On September 17, 2018, we got our first look at the MagAO-X vAPP (that’s “vector apodizing phase plate”) coronagraph optic. Kelsey Miller had been working with the phase pattern for a long time, but there’s something special about holding it with your own hands. Or, at any rate, watching the P.I. hold it with his own hands.
Despite the complicated phase pattern, it looks pretty much clear except for the reflective mask. At extreme angles, you can get some purple from (I think) an AR coating.
Jared and Kelsey clean the hardware to hold the vAPP.
Jared inserts the vAPP in the holder…
…and in it goes!
The vAPP slotted right into Kelsey’s coronagraph testbed, and we got the predicted pattern on our camera! Fourier optics works.
This past week, the MagAO-X team attended the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference in Austin, TX. Here’s a recap of all of our presentations at the conference.
Let’s start off with the talks. Jared kicked off our presentation collection with a talk on the MagAO-X update:
Starting it off with the MagAO-X PI
Laird gave an update on MagAO:
We love MagAO!
Kelsey gave a fantastic talk on the vAPP for MagAO-X and Linear Dark Field Control:
Kelsey’s awesome presentation with excellent use of pictures
Lauren gave an awesome talk on her PyWFS PYRITE sims:
Lauren’s talk stepped through PyWFS really well, great job!
Justin presented PIAACMC designs for SCExAO/GMT/MagAO-X:
Despite being the last talk of the conference, it still had great attendance!
The rest of us had poster presentations:
Joseph presented on his CLIO data analysis
Maggie presented on her work with the MagAO-X kinematic mounts
Alex R (v1.0) presented his simulations work on Fraizen’s paper
Rachel Morgan (MIT) presented her work using the data Ewan collected with MagAO on 2017B
Alex H (v2.0) presented his work with the MagAO-X K-mirror mount
Laird presented the MagAO-X optomechanical design
Kyle presented his work characterizing the MagAO-X DMs
Jhen presented her work using POPPY to characterize the MagAO-X and LGS testbeds
Jared made a poster for GMagAO-X
Here’s some shenanigans from the conference and in Austin:
Jared’s talk crashed several timesonce during his presentation. It turns out, LibreOffice and the SPIE talk upload system disagree with each other, particularly with how to handle Lauren’s 700 KB flaming logo. When transitioning to the next talk, MagAO-X refused to leave the screen.
Free advertisement for MagAO-X!
According to Laird, later in the week, Lauren’s MagAO-X logo came back to shutdown another talk. The computer tried to “recover” Jared’s talk and so the solution was to kill it outright. MagAO-X came back with a vengeance it seems.
Despite the heat and humidity, Austin was a great conference location.
I observed some Texas locals
Sunset dinner by the Colorado River
I did the millennial thing and ate avocado toast for brunch one day
And so concludes SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2018. It was a fantastic time seeing everyone, meeting new people, attending talks, and presenting research. To close off, here’s a quote from the MagAO-X PI:
Jared: “All deficiencies in your presentations have been noted and will be addressed in due course.”
When we got to La Florida airport in La Serena, it was foggy. And it got foggier. So as we waited for our plane to land so we could board it and travel home, we slowly lost sight of the runway. Then we heard the plane as it buzzed the runway and decided it couldn’t land. That’s a bad feeling.
The official hotel of MagAO, the Casino Enjoy, was full. So we had to downgrade and check into the Costa Real — a.k.a. the GPI hotel.
At the Costa Real Hotel bar, working on getting flights for the next day.
We got complementary empanadas con queso, at least
We ended up with essentially the same itinerary, 24 hours later. So we got some time for a walk around La Serena.
The view of our La Serena street corner
It’s actually been 5 or so years since we bothered to spend time in La Serena. La Recova is the same.
We remembered the La Recova fountain.
La Recova
We are now in Dallas. As we landed at 5 am this morning we were greated to notifications that our flight to Tucson was delayed 20 minutes. The delay has continued to grow.
The text messages received by Joseph in the span of a few hours
Our next major problem was that the first officer’s chair was broken. We were actually buckled in and ready to go, then they kicked us off to repair the chair. Deplaning number 1.
Here we are in an Airport restaraunt, after deplaning.
So. Next. We got on the plane, a little faster having rehearsed once. Everything looked good. Pushed back, taxied for a while, and then stopped. After sitting for a bit, the skipper got back on and started with “Well folks, I guess it’s one of those days . . .” Apparently a fuel gage problem, so we pulled back to a (different) gate.
And then the cops boarded the plane. Yeah.
So we aren’t home yet. We’re back in the terminal in DFW, waiting to board a different plane and try again. We are making lots of friends here in the refugee camp, and AA is giving out free food.
Refugee camp A21. The free pretzels made Laird unreasonably happy.
I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow. I’ll probably still be wearing the same clothes though.
Update:
I’ve been trying to make it home
Got to make it, before too long
Oh I can’t take this, very much longer…
We finally made it:
Your intrepid adventurers in Tucson at last, with luggage in hand.
I’ll admit that I expected my Uber to break down the whole way home.
As is tradition the PI will finish off the run with the last blog. This run marked our 7th year operating at LCO making great images and science. This run was no exception with great science delivered (despite the many clouds we encountered as winter is definitely coming). I’d like to thank all the LCO staff that did a great hosting us and I’d like to thank all the observers that came out to work with MagAO.
I’d like to show some great photos of the packing up process that was done in just one day (a new record).
Below is the ASM ready to be packed up and driven down to the clean room (where it will wait a year for us to come back — but we will come back).
ASM in Daylight
ASM coming off
Joseph fixes the stuck pin in the ASM cart
Jared and Joseph with th ASM — end of run!
Admin Edit:
Post failed to include a song of the day, please see 2018A Blog Rules.
Therefore the admin will choose a song of the day:
Proto3 has been detached from MagAO, and now MagAO is fully put away. Since this (northern hemisphere) fall will extremely busy with work on MagAO-X, it’ll be a whole year before we’re back here.
My check list for today:
Switch back to a day schedule all in one go
Take the last final exam for my first year of graduate school
Remove a 1000+ lb piece of scientific equipment from the top of a three-story tall machine
I’m happy to report that I accomplished all three, though it may be more accurate to say that I was a minor contributor to the last task. It takes a whole crew to remove the adaptive secondary mirror from the Magellan Clay telescope, and my main contribution was to help Laird keep all the various power, data, and coolant lines from getting away during the disconnect process. (Pink zip ties are the astronomer’s best friend.)
Since I was not operating a crane or lifting 80 lb load spreader bars by hand, I was able to document the process. Enjoy!
The author, looking like a member of The Village People, prior to ASM decabling.
To swap secondary mirrors, the telescope points parallel to the ground. There’s a crane that rotates as part of the dome which can very gently lift the ASM out and transfer it to a storage cart while the static secondary is in place.
Tomorrow, we leave LCO for La Serena (and Santiago and Dallas and Tucson, hopefully without issue). We’ll be back next year!
Last, but not least, here’s a song of the day about looking through the wrong end of a telescope.
(Lucius – Turn it Around)
And here’s a cover version I dug up by someone with cool hair:
