With us finally getting used to working on the night shift, it sure feels like we have been racking up the overtime hours. However, we still find time to get our daily Vizzy content. I have decided to start this blog post by giving the people what they want…Viscacha’s and behind the scenes footage.
After capturing the cutest photos of those little guys, we continued our content creation with some beautiful photos of Clay. Thank you Jialin for taking this timelapse!
Prior to making our way up the mountain we spent some time pondering the great science advancements we are all going to make.
Alright, now onto the actual science. Tonight was dedicated to Laird and Jialin. The setup went smoothly, and we were quickly ready to start collecting data. The primary science goal for the first half of the night was to search for binary stars and planets in the i and z bands. We began with a target that has been indirectly observed to host a ~5 Jupiter-mass planet. With this data set, we hope Jialin will be able to confirm its existence.
The second half of the night transitioned into H-alpha science targets. This allows us to observe specific emission of ionized hydrogen (around 656nm). This is particularly interesting as it provides valuable insight into accretion activity in binaries or planetary systems.
While we captured some excellent observations, the highlight of the night was pushing the telescope’s limits. As morning approached, we continued observing a target star as it reached an altitude below 23 degrees—remarkably low, considering our telescope operator had previously noted that the scope is not designed to operate below 21 degrees.
