MagAO-X 2022A Day 2: Way To Go Past Us – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

When we last left LCO we expected to be back in just 3.5 months. We’re nerds of the science and engineering type, so we tend to take lots of notes and pictures because we think we want to remember this or that. But there are always those things where you don’t even think about not remembering it because it’s so obvious, or around here it’s because we have done it that way every 6 months for the last 10 years.

Well, guess what. 2+ years of being totally distracted by global catastrophe fries your brain and you forget a lot of things. So I spent a lot of time today rummaging around all of our junk at LCO trying to piece my brain back together. Several times I came across a nicely labeled box, or a place where someone collected all the bolts that go with the thingy, and said out loud “way to go past us!”.

But also there are cases where there’s nothing on the hard drive and I just stand there like this:

You can briefly see Sebastiaan and Joseph sitting next to the fires of AOC there at the end wondering why I’m mumbling to myself

The big accomplishment of the day was unpacking our AO Operators Computer (a.k.a. AOC, a.k.a. exao1) and getting it set up. Joseph and Sebastiaan assembled Megadesk (without breaking it) and got AOC plugged in, on the network, and monitors sorted out.

All: this is a mouseover. We have standards. — Somehow, even after all of this time, you always see something that you haven’t before.

We also had our first Earthquake of the run. I was up in the cleanroom after dinner, and announced it on Slack. Sebastiaan was down in the lodge and saw my slack message before he felt it.

that's big enough thanks. — Just a long slow rumble that made the roof rattle, nothing moved though.

We also unveiled the new attire for cool-kids at LCO

Is it just me, or do the masks make us look cooler? — MagAO-X rests in the background, waiting for crane day.

Avalon: you should also be ready for the entire crew to ask for one. Ask Joseph about the hats. — These are the handiwork of MagAO-X’s own lithography expert Avalon McLeod. I’m 100% sure she’ll write a post about how she does it once she gets down here. (hint hint)

There are some Burros around, as you’ve seen in previous posts. Today I’d like to highlight the Burritos. There is one hanging around with Ma up here at the lodge, and another down at the Bodega.

These two are super tame, you can almost walk right up to them. Think they're friends with Carlos? — Lodge Burrito (right)

Less tame down there -- was a group of 4 that scattered when they saw me run down the hill — Bodega Burrito (Left)

I actually saw the bodega baby nursing too, but was running and couldn't get my phone out in time — Hungry Lodge Burrito

And of course, there are the sunsets. Oh how I have missed the LCO sunset ritual.

it just never gets old — So good to be back.

The Pan Am just shouldn't show up in this picture. — In 10 days we won’t get to see this, cuz we’ll be working already.

Us first 3 have just 1 more day of “bubble”. Assuming negative tests tomorrow evening we’ll get to join normal life at LCO. So far, we’ve just been able to say “hi!!!” to our friends from a distance. We’re really looking forward to actually getting to reconnect.

The song of day’s video sorta captures what it feels like to look back through a decade’s worth of blog posts to find that thing that you forgot.

Watch for Lynx!