MagAO-X 2025A Day 20: you can see yourself out

I regret to inform you, dear readers, that things did not get better. This is not a happy story. Your brave AO operators do not triumph over the atmosphere, because… well it’s a natural phenomenon with a mean streak. We don’t pull an underdog move, miraculously rally, and through the power of friendship get phenomenal data at the last second. We limped towards dawn and the day crew takeover. The last night of the run was a wash, and honestly we’re glad it’s over.

When AO is on the telescope, you don’t get red on this plot…

Now that you’re adequately disappointed for us, here are some good things that happened today:

  1. The sunset was beautiful!
I have a soft spot for the dome reflecting pink cloud glow.

2. The vegan ate well!

A meal so beautiful it needed it’s own fancy plate.

3. Baby viscachas are still very cute!

Hey! Did you know it’s the hoppy holiday today?
If you want it enough, you’ll find him.

4. Another Laird theory proved!

During the course of our bright observations tonight, where we were attempting some engineering despite the seeing, we noticed that our performance was way worse than it should have been… when pointing to the south, where the control room is. Camtip (the champ) bounced like a pingpong ball. Then when we point to the north, away from the telescopes, suddenly smooth sailing. Camtip a beautiful steady ring. (Not useless!) A more detailed proof probably forthcoming, but initial evidence indicates AO doesn’t like the telescope pointing at 210-240 degrees. One more thing to think about when picking targets.

The plots to look at are the circular wind plot against the areal view of where the telescopes point.

5. We got Easter candy!

The bunny (or should I say vizzy?) delivery is always a treat, and which treat changes year to year.

Thank you LCO for making the holiday special!

6. It’s Matthijs birthday!

Well, at midnight it was. He went down the hill before we had a chance to sing him a midnight birthday song in the control room, being a responsible day crew member. So happy birthday to our only postdoc! Hope you have some downtime from your rigging intro to enjoy more puzzles.

That’s a face that says “yum”
sunrise caught by Sebastiaan

Given that the atmosphere basically booted us out the door, we’re done here. The last photons of 25A were tallied up, as scattered as they might be. The sun has risen, the DM cables are tucked into bed, and the day crew will take it from here.

Night crew jumping one last hurdle on the way to bed.
Tucking cables getting tucked in.

As I successfully got every observer to use my daytime calibrated incoherent speckles tonight, I find this quote specifically apt :

“It’s wonderful when you can bring sparkle into people’s lives, especially under difficult circumstances.” — “Castle in the Sky”, 1986.

Song of the Day

Thanks Joseph for introducing me to the perfect song to encapsulate the night.

AHHHH! by Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers