Hello all! I am excited to have received the opportunity to write my first ever blog post and we have had a jam-packed Day 4!
Today was the real deal of installing MagAO-X on the platform. We started the morning by splitting into two crews: one to get the instrument on the platform, and the other to get the computer rack on the platform.
Laird and I tackled many of the hardware tasks, which required us to be in some less than comfortable positions.
This photo not only described our mental state after many hours of installing MagAO-X, but also may cause future nightmares. Thank you Katie.
The greatest cabling team ever assembled, flawlessly carried out the cabling operations with little to no mistakes. Shoutout to the girls!
The computer rack loaded up diligently onto the Isuzu and made it up to the Aux safely!
A great picture after a long successful morning of getting both the instrument and computer on the platform. Laird looking photogenic as always.
One would think this is a staged photoshoot for an ad showing off the latest and greatest tool sets. However, it is just a natural Laird picture.
We headed off to lunch after a satisfying morning of work, only to stumble upon unsatisfied reactions to Joseph pulling out a blob of peaches from a mysterious juice.
Despite everything running smoothly for the most part, Jared’s face talking to Joseph said otherwise. I am not sure the context of this conversation, but it had me slightly worried.
MagAO-X installed on the platform!
After working day and night, we achieved a beautiful PSF of Beta Pic @875nm.
After nearing the 24 hour mark of being awake, I started hearing people singing songs they had stuck in their head. One of which was, “Say you can’t sleep, baby, I know”. This is probably because we’ve had so many Espressos today.
All in all, this was truly a great learning experience for me, and the team as whole. We checked off many of the engineering tasks planned during this first night including star acquisition, testing focal plane masks, calibrating the ADCs, and working on PIAA’s. Oh, and don’t think I forgot the fan favorite… Viscachasssss!!!!!!!!
