MagAO-C – Page 59 – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

Summary of MagAO’s first Science Run

From April 5 to April 21 we were helping other folks use MagAO. It took the work of a large team of excellent folks to make all this happen. In particular, we had the expert help of TJ Rodigas, Katie Morzinski and Vanessa Bailey who all looked after Clio with expert hands. Jared’s VisAO camera was also helped out by Ya-Lin Wu, and Kate Follette. The MagAO software became much more stable after the engineering period at the start — thanks to the hard work of Alfio Puglisi and Jared Males. The AO system was run by Katie and Jared and myself (running the AO system was pretty easy by the end of the run — so easy the PI could do it).

We also benefited from excellent support from the Magellan mountain staff. Juan Gallardo and his team expertly helped install (and uninstall) the adaptive secondary mirror, the NAS, and Clio (while also doing the same for the f/5 and the f/11 secondary!). Povilas Palunas did a great job of getting the f/16 guider running smoothly.

Also I’d like to thank all the excellent observers that submitted proposals to use MagAO and especially those that came down to visit us at Clay. These were our visiting astronomers: Jorden Stone (U. Arizona), Brett Addison (and Graeme Salter remote; UNSW Australia) , Alycia Weinberger, (Carnegie) Timothy Rodigas (Carnegie) Kate Follette (U. Arizona), Jared Males (U. Arizona), Subo Dong (PKU, China), Sebastian Perez (U. Chile), Francois Menard (U. Chile), Amanda Bosh (MIT), Stephen Levine (Lowell), Jennifer Yee (Harvard) and John Monnier (U. Michigan; remote) . Thanks to all for making this such a scientifically productive (and enjoyable) run!

Here is a summary of the run from the results of the Run reports that are filed at the end of each run. Overall I’m really happy with how well MagAO worked (especially after the first week) with very little “down-time”.

not bad — Here is the amount of down-time from MagAO/Clio/VisAO during the whole science run

The Reviews Are In

Here are the reviews of how users felt the support from the MagAO team was for AO operations (1 is the lowest and 5 is “well above acceptable” and the highest rating possible):

We are loved — Here is the nightly rating of the support provided for MagAO

Also here is the rating of how well users felt MagAO/VisAO/Clio performed:

"It worked better than I thought it would" — Rating for each night of the MagAO Performance

So it looks like MagAO/VisAO/Clio did very well this run. Of course, it was the nightly support from Jared and Katie that helped make all this really happen. So here is a photo of them finally getting off the mountain after a month!

2014A Day 30: Send Me On My Way

We’ve departed the mountain. Thanks for hosting our first full science run, LCO, and we’ll see you next time.

at dawn. We were in a hurry to get some cerveza in La Serena. — Our transport awaits

Send me on my way — Our driver loads up the transport

It's a pretty place — Sunrise as we’re leaving

Till next time — Goodbye to Clay and Baade

Don't be offended, but we're happy to be leaving. See you soon though. — Saying goodbye to the observatory

We'll be home soon — The Pan American Highway

2014A Day 29: All Packed Up

We packed everything up and left the mountain, and now I’ve gotten enough sleep I’m finally awake enough to post some pictures for you.

The crew spent most of the day putting MegaCam on the telescope, which uses the F/5 they put on the day before. It’s a big job, being one of the biggest and heaviest instruments.

It's big and heavy — Victor and Francesco lift MegaCam up through the floor

And all it does is lift MegaCam up and down. — MegaCam and Cartzilla. Cartzilla is so big and heavy they have to take down a post to fit it through the door, and it has to drive on tracks so it doesn’t fall through the floor.

Then they had some time to squeeze in taking Clio2 and the MagAO NAS off the telescope before supper.

while the rest of us look on — Felix prepares to take Clio2 off the NAS

Thanks for your hard work guys! — Felix, Juan, and the crew prepare to lift the NAS off the telescope. They worked very hard that day to get it all done before supper.

Nice hard hat — Jared secures the NAS on its cart

We parked them in the Aux.

Earlier in the day, Laird and I accompanied the ASM down to the Clean room.

I wanted a nap in the sun too — Baby Vizzy flopped out in the sun after being terrified out of his wits from the loud diesel Isuzu that brought the ASM down to the clean room

We had a final dinner, then packed up to leave.

Our last dinner -- stuffed zucchinis — Our last dinner — stuffed zucchinis and

Song of the day: Zumba version

Song of the day: Electric Slide version

2014A…28 Days Later: No Led in Our Zeppelin

Today Laird got up at 8am while Jared and I went to bed after our Last Star last night. Laird and the crew took down the ASM, then Laird and Jared de-cabled the NAS and I de-cabled Clio with their help. Here are some pictures:

Shiny — Jared peering through the optics

Its so loud it shakes your organs — Turning off the Clio pump in the scary loud pump room

That's me in my ND sweatshirt — The tunnel by the scary loud pump room.

Why did it have to be snakes? — Jared feeds the anaconda through to Laird, who catches it in the snake pit below

I hate snakes! — Laird in the snake pit. Left: the view from beneath the NAS. Right: The view through the hole from on the NAS platform.

All uncabled! — Jared and Laird posing by the NAS

Laird wishes he could show you how he really feels — Jared shows us how he really feels

Actuating? — Povilas works on the M1 mirror.

Also it wasn't our breakfast any more! — Tonight’s dinner was delicious – stuffed tomatoes, sliced potatoes, and salmon with a cream/shrimp sauce

Grumpy, Mizz Vizz, and Baby Vizzy — It was a rare 3-vizcacha day at the clean room today.

The song of the day is inspired by the film 28 Days Later. We hope when we get back to Tucson, it isn’t a post-apocalyptic wasteland with everyone crazy party-rocking and/or our loved ones turned into zombies. Still, should the need arise, we are ready to party rock.

2014A Day 27: Last Star

We have observed our last target star of the 2014A run. It was another great night, with half arcsecond seeing almost the whole way.

no clouds — Just after sunset from the catwalk.

We now have 2 days of packing and storing and inventory to do, and then we start the long journey home. Laird and Katie got started as soon as the dome closed.

lowering vacuum — Laird and Katie (behind him holding the light) started the Clio warm up this morning.

We have to spend some time saying goodbye to all of our friends. We won’t see them for 6 months!

almost tame — A vizzy hanging out waiting for sunset

And we need to spend some time actually looking at the night sky, it’s so beautiful here.

not airplanes — Yuri Beletsky has once again supplied us with an amazing photo. He took this two nights ago while we were observing.

We spent a lot of time on this run trying to mitigate the effects of diffraction. So check out the wave nature of these guitar strings: