Dear Reader, we shall try to be clear. Magellan Adaptive Optics a.k.a. MagAO shall now be referred to as MagAO-Classic or MagAO-C. This is due to the introduction of MagAO-eXtreme or MagAO-X on the scene. We are here at the same time for 2 different runs:
MagAO-C 2019B Observing Run, and
MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking Run
Welcome.
I arrived today with Amali Vaz and Emily Mailhot. You may remember Amali from such hits as her Award-Winning Blog Post (the award). Emily and her counterpart Jared Carlson are the new Steward AO Observing Specialists and Emily is here to be trained on MagAO-C while Jared C. is observing at LBTI in Tucson.
We wish our Chilean colleagues all the best in their efforts to organize better living conditions in this beautiful country. I haven’t been here for about a year and a half and it is nice to be back. The trip went smoothly, due to the airport staff in TUS, DFW, SCL, and LSC as well as the LCO staff at El Pino who arranged smooth door-to-door transport. Things were quiet in SCL but planes were flying on time and taxis and traffic in La Serena were pretty typical.
How I was greeted in SCL. [Image description: Katie’s Starbucks coffee cup is in the foreground, and it says “Katy <3" in hand-written black Sharpie. Emily is out of focus in the background, and the mountains around Santiago are even more out of focus and even more in the background.]Jared getting a panorama of the sunset. [Image description: A back-lit scene of the orange sun setting in orange clouds with clouds and mountains on the distant horizon. Jared is seen in the foreground off to the side, in silhouette taking a picture with his phone.]
The MagAO-C 2019B Blog Rules:
There must be 1 MagAO-C post per day.
The post of the day must include a Classic song of the day.
The end.
Song of the day: This is a Classic (in fact, a MagAO-Classic) because it came out the day we left Tucson for the first full (non-commissioning) science run in 2014A, over 5 years ago. It’s also a Classic because my heart always sings Shakira when I’m in Latin America. Finally, as noted in the original blog post, it’s a Classic because it has an astronomical theme (which used to be a typical blog rule).
It’s Empire by Shakira (we should start writing the song names for those cases where YouTube takes down the video and we otherwise can’t tell what it is a few years from now).
Laird and I arrived back at LCO last night. It’s been 18 months since we were here. Lots of little changes, and some new faces around the mountain — but it’s mostly the same as it ever was.
We’re supposed to be unpacking our new instrument MagAO-X. But . . . our shipment has been delayed by the goings-on in Chile. We also have to get MagAO-Classic back up and running, so I guess that’s what we’re working on right now.
If you look hard enough, you’ll see Laird pointing at the sign for the domestic terminal security sign. All of the parts of Chile that we interacted with seem normal, if maybe a little less crowded due to the holiday weekend.
Our old friends, Clay and Baade. Looking good.
Our first LCO sunset in 18 months
A cleanroom vizcacha!
And another one!
We’ve been working on MagAO-X so much that MagAO-Classic seems just a little bit unfamiliar. Now that we’ve spent a day getting the ole’ system back up and running, it’s easy to see how much of MagAO is in the new MagAO-X.
MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking: Blog Rules
The following rules will be followed on the MagAO-X unpacking run. There is a MagAO-Classic run going on at the same time, which will have separate rules.
(1) There will be a blog post each day
(2) Each blog post will have a song of the day
(3) The MagAO-X song of the day must be related to the MagAO song of the day from the latest MagAO@LCO blog post.
The last time we were are LCO, we (Laird, Joseph, and I) had a extra arduous trip home. We finally made it. But now that we’re back at LCO, it’s like coming home the other way.
Today, we handed MagAO-X off to the shipping contractor (all 2961 kg / 6527 lb / 3.26 tons of it). Our dinky little forklift was not up to the task, so Southwest Industrial Rigging Inc. was called in.
MagAO-X leaving the Steward Observatory loading dock under the supervision of riggers (center, right), grad students (behind camera), the P.I. (outside of frame), and Project Manager Victor Gasho (left).
Forklifts: not just for pallets any more.
Loading MagAO-X for its ride to Los Angeles (probably). (Photo by Kyle van Gorkom)
Oddly enough, three ton shipments get tracking numbers just like your Amazon order of cat toys. We’ll be updating the map below with information from our shipper.
2019-10-17 @ 12:25 — Pickup at Steward Observatory
2019-10-18 @ 07:57 — Arrived at warehouse / Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
2019-10-19 @ 13:06 — Booked on flight QT 4157 on Oct 27th from Miami to Santiago
2019-10-19 @ 14:11 — Arrived at warehouse / Los Angeles International Airport
??? — Arrived at Miami International Airport (seriously, we have confirmation on the phone, but nothing updated on the tracking page)
2019-10-29 — The tracking website dispenses new information: “SANTIAGO E.T.A.: 11/01/2019 02:30” (What does it really mean? Who can say. There’s no Avianca Cargo flight arriving then…)
Dr. Males claimed that he was going home to “not think about MagAO-X for a few hours,” but we know the truth. He fears for his child going through the rough world of international logistics. But sometimes, you need to… Go Outside (by Cults).
It’s been a very busy 6 weeks since we passed PSR and received the approval to ship out MagAO-X. In those 6 weeks, we’ve been working on putting the final touches for the instrument. On October 2, we were scheduled for moving the MagAO-X instrument into its shipping crate, which means lots and lots of preparation for the big day.
It’s been all-hands-on-deck with many days and late nights in the lab carefully packing the instrument and the electronics rack. Alex H and Maggie have been helping Laird with locking down all the optics on the table for minimal shifting through the transport process. Joseph, Kyle, Alex R, and I have been helping Jared with migrating the electronics from the lab rack to the MagAO-X shipping rack. Jared, Joseph, and Kyle have been working on integrating the hardware and software from the newly migrated electronics rack to the locked down testbed. The XWCL room was raining zip ties, velcro ties, and cut styrofoam for weeks. We ran out of label maker tape on the day we were packing up the instrument.
In case you missed all the fun, here’s some photos from the shipping preparation in the lab:
MagAO-X PI handling the scary BMC 2K ribbon cables
Plenty of raining styrofoam for the cable channel routing
Electronics side panel close-up
The AO controller battlestation is LCO ready!
One last look at MagAO-X’s optics guts
Jared and Kyle prepping the ports for the BMC 2K
The final touch for moving MagAO-X to its shipping crate was wrapping it in lots of plastic:
Jared coming around the instrument with the plastic roller, with Alex H and Laird holding the plastic downThe end of the MagAO-X packing eve, with the instrument wrapped and the clean room torn down
October 2 was a big milestone step for MagAO-X, the day it made its first move out of the XWCL room in Steward. However, it only moved down 1 floor (XWCL is on the 2nd floor, and the loading dock is in the 1st floor / basement). It may not seem far in MagAO-X’s journey, but it took lots of effort… in addition to the freight elevator breaking the day before. Jared, Laird, Alexes R and H, Kyle, Jamison, Nick, Victor, and I were present all day for the big event.
First thing we did was get the (new and lighter) cart onto the testbed:
Disassembling the new cart’s handles
Unlocking one side of the cart
Moving one rail to the other side of the table
Getting the fit ready for the movers
Next, the riggers arrived to lift up MagAO-X from its legs and onto the cart:
Setting up the rigging crane to lift up MagAO-X off the table legsMagAO-X PI supervising the lifted cart getting connected to the tableCart is connected, time to remove the table legs from underneath
MagAO-X PI checking the cart handle bolts
It’s ready to go outside the lab!
Then, it took a journey down the hallway to the freight elevator to go to the basement’s loading dock: (Shoutout to facilities for making sure the freight elevator worked that day no matter what!)
MagAO-X made the tight turn!
MagAO-X PI following the cart down the hall to the freight elevator
MagAO-X in the freight elevator to go to the basement
In the basement, it was carted to the loading dock area:
Moving MagAO-X through the basement
On its way to the loading dock!
The shipping crate was waiting for the instrument inside the building by the loading dock. We needed to push the shipping crate outside to the loading dock first to make room for MagAO-X:
The unopened shipping crate
Out in the loading dock area, a crane came by and to remove the crate’s cover:
Crane getting ready to remove the crate cover
Inside the crate was the testbed’s shipping frame to maintain balance for MagAO-X. Jamison presented these at PSR. The PSR drawings don’t look fancy, but seeing them in person is super legit:
Behold, the shipping frame!
We wheeled out MagAO-X for it to be craned onto the shipping frame:
Jared and Laird leading MagAO-X to the light of day
Setting the crane up with the instrument
However, like all great projects, no matter the extent of our preparation, we encountered some issues with hardware. While fixing that, we encountered another issue – MagAO-X started overheating after exposure to the sun. The black metal panels absorbed lots of heat and the plastic wrap encouraged a greenhouse effect. So, we wheeled it back inside the building to let it cool down:
Touching the instrument was very hot!
When the hardware issues were cleared, we wheeled MagAO-X back outside and the exciting crane process began:
Out you go again…
MagAO-X PI watching the lifted instrument line up with the shipping frame
MagAO-X PI watching the fine lining up
Victor and Alex R removing the cart after the testbed was connected to the shipping frame
MagAO-X connected to the shipping frame, ready for the crate cover!
With MagAO-X craned onto its shipping frame and bolted down, the crate cover was craned back to enclose the instrument:
Crate cover incomingScary lift-up over the instrument
We boxed up the instrument and wheeled the packed crate back inside Steward, where it has stayed for a week before it ships out:
Jared trying to stop Kyle from getting squished
The crate is back in its original spot, but this time with the cargo inside
Post-instrument packing photo, which ended right at the predicted 5 PM.
Within that week timeframe, we continued on with the shipping process. Two days were spent in the Mirror Lab for getting the electronics rack in its shipping crate. We began packing and inventorying all the equipment to send down to Chile:
Laird and Alex R locking down the crate with the table legs inside
We modified one of the shipping crate’s side panels to add more viewing windows. Here’s one last look at MagAO-X in its crate, before it gets shipped off to Chile:
Clever use of extra foam found in previous shipping crates
I’ve been working off-and-on MagAO-X since January 2017 on the simulation side doing Fresnel propagation analysis. Working in simulation means you don’t get a lot of interaction with the hardware. I got to see the instrument close up while helping in the shipping process, and it has been a rewarding learning experience. (Plus, my arts and crafts hobby finally became useful with lots of foam cutting, my heart was singing in delight for days) I’ve learned a lot with the team, and I’m sure we’re going to learn more as we continue on the next step of the shipping process.
The MagAO-X PI has rules. It is not necessarily a rule, but rather a recommendation to have a quote: Jared: Stop having fun, this isn’t fun
The rule is having a song. I picked this one because it’s so strange adjusting to the change of not having MagAO-X in the lab after 2 years:
Last Friday, MagAO-X underwent a pre-shipment review. This is the process by which the Magellan Observatory ensures that we won’t waste everyone’s time by shipping our instrument to the telescope. It’s a multifaceted process, evaluating everything from “does your instrument work in the lab?” to “have you baked your shipping crate?”
I’m happy to report that we’ve cleared this hurdle, meaning we’re taking MagAO-X to Chile for the 2019B* run! Many thanks to all of our reviewers and the observatory staff for productive discussions and suggestions. We look forward to getting on sky with MagAO-X this December! (Since this is the MagAO blog as well, it bears mentioning that we’ll be there in November too.)
* We use ‘A’ and ‘B’ to refer to the former and latter halves of the year, since “winter” means different months depending on your hemisphere.
Also, this means Jared feels it’s finally acceptable to hand out the 2019B mission patches I designed:
Sunset scene with viscacha and diffraction spikes
The patch depicts a viscacha, one of the local fauna of Magellan, perched on a rock at sunset. (As they do.) In the sky above, a point source is diffracted by some telescope spiders to form a stylized Magellan PSF. (Or possibly a MagAO-“X”.)
As long as I don’t run out of South American animals, I plan to do a patch for every run. Then I’ll put them all on a vest and look like the world’s nerdiest boy scout.
Part of being in the XWCL is following the P.I.’s rules:
No unauthorized use of the label maker
No coding in MATLAB
No circus activities
No volunteering for Olivier
No metric shit running around in the lab
Every post must have a song of the day
No unauthorized use of the label maker
I regret that I forgot rule #6 in my last post, so I will take this opportunity to rectify my mistake with two songs of the day.
I’ve been digging this song about not being too hard on yourself by Alex Lahey:
And if I had been thinking about a song of the day for the back-to-school post, it might have been “Restart” by Little Daylight:
