Manny caught an unsuspecting grad student sunset-watching.
Well, the fun had to end sometime. This post marks the official end of the MAPS 2023A run, after a weather-ful last two nights.
One of the big perks of mountain observing in AZ, especially in June, is replacing the 100ºF highs of the valley with mountain temperatures of 40-60º. The first night, as we braved the bitter winds of civilian twilight for the MAPS team photo next to our colleagues with parkas and patagonias, Joseph and and I had the sinking thought that maybe our office-AC outer layers wouldn’t measure up. For the first few nights, we shivered through the few minutes we had to be outside and remembered the summer heat wistfully.
Lady bugs huddling in the outside cracks of MMT for warmth.
Careful what you wish for. After the chilly 50s of the first few nights, our second to last night we got hit with an uncharacteristically balmy and breeze-less front. Lovely for humans, but very bad for ASMs who need weather-based cooling. So yesterday, we spent a crystal clear night waiting on and off for a hot, crabby ASM with no wind to soothe it.
Tonight, however, the chilly breeze was back, and with it the clouds. We got a sunset so spectacular that the whole control room ran out to see it. Did I miss a green flash? Yes. Yes I did. Apparently I haven’t learned the proper technique even with weeks of observing at LCO.
Even Joseph, perched at the ever-rotating window, had to admit the sunset was worth going out to see.
Though astronomers might love a good sunset, astronomy doesn’t like the clouds they can bring. We ended up being clouded out for a good portion of our final night, an anticlimactic way to end a week of speed-learning a CACAO system. As it became clear that the clouds weren’t going to clear out anytime soon, person by person the crew took off to bed, prepping for mountain-top departure in the morning. What was left by 3am was the skeleton crew, the bare minimum to keep everything running. Brian for the telescope, Jaren for the science camera, Manny for the ASM, Me for CACAO, and Joseph for morale.
Skeleton crew selfie right before closing.
Though Joseph and I were last minute additions to MAPS and the learning curve was steep, it was such a privilege to be able to help with an AO system on such a historical telescope. One that has been on the forefront of segmented mirror alignment and Infrared science. Hope to see you soon MMT!
Hello. It is your local CACAO expert here, beaming to you directly from the beautiful peaks of the Santa Rita mountains. I am currently being not-paid to convince a wiggly mirror to un-twinkle stars from a four story building that rotates all night long. The whole experience feels like an internship at something between a castle fort and sea-bound vessel. For the record, I do not think that buildings this big should merry-go-round. However, I will admit that this one is impressive.
spectacularawe-inspiringsensational
We continue to be supported from CACAO sages across the globe. Olivier called in last night about to board a Hawaii-bound plane, and Jared logged on from one of the fastest trains in the world. (Thank you wise ones, for being so generous with your travel time.)
Kagayaki 533 for KanazawaMAPS at 160 mph
Tonight Olivier split his time between the Subaru team and ours, remotely helping us tie off some CACAO loose ends. Finally, after the trials and tribulations of last night’s clouds and cranky mirrors, we finally have a happily closed loop! Early tonight we had the DoCrimes response matrices loaded up and performing corrections. We’re still working on some other orthogonal control algorithms with CACAO, but for now, enjoy the success of the day, from two different perspectives:
First, mine, as the AO operator:
Here we turn on the Crimes, and see the WFS pupils (top left) flatten, acquisition source (middle) shape up. You can see on the bottom the ASM’s positon, current, and temperature per each actuator.
Second, Jorge’s as the observer (video by Joseph):
AO off, tip tilt on, full AO loop on.
“Now that’s what I call an AO System!” Manny.
The team was still taking data when this photo was taken.
Summer runs are funny in that you seem to always be running out of time. Sun-down at 8pm to sun-up at 4am isn’t as long as you’d think. We’ve been running our observations into sunrise more often than not.
A wave from the light of the full moon!
That said, we still have a few more days to get our loops more stable, but what we’ve accomplished so far has made me proud of my small, button-pushing part of the MAPS team. I have had such a great time working with the crew, have been charmed by MMT, and despite all worries I do believe Joseph and I have proven ourselves helpful.
Today another shining star of the MagAO-X team has defended! We all are so happy to announce that Avalon McLeod, after powering through a triumph of a thesis and defense, now has her Masters degree in Optical science!
Ready? Set. GO!
The story of Low Order Wavefront Sensing (LOWFS) was everything a AO control theorist could ask for. We got motivation from the 2020 Decadal Survey, multiple novel acronyms, AO diagrams old and new, PSF cleanup simulations, and stunning comparisons between lab and on sky results. Even those of us who saw the on-sky prowess of the LOWFS loop our own eyes were on the edge of our seats as she revealed how quantitatively well it performed our last run.
The Classic AO LoopSNR, STDV, and Response Matrix plot trifecta
After the public portion of the talk, everyone but the defendee and the committee were asked politely to “Get out!” We all waited patiently for the committee to decide what we’ve felt for a while, that Avalon has earned the title of a Masters Degree.
(Well, we actually didn’t wait so patiently that we could help ourselves from sneaking a peak to see if they were done yet…)
The Optical Science’s building has glass in unexpected places, which mayhaps should be expected of an optics building
Among Avalon’s many skills is ceremonial un-corking (along with LOWFS-ing, nano-fabrication, hoodie fabrication, cameo printing, and a ccapella do-whops) and we celebrated!
Cheers to Avalon!Now that’s a grad!
Congratulations Avalon from your MagAO-X family, observing runs and lab time won’t be the same without you. We wish you the best of luck as you go on to be an Astronomer for Draper in Boston! They’re lucky to have you.
This is the time of night an astronomer’s workday would be in full gear, but dear reader, your favorite astronomers are all home or tucked into their LCO beds, dreaming sweet dreams. The MagAO-X team, working 24 hours since you heard from us last, have observed our last target, removed our instrument from the telescope, safely trucked it to the clean room, and started to pack it away for its long trip back home.
The last catwalk sunsetJay enjoying the last of our Clay dome-openings
In this great relay race, Jared, Sebastian and I were the night team. As the rest of our team hit the hay around midnight, our noble observing efforts were met by some of the worse seeing of the run (after 22B, we do feel lucky to only have one or two nights to complain about, instead of the whole run). Around 1, Jared jinxed us with “At this rate, it’s going to be terrible all night and clear up to 0.5 arc-seconds right before we try to close.” In the great cosmic comedy the universe plays on worn-out astronomers, turns out he couldn’t have been more right:
Hitting 1.5as and 0.5 on the same night…
Seems like LCO weather agrees with my high school track coach, you can’t give up the race right before the finish line. So the night team observed until the sun declared our time up, and only then did we begin the task of shut-down and de-cabling.
The mega monitor, without anything to monitor.
We passed the baton to Laird and Joseph around 8 in the morning, and I’m told that the craning, carting, tethering, trucking and boxing all went well. I can only tell you what I heard because once Jared gave me the all clear, I sleepwalked straight down the hill into bed. Though I was solidly asleep for the rest of the day-time packing work, the successes did not go undocumented:
MagAO-X on the moveaaaannnd…. safe!Optics: bagged and locked
Right before dinner, when I finally woke up, we were much further along into packing than Jared had feared we would be. Huge thank you the LCO crew who got us off the telescope so quickly, then helped us even more this afternoon to get MagAO-X in its shipping box. After a leisurely meal, the AZ crew headed back to the clean room and started corralling our doodads into the right corners.
Saran wrapping the electronics rack Cables – managed
We start again bright and early at 8:30am to finish prepping ourselves and the instrument for the long flight to Tucson. Think of us, as we all try the magic trick of switching to a day schedule on a days’ notice.
With things going smoothly, we seem to now have this mythical thing called “free time” and with it the team sneaked in a little wildlife spotting:
Good morning, Guanaco! from JosephFarewell, fox family! from JialinThe noble astrono-vizz
With these fancy new phone cameras, some team members are getting particularly good at the artistic type of astro-photography:
Lodge views by SebastianLMC an SMC by Jialinguess who!
But wait! Where did Jialin and Jay go?? Rumor has it they got out just in time, and are having plenty of good adventuring before their 24hr journey to the US. Travel safe friends! See you Tucson.
Some pre-airport fun
Song of the day:
As we watched the seeing mysteriously dip last night just as we thought about calling it, Jared goes “you know that song, the Wellerman”? To Jared’s surprise and chagrin, I had completely missed the entire TikTok trend of covering this New-Zeland Sea ballad. It became popularized by Scottish singer Nathan Evans around 2021 but the original tune can be tracked back to the 1830s. It loosely follows a Moby Dick-esq narrative of a whaling ship being dragged along by an unattainable whale. Jared goes on to explain that the tantalizing 0.5 arc second seeing is our white whale, dragging us on until the last possible photon. With the night and the run ending, this felt more true than ever.
“The Wellerman” seems like a fitting song of the day, and of course I have heard it, all it took to remember was a quick search. How could I forget it? I love a good folk tune… love a Scottish accent… but wow I love a old sea song! What the conversation with Jared reminded me of is that, though I don’t really care for metal, heavy metal, etc… I LOVE Pirate metal. People yelling in general angst? I’ll pass. People yelling about the high seas? Sign me up. A fellow friend in the AO research field and bassist in their own right introduced me to Alestorm a few years ago, an Scottish band that exclusively does pirate metal. I haven’t gotten to see them in concert… YET, but I take this band as the single most impactful recommendation music-wise I’ve ever gotten. So in honor of our telescopes and how successful this run has been, I’ve picked their song “Magellan’s Expedition” for today.
“Magellan’s Expedition” by Alestorm
As a bonus, here is Alestorm covering “The Wellerman” because of course they did, everyone covered it, even Kids Bop 2022.
We’re only so many days in and the team has made leaps and bounds during both our engineering and science hours. MagAO-X has all its shiny bits and pieces working in one extreme(ly complicated) and beautiful orchestra.
Our very first PSF of 23A, from Friday
A list of just a few things the team is celebrating:
XKIDS first light – Noah’s blog post says it best, but today we were able to take even more exciting long wavelength observations with our inductance imager. Stay tuned for more results from the UC Santa Barbara team
lowfs commissioned – Avalon can’t catch a break, everyone wants lowfs on their target! She’s bringing significant flux improvements to the table with her fancy loop. “Dreams really do come true” – Jared, probably
PIAA upgrade success– If you couldn’t tell from Warren’s post, his long armed masterpiece has worked amazingly well with hardly a pineapple to be seen. He’s run off to the Chilean beaches, but we can safely say the PIAA trials and tribulations of 22B are a thing of the past.
Stellar data! – After the abysmal weather of 22B, even just seeing the stunningly sharp X of a high contrast imager brings joy to our weary souls, plus all the companions we’ve seen so far!
MagAO-X’s new long wavelength extensionLOWFS closed on 37 modes on sky!Look! Now that’s a companionCan you see him?
Today Jialin finally joined us! She also had a close call with her layover pre-Santiago flight, and we’re so glad to have her here instead of her being stuck in Huston an extra day. It’s a momentous milestone of the run, she’s our last arrival. From here on out, we’ll just be losing members.
Howdy neighbor!
I know we seem extremely productive, but don’t fret! We haven’t forgotten to enjoy the finer parts of LCO living and loafing.
We’ve been enjoying cleanroom vizzy spotting, a staple of the uphill observatory hike:
One of the two Viscacha’s that have made their home at the ASBThey’re so good.
Joseph brought out his IR camera to find out who’s the hottest in the control room:
Turns out the computers are pretty hot.
Though it ruined our loop, we fell asleep to a fiery sunrise:
“WOW” – me
We always appreciate our TO Jorge and his whimsy:
TO treats
Following direct PI orders, no one forgot about this past empanada Sunday:
A full team’s worth of empanadas
We’ve been teaching the newer team members the finer arts of green flash catching:
We always hold out hope for a flash.
And Laird caught a vizzy at sunset, the best of both worlds:
Majestic.
To top it all off, we got a NYT photographer poking their nose (and drone) around the telescope tonight, so keep an eye out for our very own Avalon to make the front page!
Song of the Day
My chosen song is “From Far Away” from a musician my mother raised me on. Jeff Tweedy, lead singer of Wilco but solo performer in his own right, has a voice so distinct it never fails to throw me back to long hot car rides and sleepy backseats. I’ve seen him three times, at a Wilco concert when I was 13 and then more recently twice at a small hole in the wall venue during his yearly winter LA visits. He can sell out stadiums for thousands all over the world but chooses the 200 seat Largo theater to host a weekend of shows in early January. My family went to his show this year, and his opener was none other than Fred Armisen, who spent the 15 minute musician-themed comedy routine parodying acoustic guitarists across the globe, playing a few tunes himself, and of course mocking his good friend Jeff. So please enjoy the soothing sounds of a man I’ve listened to most my life, as you look at our extrasolar companions from far away…
“From Far Away” by Jeff Tweedy
We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but here’s my silly family being silly while we waited for the doors to open:
