Those who have passed through this group know that Warren Foster, former Master’s student now CAAO engineer, was personally victimized by the PIAA Complex Mask Coronagraph. From hours trying to figure out how to fit an elevator system into the already chaotic MagAO-X bench so we could drop in/take out four PIAA lenses to cold nights aligning said lenses alone on the nasmyth platform during observing. Warren needed some healing and today’s SUCCESSFUL install of six picomotors for remote alignment of the lenses was just what the doctor ordered.
Take a peak at the highly aesthetically pleasing cabling job done by Warren, Jay, and me:
After yesterday’s computer issues caused a lot of delays, we made up for it today with some optomechanical wins. We installed the LLOWFS camera shutter, installed a Vector Vortex Coronagraph (VVC) to work with our reflective LLOWFS system, and realigned the LLOWFS camera since the VVC moved the pupil (except this time it took 30 minutes instead of 16 hours). Additionally, were able to easily align the reflective Lyot stops with a great new mount designed by our visiting Brazilian postdoc, Tiago Gualberto Bezerra de Souza.
I am not going to pretend to understand everything Jared did software-wise, but our fearless leader has worked nonstop on trouble-shooting computers, power systems, and creating GUIs.
This engineering run has been one of my favorite experiences at LCO (uh oh my non-astronomer is showing). Really though, the engineering is incredibly fun and this place is so beautiful and teeming with interesting wildlife.
Now, a moment for the flowers at the Carnegie headquarters in La Serena.
Song of the Day:
In honor of our little friend Carlos, “White Winter Hymnal”, Fleet Foxes, 2008.