Blog – Page 137 – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

2014B Day 41: Not really switched over

According to the blog, we were working the night shift for 36 nights (see Povilas, the blog can be useful). That means we’re almost completely nocturnal at this point, and not doing so well at this “awake during normal hours” thing. We have an overnight flight from Santiago to Dallas tomorrow night — it may be a long one.

happy family — The MagAO team took in one last sunset.

MagAO is all packed up and ready for its ~6 month rest. It’s well deserved — we really made the system work hard this time.

but I had to make them — Katie and Laird wrapped up the ASM. This is to keep dust out.

or a guard of asses — The Burro herd came up to see Katie and me off on our last morning. They formed a guard of honor for us along the road.

no babies were found during an exhaustive search — A trio of Storks (!) caused a bit of a commotion by perching on the DIMM this morning.

you'll be back — Katie took some time to say goodbye to the gorgeous view from Cerro Manqui.

As we used to say in the Navy, just a wake-up to go. We leave at 10 am, and then it’s time to celebrate.

2014B Day 40: Switched back over

Yesterday was day 40 and we switched back over to a day schedule, but the blog server was down so here I am posting now. Thanks to the 4th-floor at CAAO for getting us running again!

A few final pix from our last night on-sky — night 39:

Only 1 AU away! — Sunrise on our last night observing — the run ended when the AO loop opened due to confusion with a nearby G2V star. You can see the sunlight coming around the baffles — I snapped this pic just before the loop opened. And then got a couple pictures of the final dome closing on MagAO 2014B.

Pretty — Fog in the morning after our last night.

Or hello — Jared waves goodbye from the Clay catwalk

Day 40 was a short day for me. Laird had gone to bed at midnight on our last observing night, so we saw him at breakfast as he was just getting up but we were just going to bed. He pulled the ASM with the crew in the morning. Then Jared got up after a few hours sleep to help uncable the NAS, which they pulled next. Finally I got up in the afternoon after several hours sleep, to find that Laird Jared and the crew had already pulled Clio too! They were very fast this time!

I think we broke our Sagan Fellow — Such tired

Lovely. Didn't need a flashlight! — I went for a walk after dinner down to the original scopes, and saw the moon rise over the Clay & Baade.

Cuz we're switched back over. — Sunset on Day 40 — not the start of the night, but the end of the day.

She's a bit skittish. — A vizcacha sighting at the clean room! I dub her Vizita.

The staff here have taken such good care of us this run. They sent up my yogurt for breakfast that I had at 7:30pm, and a plate of delicious food for dinner every night. On Day 40, they were concerned that I didn’t go to lunch or dinner but also didn’t ask for una plata at night, so they sent Jared with some pizza. Thanks! It was delicious. My usual observing dinner:

Gracias! — Dinner while observing — Una plata de la cena por favor.

We made it 40 days. I hope I can still swim when I get back!

2014B Day 39: Last Night… Farewell AOistas

“Ultima noche nadie se enoja”… Old Chilean saying, “on the last day (night) nobody gets mad”, so finally the last night for this run is here Katie and Jared can’t wait for it to be over, just a few minutes ago they both say “last target of the night !”… I know the feeling, so my hat’s off to you guys, the run must have has broken some kind of record, so this is what you deserve once you get down:

While listening to:

Cheers, nos vemos en Junio !

2014B Day 38: One More Night

We only have 1 more night of observing left. Can you believe it? And after all that, the last two nights are mine and Katie’s to do with as we please. We have a nice informal queue worked out between us. It goes something like: seeing 0.5″ or better, we do the impossible stuff, better than 0.7″ we do the hard stuff, and after that the stuff we won’t do any other time. Tonight was a just go for the impossible kind of night – half arcsecond seeing, no winds, and not a cloud in the sky.

about time — Cerro Manqui delivered tonight. I think we deserved it.

I hope our favorite mountain peak has one more of those in store for us tonight. There’s plenty of impossible in the sky.

maybe she reads the blog — The ASB vizzy has been around a little more reliably the last week.

had to go off road for this — This Viscacha struck a nice pose for me on my way up tonight. I knew it would be good after this.

We’ll be in Tucson by the next time empanada Sunday comes around. I still had one leftover last night.

2014B Day 37: “Engineering Issues”

So it’s my time to write?

Last night for me on the mountain, and to date the finest AO shift. The team is smoothing the instrument quite a lot, and on my call I’d say the biggest issue was helping Laird when he had “engineering issues” with the washing machine (the shame!).

You guys still have a couple of nights, but I’d say every year you manage to resist these long runs a bit better (I still remember one of your first runs, crazy eyed, talking about La Serena like it was Havana or something). I guess the awesome AO data you get to grab helps.

Well, in any case we’ll miss you. It’s always nice when you observe with the same people for a while, and the observing process gets easier and runs smooth. Next time we’ll have the DIMM working, promise. Oh, in return of a “Loop is open..” ringtone!

I leave you with a xkcd that reminded me of AO somehow, and a full album. Have you heard of the annoying TO with the weird music taste? That’s me!

PS: Sweet Dreams (see what I did there?)