Blog – Page 164 – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

Comm2 Day 0: Arrivals

The MagAO team got a lot bigger today. Laird, Katie, Alfio, Marco, and Vanessa arrived at LCO today. Marco took some pictures after they all met up in Santiago.

don't even ask about what happened in customs. — Laird, as is his wont, caused all sorts of trouble at the airport(s). He doesn’t have all of his luggage yet.

that's a big load of MagAO — Laird, Alfio, and Marco waiting for the ride. This time they got to ride in comfort on the LCO Express.

Katie sat in the front of the bus, so she took some pictures of the drive.

the bus looks . . . stopped . . .right? — Marco speaks Spanish well, so he always makes friends.

catch the MagAO wave — The drive takes you along the ocean for part of the way. It’s nice.

you finally made it — The bus has just pulled up to the Babcock Lodge

No rest for the weary. After dinner we charged up the mountain to get to work.

I've heard so much about you! — Vanessa was introduced to Vizzy after dinner.

a good connection — Katie is tightening some screws on Clio.

the clio girls — Katie and Vanessa got Clio started up.

the first thing he did was drop his shiny new water bottle — Laird arrives at the top. MagAO Commissioning run #2 has begun.

We also set a record today, with the arrival of Vanessa:

and probably people who have lived in Pullman, WA, too. — We’re pretty sure this is the largest number of graduates of Brookings High School (South Dakota) ever to occur at LCO. Go Bobcats!

maybe next time. — It never gets old. Yuri was right though – no green flash.

distance — A pretty mountain view just after sunset.

And finally, though we couldn’t watch it, we note the outcome of the battle of the Aux building:

and we have Kardashian sister! — Arizona 74, Harvard 51. Bear Down.

Comm2 Day -1: Welcome to the Dance, Harvard

Congratulations to the Harvard NCAA men’s basketball team, who today upset #3 New Mexico (as the #14 seed – wow!). This makes things in the Aux building at LCO a little interesting:

Let's go Cats! — Can anyone think of a basketball metaphor for "resolution vs. field of view"? In the foreground are Harvard instruments Megacam and MMIRS, and in the back is Arizona's MagAO.

#6 Arizona and #14 Harvard square off tomorrow afternoon. Bear Down!

The Clay primary mirror got a bath this morning:

slip-n-slide anyone? — The first step is to rinse with soapy water, several times, to get as much of the dust off as possible.

down the hole — Not necessarily the reason the hole is there, but it sure comes in handy. Come on a mirror lab tour with me sometime and we'll talk about how you deal with not having a hole in an off-axis GMT segment.

Here is the rinse in action:

The next stage of washing is a gentle blotting with sponges. The Aluminum is on the front, and any remaining dust particles or other bits of junk could easily scratch the surface if you wipe.

wax on, wax off — The LCO crew gently sponges off the Clay 6.5m primary mirror.

yeah, so this one time... — The bridge the crew is on moves across the mirror as they sponge.

layin' down on the job — The sponging operation, rear view. So how many sponges are in this picture?

Here’s the action version:

dreaming about cookies in the ASB, I'll bet. — I caught Vizzy napping at lunch today. Btw, I'm not too worried about Vizzy vis-a-vis Zorro - the fox is really small.

hurry! — The Magellan telescopes reflecting the last sunlight of Day -1. The next wave arives tomorrow, including the PI. If you're new here, that means we'll start using non-negative numbers.

Comm2 Day -2: El Zorrito

Today was somewhat eventful. There was some more guider housekeeping, and some work on VisAO software, and a few other odds and ends. We also saw a rare member of the LCO zoo today at lunch.

get the gas out — It's time to start the process of cooling Clio down. The first step is to pump it down, and that got started this morning.

it was pretty smelly — The primary didn't get washed today after all. The sink had to be cleaned first, to get some residual oil off. Here's Tyson going to work on it.

get the dust off — Instead of washing the primary, the telescope itself got a thorough cleaning.

a can of soda — The inside of the aluminization chamber. This contraption vaporizes aluminum to recoat the mirror.

uomoto was here — Though the primary didn't get washed, other mirrors did.

A family of Guanacos came by the aux building today. There were a couple of little ones trotting along with the herd.

The big news of the day is that I finally saw Zorro. A fox ran by the lodge during lunch and caused quite a commotion.

h.p.o.t. — This is the North end of a South bound Zorrito. Once it realized it was being watched it took off - but not too fast.

just minding my own biz — I of course only had my cell phone camera, so I didn't get very good close ups.

shadow — The fox blends in with the countryside really well. No wonder I haven't seen one before today.

new home of the spinning knife edge — Tonights sunset is indirect - that's the Horace Babcock lodge catching the last rays of today.

Comm2 Day -3: moving the primary

The Clay telescope’s 6.5m primary mirror is getting a bath tomorrow. So today it was lowered out of the telescope, and moved into the aux. building. Not something you see everyday.

cartzilla can only dream — The 6.5m honeycomb mirror, inside its cell (the white cylinder), after being lowered onto its cart.

british: aloo-MI-num — The surface of the mirror. This picture is normally almost impossible to take.

wide load — Here the mirror is making the journey into the aux.

Alan and Tyson did some guider housekeeping today, covering up some pesky LEDs. I turned the W-Unit on and made sure everything still works. No problems!

that's a nice tail — Vizzy definitely knows when he/she gets noticed and is having a picture taken.

by the light that never warms — Waiting for the sunset.

the wild — The view off the back of the mountain, right at sunset. It was cloudy all day, but it is clearing up tonight.

didn't see a flash, but I was in a hurry — Our nightly sunset.

Comm2 Day -4: again back again

The “advance team” arrived at LCO today to begin preparations for MagAO commissioning run #2. Alan, Tyson, and Jared made the long overnight journey from the USA, accompanied by Povilas and Mark Phillips who were returning from the Magellan SAC meeting.

Grande still means Grande — Tyson getting recharged in Santiago.

smooth — The first part of the road has been freshly paved. The rest of the way is . . . still bumpy.

After a delicious LCO supper I went up and looked everything over. Here are some of the important things I checked:

oh no. not you guys again. — Vizzy watched the sunset with me.

the intersection is wide open — Our frisbee was still in its hiding spot. Need a few more players though.

safety first — Our various caches of gear are still in place.

And of course, I took a stroll around the mountain to see how things are without us.