced waiting for our system to arrive.
It is to the credit to the group, then, that we did not trip over our own feet in excitement to have something to do, and instead an aura of calm pervaded almost all actions of the days. Like a well-rehearsed dance, our shifts in the cleanroom prepared each subsystem for integration onto the larger bench, and we were quick to characterize problems that will be addressed in days to come. The two days for preparation were unusually brief: because of time constraints we needed to run through our system characterization without incorporating the air-support mount or high-actuator count deformable mirror. Despite the outward expectation of hurriedness, we finished both days with remarks about how quickly everything had gone. Stepping outside this evening into golden sunset light with our instrument packaged and wrapped for the telescope was uniquely rewarding.
This calmness amid the bustle of activity would do well to linger into the next few days. Tomorrow will be the busiest day of the trip, loading our precious cargo onto a truck early in the morning for the final 200 meter climb to the telescope and then solving wavefront control problems through the starlit night. Today, then, was an important day to appreciate the quiet moments before the tempest that will challenge and enthrall us tomorrow.
Almost all the LCO animals joined together in making today a good day to remember. We had visits from the donkey herd:
“If we give them an apple, do you think they would give us a ride?”These would have been great for the trucking strike
The guanacos also made a rare, close to the lodge appearance before bedding down on the hillside south of the telescopes.
Great photo, EdenI count at least six pixels
Furthermore, our resident viscacha spent time posing for admirers:
Every single one of us wishes that we were this viscacha. Or at least that we could cuddle with this viscacha.
And certain, unnamed members of the group were hassled by menacing birds between homework assignments.
Looks can be deceiving: this bird is a killer
Inside the lab, Jared and Joseph started the day with heroic efforts to troubleshoot problems on the erstwhile moody ICC. It seems possible that problems may have originated during bumpy transport; we are all hoping that we’ll soon forget there was ever anything wrong at all.
Hardhats are always welcome but the incorrect PPE for this situation: our computers go directly for the heart
Afterwards, Eden, Sebastiaan and I each got to play with our instruments but work was hampered in part by bad PSFs caused by some combination of pupil shift and no tweeter mirror. We were glad for an online celebrity guest troubleshooting appearance from our very own Kyle van Gorkom; hopefully getting the instrument onto its air support in the telescope will restore beam paths to closer to what we had seen in Tucson.
“It works because I tell it to work”Brief moments in the process allow us to step back and think “wow, this is really crazy”.
As quickly as it had started, it was time to pack everything up and get ready for the final ascent tomorrow. Avalon’s instincts as master plastic wrapper sprang into seasoned form, and good teamwork led to a record decabling and preparation.
This looks like a lot of plastic but Avalon only began wrapping twelve seconds before this photo was takenFitting into the gowning area in this cleanroom feels like squeezing into a clown car
Finally, our work finished, we enjoyed a very pleasant team bonding experience lingering outside as the evening glow turned into night. Amid the certain hubbub and work of the coming days, it was lovely to pause and appreciate the quiet stars twinkling in the night, before peering deeper to unravel their mysteries.
History will forget anachronism and assume that this sunset photo also happened tonight“Keep looking, those aliens will show up eventually” “All of the quotes in these captions are not real”
With relief and anticipation we look forward to the busy days to come, but also look back with fondness on our unexpected, quiet days on top of the world. Time spent walking the gravel mountain roads holding dual feelings of awe and angst consistently evoked the music of Townes van Zandt, and I’d be remiss to not include a song of those moments before our nostalgia is swept away by the activity quickly upon us.
