Armando Riccardi is here. That means it is all going to be fine. Seriously – stop worrying.
O.k. Maybe worry a little. We had a 6.2 magnitude earthquake today, almost right under us. That’s telescope shaking, rock slide causing, all work stopping strong. Strong enough that Armando abandoned the ASM in the cleanroom. Here’s a map:
Coordinates and strength of the quake from Universidad de Chile . It was only 34 miles away.
The valley between us and the epicenter had clouds of dust rising, presumably from rock slides. [check back, I’ll post some pics when I get them]
In the end everything is fine. Nothing broke and we just kept working.
Alan and Tyson tweak our guider.Tyson working on wrapping the 'Anaconda', which regular blog readers will remember from our last adventure. Katie and Alan are safety watches in case it turns on Tyson.
Progress was made on site cleanliness as well.
Alan gets it done again. Our various mothers will be grateful for once-more poop-free pictures of their children.
And we discovered what “the problem has been dealt with” actually meant. The Viscacha den in the attic of the ASB was screened over.
The screens put in place to stop the banana raids. The white streaks are evidence of the former occupants. Vizzy looks on with seeming distinterest.
We had an exciting day on the MagAO project here at Las Campanas Observatory. There were bugs, birds, left-handed translations, a handoff, some solidified N2, and the sun got a little fainter too.
Today was the crew changeover. See Katies’s post about how the next Turno was shown the workings of Clio’s dewar and LN2 refilling procedure.
The big excitement for the day was the solar eclipse. See this post for more on MagAO’s first on-sky results.
We got a little done on the NAS today too. Alan did a bunch of guider testing, and has declared victory. Jared and Katie tested the bayside stage motors, our very powerful X-Y-Z translation motors which move the entire W-Unit to align and focus. These weren’t tested last night since we like to be careful and make sure we don’t destroy the project (as a general rule). We tested their movement in 3 axes to verify that everything works smoothly and that no hoses or cables are pinched. Now, in optics the Z-axis is traditionally along the optical axis, and positive in the direction of motion of photons. Katie noticed that our X and Y axes then follow the “left-hand rule” for their coordinates, and was inspired to pose for a picture. This is Katie’s way of saying, politely, that we do things a little backwards at Arizona.
Katie demonstrates the "left-hand rule" for the coordinate system of the X, Y, Z Bayside stages.
After getting the stages up and running, we could then align the system. This means using the stages to get our artificial star on the optical axis of the W-unit. With a pyramid AO system, we always feel good when we get a nice set of 4 round pupil images.
Our pyramid wavefront sensor pupils at left, and the VisAO spot on the left.Here Jared is showing some relief that everything turned back on.
There have been a few animal sightings. She’s the only one on the project to date, but Katie has seen a bunch of bugs. It is spring, so maybe they are coming out. We also saw a turkey vulture circling the summit. Nobody got a good pic, but there was unambiguous evidence of its passage.
Our various mothers are going to be disappointed.
Quotes of the Day:
While discussing VisAO’s tiny field of view:
Matt Walker: “it would take a long time to do a sky survey with an 8 arcsecond field of view”
Alan Uomoto: “well, that depends, do you want to do it at 20 milliarcseconds?”
(good comeback Alan)
Tyson Hare: “Look how easy it is to entertain a room full of nerds.” (during the eclipse)
After the eclipse, we were treated to yet one more amazing LCO sunset.
The Magellan 6.5m telescopes at sunset. Clay at left, Baade on the right.
Manny and Richard are on their way home. Clio2 survived shipping, and is ready for MagAO to send it some flat wavefronts.
The electronics rack for Clio2 fits, and doesn't vibrate (too much).
The last thing the guys did was train the LCO staff on how to keep Clio cold.
Manny Montoya briefing the LCO crew on Clio2 operations.Some hands on training. The blue gloves keep your fingertips attached to your fingers - LN2 is cold!
The next MagAO detachment leaves Tucson today. We’re on our way.
Richard caught a glimpse of the grumpy old man, one of the two Viscachas who live over the clean room. When last we saw them, they had just been caught breaking and entering the ASB to steal bananas, and the last update I got was “the problem has been dealt with”. I was worried! But the VisAO mascot appears safe, sound, and as grumpy as ever.
