Blog

As Alex described yesterday, we had to make a major mid-run repair to our system. One of the most important components of our Pyramid wavefront sensor failed on Alycia’s 2nd to last night. So we had to light the bat signal, and, as usual, our Italian collaborators and the LCO crew answered the call. First, Runa connected early on his Sunday morning to discuss piezoelectric actuator failure modes, and then Roberto, Mario, and Alfio stayed up late into Sunday evening in Italy to help us troubleshoot and confirm that our tip-tilt mirror (TTM) was broken. Then, the LCO crew helped us crane off Clio and the NAS first thing Monday morning. Meanwhile, we consulted with Enrico about how to do the change out without ruining our optical alignment, and once we had enough lasers bouncing off enough things, we swapped out the TTM with our spare as fast as we could, getting it done just in time for the crew to crane the NAS and Clio back onto the telescope just before dinner and in time for us to get it all re-connected in time for sunset. After a few software fixes under the guidance of Alfio, we closed the loop, Katie stepped on the gas and away we went.

Laird likes to say that our AO system is a fine Italian sports car (as compared to all those minivans out there), and Enrico compared our TTM change to a Formula One pit stop. So I thought I’d illustrate it. First, this picture identifies the roles various people played in our little drama:

And here it is, somewhat sped up from actual speed on the mountain:

Here’s a pic of some laser alignment spots.

Thanks to everybody who helped us pull this off: our collaborators in Italy, our amazing LCO crew-mates, and our patient observers.

Quote of the run: “What!!!! How do these things work at all?!?!” — Laird Close, investigating capacitive sensor theory.

It does turn out that Viscachas are mostly useless at times like this, but they are always there to say hi on our way up to the summit.

Tonight’s sunset behind a working AO telescope.

This was my first time at Magellan along with Felicity B. Hills, a grad student at U. Michigan. I feel like we’ve been truly inducted into the group of MagAO users, watching a very capable instrument team encounter difficult problems and solve them. Alycia graciously let us watch and follow along with her observations for a few nights, which is when the fun began. Two nights ago the piezo tip-tilt mirror started misbehaving, literally sending a buzz throughout the whole dome. By the start of last night the diagnosis was not good, the mirror was busted. MagAO would need to come off the telescope so that Jared and Laired (with help from the crew and Italian colleagues overseas) could swap in older, working equipment to salvage as much of the run as possible. There was no way it would be back up on time for our night — or so we thought!

So we used last night to get some practice running Clio, and even took some seeing-limited observations. Katie also showed me the position of the pupil with the telescope at zenith and rotator at zero, for whenever I might want to calculate the relative position of the ASM & spiders and Clio’s cold stop.

I jolted out of bed in the late afternoon after checking my email — there was hope! Jared and Laird worked all day to set up everything and get right back on the telescope before night. We’re very grateful for their effort getting things installed and working quickly, an effort aptly described several times tonight as “heroic.” We’re also very grateful to Katie who stayed up with us to run the instrument, answer our questions, and help correct our mistakes. And of course many thanks to our wonderful telescope operators Mauricio and Hernán! I’m happy to report that we are not going home empty handed.

We’ve checked off a lot of experience boxes this trip, including several cute animal sightings:

 

 

And in keeping with the rules, my song of the day:

Tonight Alex and Felicity got a chance to take some Clio data and calibrations. Alycia departs today — it was nice having her here — safe travels!

The song of the day has embedding disabled: Lego Mariner’s Revenge

Who’s up for a little troubleshooting?

It’s great to be back at LCO after a 15 month drought from observing here. That’s the longest I’ve gone without being here since 2009! All the same great people are still here, and it’s a pleasure to be back working with the staff and MagAO team. If you’re wondering about the title of the post, it’s from a new sign in the Clay Telescope kitchen that seems to have to do with making sure not to steal the dishes. Maybe it reads less like an edict from a communist authoritarian government in Spanish (“Colaboremos con el orden y trabajo”).

Tonight started with a unimpressive, as in barely noticeable, penumbral Lunar eclipse, but a nevertheless beautiful Moon-rise. The Moon is an astronomical object that my little thermal IR camera can detect for sure. On the other hand, Jared and I are considering writing our own FLIR control software for observing alpha Cen.

This afternoon I did Google Hangouts with both of my sons’ science classes. I think there was only one question asked by both sets of kids, and it was how much it cost to build Magellan. The best question I got was, “What is the most surprising thing you’ve ever found at the telescope?” I love the question, but I didn’t have the heart to explain how many hours of data reduction go into discoveries after leaving the telescope. Unfortunately, the slow internet connection we’ve had here meant they didn’t get to fully appreciate the video show that Mauricio put on as he slewed the telescope for them.

Speaking of Mauricio, here’s a cool (pun intended) picture of him washing the Clay primary with CO2 yesterday, in the IR, of course.

I saw two vizcachas at the ASB this afternoon and four vizcachas out behind the telescope tonight. You want to see IR photos of a vizcacha, you say? Why, of course you do.

The internet is not letting me post pictures or YouTube videos. So here are some lyrics for Rock Lobster by the B-52s:
Here comes a stingray
There goes a manta-ray
In walked a jelly fish
There goes a dog-fish
Chased by a cat-fish
In flew a sea robin
Watch out for that piranha
There goes a narwhal
Here comes a bikini whale!

Oooh, wait, some bits are getting through finally…