Home of MagAO and MagAO-X.
Today our big plumbing efforts started in earnest. The cooling system that Jason assembled in Tucson was unpacked today, and the complete circuit was put together. It is currently holding pressure (20#), and we’ll see if it holds all night.
Still no big animals. The Viscacha was on its perch this morning. Povilas saw a fox (a.k.a. Zorro) recently, so we are on the lookout. I hear they used to be very common here.
Days without a motherboard failure: 1
The VisAO electronics box is completely back together and running, so you can stop worrying and get back to working on your 22 milli-arcsecond science case.
In addition to rebuilding the computer, I took the opportunity to organize cables and make everything look tidy. I also turned on the W-Unit and tested everything out. It all still works. The only real excitement today happened when I turned on the old vizcacha computer to check a few files from the unpacking run, and a capacitor exploded. It turns out that’s why that model of motherboard was on the scrap heap here – they make loud noises and give off smoke.
Laird, Alan, and Jason arrived today. That means a lot more work will be getting done, and hopefully more pictures will get taken. I’ve so far seen neither hide nor hair of our larger 4 legged friends, so you’ll have to settle for another sunset.
Lunch on Sunday is always empanadas here at LCO, and it’s cold enough that a big bowl of hot soup hits the spot.
Today was spent rebuilding VisAO after the cooling box interference and the motherboard fiasco from unpacking. It’s almost back together (and I have 2 spare motherboards just in case). But sadly that meant it was time to say goodbye to vizcacha, the stand-in VisAO computer. As if to mark the occasion, our old friend the cleanroom Viscacha said hello this morning.
Here’s the VisAO cooling box, modified so it can stay installed on the handling cart. It used to be a rectangle.
Tonight’s pretty picture:
The grown ups arrive tomorrow, so I guess that means we’ll start using positive numbers.
MagAO is back at LCO. Jared arrived yesterday (Day -1 on the schedule) to begin preparing for a “fitcheck” where we will bolt the NAS to the telescope and test our communications and plumbing. The NAS (=Nasmyth Assembly because it goes on a Nasmyth port of the telescope) is the big black ring that holds our cameras.
The trip to the mountain from La Serena had some excitement. An accident on the highway caused a long traffic jam, so we followed some locals and took an offroad shortcut.
Everything is just how we left it, waiting for us to come back.
Jason finished assembling our new CCD (and shutter) cooling system in the mirror lab yesterday. After several tries, and finally replacing the threaded cap that wouldn’t hold pressure, the system passed a pressure and operational test. It’s on its way to Pasadena, and from there to Chile.
