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If you take a step back and really think about it, the way we celebrate birthdays is pretty weird. Wearing a conical paper hat? Lighting a small fire atop some food and then immediately blowing it out? Sitting awkwardly while everyone in a room sings to you? If you think a little too hard about birthday traditions, they’re all a bit strange.

Maybe that’s how we tried to justify the ritual we put Matthijs through on his birthday. Sure, craning and cart-building and wrapping a one-ton instrument in saran wrap and emergency blankets is a little weird. But hear me out: if you look at the big picture, it’s not so much more bizarre than party hats and birthday candles. Plus, I’m certain what we unwrapped today was orders of magnitude more expensive than any birthday present any of us has ever received.

I’m talking to you from the perspective of the day crew, who went to bed while the night crew braved the last few (not ideal) hours on-sky at the telescope. Laird, Elena, Matthijs and I were up bright and early to begin the process of moving MagAO-X from the Nasmyth platform down the hill to its temporary home in the cleanroom. This involves hard hats, steel toes, and a whole lot of bolts.

We had gone over the procedure with the LCO staff the day before, so the day’s craning operations went smoothly. Before we knew it we were loading the instrument into the cleanroom, followed by the legs and the electronics rack. After some more craning, cart disassembly, and an unexpected battle between the instrument’s caster wheels and the cracks in the floor, by 3pm we were ready to pass the baton back to the day crew.

They expertly finished what we started, cabling up all our electronics, including the DMs, in record time.

After this, a few of us are staying an extra day to set up remote ops so we can keep working until we see each other again at LCO for 2025B. We’ll be far away from each other, but we promise not to be distant.

Song of the Day:

I regret to inform you, dear readers, that things did not get better. This is not a happy story. Your brave AO operators do not triumph over the atmosphere, because… well it’s a natural phenomenon with a mean streak. We don’t pull an underdog move, miraculously rally, and through the power of friendship get phenomenal data at the last second. We limped towards dawn and the day crew takeover. The last night of the run was a wash, and honestly we’re glad it’s over.

Now that you’re adequately disappointed for us, here are some good things that happened today:

1. The sunset was beautiful!

2. The vegan ate well!

3. Baby viscachas are still very cute!

4. Another Laird theory proved!

During the course of our bright observations tonight, where we were attempting some engineering despite the seeing, we noticed that our performance was way worse than it should have been… when pointing to the south, where the control room is. Camtip (the champ) bounced like a pingpong ball. Then when we point to the north, away from the telescopes, suddenly smooth sailing. Camtip a beautiful steady ring. (Not useless!) A more detailed proof probably forthcoming, but initial evidence indicates AO doesn’t like the telescope pointing at 210-240 degrees. One more thing to think about when picking targets.

5. We got Easter candy!

The bunny (or should I say vizzy?) delivery is always a treat, and which treat changes year to year.

6. It’s Matthijs birthday!

Well, at midnight it was. He went down the hill before we had a chance to sing him a midnight birthday song in the control room, being a responsible day crew member. So happy birthday to our only postdoc! Hope you have some downtime from your rigging intro to enjoy more puzzles.

Given that the atmosphere basically booted us out the door, we’re done here. The last photons of 25A were tallied up, as scattered as they might be. The sun has risen, the DM cables are tucked into bed, and the day crew will take it from here.

As I successfully got every observer to use my daytime calibrated incoherent speckles tonight, I find this quote specifically apt :

“It’s wonderful when you can bring sparkle into people’s lives, especially under difficult circumstances.” — “Castle in the Sky”, 1986.

Song of the Day

Thanks Joseph for introducing me to the perfect song to encapsulate the night.

Hello guys, is me again eh eh.

It’s very good to see you!! I was not here for your last run so I kind of missed you.

This run in particular felt a bit weird because you’ve been here for such a loooong time. I met the first shift and the new team members (at least, new to me). Then I went on my off-week, came back, and you were STILL here! Haha!

This time, you really outdid yourself with the amount of snacks you brought. I’ve tried them all, although I especially enjoy trying new things, especially the sweet ones. I’m glad you were able to bring merkén chips, and I hope you enjoyed them! They’re not spicy, but they’re very flavorful.

As I was saying, my shift started again, and I met your second group, the other new members (new to me, at least), and all the new snacks you brought! I loooooove those chocolate-covered blueberries, I kind of expected them, haha. But this new group brought more spicy stuff, and I tried that Tom Yum Snack Mix… it was waaaaaay too spicy, haha! It was so spicy I almost choked!

I hope you enjoy the cuchuflis and alfajores with manjar … very typical from here, just a bit of Chile for you.

The not fun part of your run is the clouds. With Rebeca, the new TO, were expecting the meteoblue got it wrong. But the clouds finally arrived and I am glad you have a plan for that, still, not fun for anybody. Buuut, before the clouds arrived we had a whoa moment!

So I went outside and my mind was “WHOA, I have to share this“, so I ran to you but I could not find the cohete word. But before I finally said rocket, everybody stood up from their seats and went to see this cloud that was moving so fast — it only took a few minutes to cross the sky. The picture actually turned out really nice. The very exciting phenomena that we saw was an OVNI (UFO) but probably a rocket.

During my shift off I saw a relatively old movie, but ChatGPT helped me find it: He’s Just Not That Into You. In it, there’s a line that goes something like: ‘Exceptional cases are just that, the rest of us are just the rule.’ At the end of the movie, it leaves me with an important reflection: to truly be the exception to the rule, one has to see the signs and, above all, believe them. That being said, I’m really grateful I got to meet you and share some fun moments together — getting to know you and learning about the amazing work you’re doing for astronomy.

One very fun song for you, its kind of old, sung by a little girl who is now a woman but for some rare reason the song is popular again – I couldn’t found the new official version sooooo here you have “Dubidubidu” by Christell one interview version.

At the usual Chilean diner 
Satisfying our guac desires, 
Huge chips to dip at hand 
To face a long night ahead. 

“My comrade won’t join tonight” 
Said Sebastiaan with a sigh, 
“I shall bring him food at once, 
For EFC to have a chance”. 

As he ordered a full plate 
“His name is Josh”, he said. 
Yorch Clay – wrote the chef, 
For he did not understand.

Then everyone followed the captain 
And drove or walked up the mountain 
To observe the target PDS 70 
Which is forcefully our favorite. 

To set up for observations, 
One must meet some expectations 
This is why, behind the screen 
A known face started to peer. 

Are you pushing the right buttons? 
To ensure everything functions 
Jared glances, with narrow eyes, 
Guarding Josh as he drives. 

If you’re wrong you will hear 
“Well, this little maneuver 
Is gonna cost us 51 years!” 
And you don’t want this in your ears. 

Ps. The movie quote in the poem is from Interstellar, one of my favorite movies of all time!

Song of the day