Today was the first full day for our expanded team. After a long 2 days of travel, we got a lot of good sleeping and working accomplished. Oh, and Laird’s suitcase arrived — it’s nice to have toiletries! The expanded team looked well-rested at lunch (Marco, Alfio, Vanessa, Katie, Laird, Jared’s sweatshirt).
Today Marco and Alfio checked that the ASM cabinet powered up and that the system looked OK.
Yesterday the spic-and-span primary mirror was re-installed in Clay, and last night our telescope was collimated: The Clay telescope being collimated (last night at sunset)
Today we moved the ASM from the clean room up to the Auxiliary building at the top of the mountain. We prepped the ASM by turning to face vertically — a stronger position while in motion (it is stored face down — a safer position in case anything strikes it), inspected the mirror surface, and tied it securely to prevent bounces or shocks. In the lower left, Laird is using his sailor skills to show Vanessa and me how to tie a bowline knot. In the lower right, I am trying to get a close-up shot of the slot, my favorite fiducial. The white arcs in the lollipop part of the slot are capacitors for the sensors. We paused to take a group picture while the truck was being prepared (Alfio, Vanessa, Katie, Laird, Marco) Here the ASM is being loaded on to the truck. Very carefully. Strapping the ASM down to the truck. Here the truck is driving the ASM very slowly up the mountain. Finally, the ASM is rolled safely into the Aux. The final result.
This morning Gabriel began cooling Clio with liquid nitrogen: Liquid nitrogen being pumped from the big tank into the little tank… and then from the little tank into Clio
Vanessa got to work monitoring the instrument and updating its software. Here she is connecting the motors last night: Vanessa connecting some Clio motors
Gabriel from the day crew filled Clio during the day, and Vanessa and I filled it after dinner, in order to speed it on its way down to 77 Kelvin: Vanessa and I cooling down Clio.
Here is a video:
Laird, Jared, and Vanessa cleaned the optics in the W-unit and Clio dichroic with soft lens brushes today: Laird and Vanessa inspect the Clio dichroic. Laird is holding a soft-bristle lens brush used to wipe off dust.
This morning Jared saw a guanaco, looking quintessentially Andes: A guanaco in its natural habitat (left) and zoomed-in (right)
Vanessa and Jared saw a bird in the Aux: A bird perched on top of the shelves by the propped-open door to the Aux.
Then this afternoon, Jared and I saw two burros, very appropriately for Palm Sunday: On the left, you can see two burros in the foreground, and the 100″ telescope in the background. On the right, Jared is making big loud sounds to “get their ears up”. He succeeded.
Quotes:
“To the nunnery!” –Tyson, heading out after the morning meeting.
“You get them in your mouth!” –Laird, talking about moths at MMT (fortunately, not a problem here!).
“It’s ballpark super-well cooled down.” –Vanessa, reading the Clio temperature gauge.
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.
Laird, as is his wont, caused all sorts of trouble at the airport(s). He doesn’t have all of his luggage yet.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.
A La Serena neighborhood.La Serena traffic.Marco speaks Spanish well, so he always makes friends.The drive takes you along the ocean for part of the way. It’s nice.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.
Vanessa was introduced to Vizzy after dinner.Katie is tightening some screws on Clio.Katie and Vanessa got Clio started up.Laird arrives at the top. MagAO Commissioning run #2 has begun.
We also set a record today, with the arrival of Vanessa:
We’re pretty sure this is the largest number of graduates of Brookings High School (South Dakota) ever to occur at LCO. Go Bobcats!It never gets old. Yuri was right though – no green flash.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:
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:
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!
Cleaning day.
The Clay primary mirror got a bath this morning:
The first step is to rinse with soapy water, several times, to get as much of the dust off as possible.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.
The LCO crew gently sponges off the Clay 6.5m primary mirror.The bridge the crew is on moves across the mirror as they sponge.The sponging operation, rear view. So how many sponges are in this picture?
Here’s the action version:
I caught Vizzy napping at lunch today. Btw, I'm not too worried about Vizzy vis-a-vis Zorro - the fox is really small.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.
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.
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.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.Instead of washing the primary, the telescope itself got a thorough cleaning.The inside of the aluminization chamber. This contraption vaporizes aluminum to recoat the mirror.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.
Tyson scared them away.Here are the little ones.
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.
This is the North end of a South bound Zorrito. Once it realized it was being watched it took off - but not too fast.I of course only had my cell phone camera, so I didn't get very good close ups.The fox blends in with the countryside really well. No wonder I haven't seen one before today.From the backside.Tonights sunset is indirect - that's the Horace Babcock lodge catching the last rays of today.
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.
The 6.5m honeycomb mirror, inside its cell (the white cylinder), after being lowered onto its cart.The surface of the mirror. This picture is normally almost impossible to take.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!
Vizzy definitely knows when he/she gets noticed and is having a picture taken. Waiting for the sunset.The view off the back of the mountain, right at sunset. It was cloudy all day, but it is clearing up tonight.Our nightly sunset.
