Welcome to the second work day of the 26A run! Today we’ll be taking a brief look at some of the polarization work I’ve been doing (because, you know, if I didn’t mention polarimetry, did I even write a blog post?)
Today I spent time managing cables for the polarimeter and for the new polarization compensator I’ll be deploying. For the half-wave plate stage outside the instrument, I worked on reducing our heat outputs by moving the AC to DC converter bricks from directly underneath our entrance port to inside the server rack. I reckon this’ll give us at least +1-2% Strehl ratio. Having all the cables managed neatly in bundles keeps our operations smoother: there’s less chance of the cables snagging, and plugging and unplugging from the server rack is logistically easier.
Inside the instrument, I’ve gotten the control electronics routed into the top bench for the polarization compensator–tomorrow I’ll be installing it!
Additionally, Jay, Eden, and Jared finished the glycol plumbing! The hoses, manifolds, and devices were backflushed to remove gunk and, eventually, the entire cooling loop was up and running!
Following the successful plumbing, the remainder of the cables between the server and the instrument were connected, followed by a system check for the deformable mirrors and motion stages. The loop has been closed, so we’re ready to proceed with the remaining engineering tasks for this run.
Color of the Day
So, today I accidentally walked out of the clean room with my shoe covers still on. Oops. Miraculously, so did Eden at the end of the day. In honor of our buffonery, I nominate clean room shoe cover blue (Pantone 14-4530 TN BLUEFISH) as the color of the day.
Song of the Day
In honor of the glycol in The Machine-