One of MagAO’s specialties is high contrast imaging in the visible using simultaneous differential imaging (SDI). For this run we bought a new H-alpha SDI filter set, and tonight we really put them to use. This image compares our on and off H-alpha PSFs. These are formed from 1 hour of 45 second exposures. No strehl selection or any other shady tricks.
Since Kate is here, we are of course doing lots of H-alpha differential imaging.We had a great night tonight, with fantastic seeing the whole night.Kate Follette is back. Here she is taking data with VisAO. She’s hiding the name of the object cuz it’s a secret.TJ, Laird, and Alfio hard at work. T. J. is contemplating the fate of humanity.Alycia has joined us again.The burro herd showed up after dinner.Clay, by the light that never warms. (If you don’t get that reference, you need to start listening to our songs.)
We close tonight with deep thoughts by T. J. Rodigas: “What I’m worried about is human knowledge after the Earth is destroyed . . . we should beam it up to the space station.”
We had another somewhat so-so night. Some high winds made it interesting, but there were few to no clouds and seeing was at least mediocre. But right at 4 am, when we switched targets, seeing blew up to more than 1.5 arcseconds. Sorry DZ — we aren’t doing this on purpose.
The differential image motion monitor (DIMM) telescope opening for the night. This measures the seeing (how strong the turbulence is). There was a lot of differential image motion tonight.A herd of guanacos was hanging out just over the edge today.This one was off to the side. Someone told me the lone one is always the male.The Magellan telescopes coming over the hill.A typical dinner. Which really means breakfast when we’re observing.It was Empanada Sunday (our second if you’re keeping track). Since we were asleep at lunch, they chefs sent us empanadas for our midnight snack.
There have been several calls for the return of the quotes of the day. Here’s a sample from the last few days:
Jordan: “The problem with this AO system is that it stays closed for so long that it’s hard to find a bathroom break.”
Alfio: “I went there once to take their cheese.” (explaining that he has been to the Baade telescope).
Laird: “You fooled me by taking the data incompetently.” (to T. J.)
Finally, my song for the night is absolutely full of astronomical references. Free MagAO sticker to the first person who emails me a list (no googling, on your honor). In any case, you should listen to this with the volume at 11. Trust me, it’s better that way.
We spent almost the whole night with the loop closed, with a few exceptions. For instance, we had to open the loop during an earthquake! Not a big one, but the floor rumbled and the loop went a little crazy because of the vibrations.
One of the fun things about observing with AO is that we frequently discover that stars listed as singles are doubles, triples, or even quadruples. This happens when we pick a star just to do engineering tests, and we find more stars than we expected. Here’s an example from tonight.
A quadruple, probably hierarchical, star system that we weren’t expecting. This is a VisAO z’ image.
The same horse is still hanging around. He still won’t let me pet him.
Our horse friend posing dramatically
We couldn’t do much in the way of photometric standards, but the sky was pretty.
Tonight’s sunset.
In addition to the quad, we imaged a couple of star fields and clusters. We counted lots of stars on both of our cameras.
“Caradhras was called the Cruel, and had an ill name,” said Gimli, “long years ago, when rumour of Sauron had not been heard in these lands.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
We may not have wizards against us, but when it decides to blow here, it really blows.
The winds today on the summit of Cerro Manqui, where the Magellan telescopes sit.
60 mph winds put almost a complete stop to our operations today. We were supposed to move the ASM first thing, and support the f/11 secondary change out. Instead we had to wait until the winds died down enough. Even still, we ended up waiting for a temporary lull and rushing the ASM across the gap (a.k.a. “The Wind Tunnel”) between the Aux and the Clay elevator late this afternoon.
The vans are lined up to try to provide a wind break (I’m not joking). It didn’t really help.
Once the ASM was safely in Clay, the crew proceeded with the changeover. Here’s our delicate shell swinging through the air.
The ASM being craned into positionAlmost there
The crew skipped dinner to get this done for us. Muchas gracias guys.
Katie and Laird cabling the ASM.
A few other things were dealt with in the mean time.
Sometimes you have to call in the master. Alfio made a house call in the clean room to help fix a weird bug in Clio.
After all that bluster, we ended up with a nice calm sunset.
It calmed down a bit at sunset.
The winds have picked back up late tonight. We’ve noticed that there are a lot of airplanes in the skies of LCO. Implications for the GMT laser guide star system aside, this song gives some hope that they might be useful. If it doesn’t stop blowing soon, I’ll be willing to try anything.
First, an announcement: this is blog post #200! How long can we keep this up?
Today’s big accomplishment was driving the ASM up to the summit.
The ASM backs up to the Aux building.This scissor lift is the scariest part of the operation.The ASM is cranked off the truck onto the lift.Victor poses with the ASM as it slides off the lift.
Best question of the day: “Is it still one piece?” — Juan Gallardo, after the ASM rolled off the lift.
We also reorganized the cables and hoses in the W-Unit.
A freshly organized W-Unit.The Daily VizClay and Baade at twilight.
Today’s song is one of many with an astronomical theme. If you listen close lots of pop music is about astronomy in some way.
