Jared Males – Page 11 – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking Day -4 (estimated): Waiting

Laird and I arrived back at LCO last night. It’s been 18 months since we were here. Lots of little changes, and some new faces around the mountain — but it’s mostly the same as it ever was.

We’re supposed to be unpacking our new instrument MagAO-X. But . . . our shipment has been delayed by the goings-on in Chile. We also have to get MagAO-Classic back up and running, so I guess that’s what we’re working on right now.

where's Lairdo? — If you look hard enough, you’ll see Laird pointing at the sign for the domestic terminal security sign. All of the parts of Chile that we interacted with seem normal, if maybe a little less crowded due to the holiday weekend.

nice to see you — Our old friends, Clay and Baade. Looking good.

well, it's post sunset — Our first LCO sunset in 18 months

we missed you guys! — A cleanroom vizcacha!

they're tame this year too! — And another one!

We’ve been working on MagAO-X so much that MagAO-Classic seems just a little bit unfamiliar. Now that we’ve spent a day getting the ole’ system back up and running, it’s easy to see how much of MagAO is in the new MagAO-X.

MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking: Blog Rules

The following rules will be followed on the MagAO-X unpacking run. There is a MagAO-Classic run going on at the same time, which will have separate rules.

(1) There will be a blog post each day

(2) Each blog post will have a song of the day

(3) The MagAO-X song of the day must be related to the MagAO song of the day from the latest MagAO@LCO blog post.

The last time we were are LCO, we (Laird, Joseph, and I) had a extra arduous trip home. We finally made it. But now that we’re back at LCO, it’s like coming home the other way.

MagAO 2018A Day N: Still Not Home

We left LCO 48 hours ago.

When we got to La Florida airport in La Serena, it was foggy. And it got foggier. So as we waited for our plane to land so we could board it and travel home, we slowly lost sight of the runway. Then we heard the plane as it buzzed the runway and decided it couldn’t land. That’s a bad feeling.

The official hotel of MagAO, the Casino Enjoy, was full. So we had to downgrade and check into the Costa Real — a.k.a. the GPI hotel.

Pisco Sours help, but not that much. — At the Costa Real Hotel bar, working on getting flights for the next day.

Empanada Tuesday. — We got complementary empanadas con queso, at least

We ended up with essentially the same itinerary, 24 hours later. So we got some time for a walk around La Serena.

Nice day actually — The view of our La Serena street corner

It’s actually been 5 or so years since we bothered to spend time in La Serena. La Recova is the same.

This time we watched a homeless guy take a bath in it. — We remembered the La Recova fountain.

We are now in Dallas. As we landed at 5 am this morning we were greated to notifications that our flight to Tucson was delayed 20 minutes. The delay has continued to grow.

Someone plot this and extrapolate. — The text messages received by Joseph in the span of a few hours

Our next major problem was that the first officer’s chair was broken. We were actually buckled in and ready to go, then they kicked us off to repair the chair. Deplaning number 1.

Hope the pilot is comfortable. — Here we are in an Airport restaraunt, after deplaning.

So. Next. We got on the plane, a little faster having rehearsed once. Everything looked good. Pushed back, taxied for a while, and then stopped. After sitting for a bit, the skipper got back on and started with “Well folks, I guess it’s one of those days . . .” Apparently a fuel gage problem, so we pulled back to a (different) gate.

And then the cops boarded the plane. Yeah.

So we aren’t home yet. We’re back in the terminal in DFW, waiting to board a different plane and try again. We are making lots of friends here in the refugee camp, and AA is giving out free food.

He couldn't eat the free empanadas con queso... — Refugee camp A21. The free pretzels made Laird unreasonably happy.

I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow. I’ll probably still be wearing the same clothes though.

Update:

I’ve been trying to make it home
Got to make it, before too long
Oh I can’t take this, very much longer…

We finally made it:

And uber on the way! — Your intrepid adventurers in Tucson at last, with luggage in hand.

I’ll admit that I expected my Uber to break down the whole way home.

MagAO 2018A Day 16: Day 365

Today was the 365th day I’ve spent at Las Campanas Observatory. You only have to go back to May 18th, 2012 to find the first. So 16.7% of my life has been on this mountain over the last 6 years.

It was an interesting 1-year day too. Of course, it was Empanada Sunday. According to my records, my average length of stay has ben 21 days, so ~3 Empanada Sunday’s per visit X 17 visits = 51 total Empanada Sundays in my life so far. Here’s what just one looks like:

Imagine if KT was still here! — It takes a lot of empanadas to feed the GTM Proto3 phasing team, and the MagAO crew.

My longest stay here has been 44 days. That was what I call the “Death Run”. Late May and early June, telescope open for 13+ hr a night, horrific winds, 5 weeks straight of observing. When Katie reminisces (not fondly) about it, she says “you could sleep, eat, or shower. Pick 1.” Well, to commemorate that on mine and LCO’s 1 year anniversary, here’s a picture from the wind gauge tonight: