Category: MagAO-X

MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking Day -1: Almost There

Well we made it through customs, and are on a truck. We expect delivery of MagAO-X to LCO around 2 pm local time tomorrow afternoon.

Otherwise, it was all MagAO-C all the time.

I learned about the dome camera today. You can see Katie and Alex at the lower right, they’re working on Clio’s cables.
A cuddly looking vizcacha. They are almost tame this year.
If the drive goes smoothly tomorrow (which given recent luck, keep your fingers crossed), this is the last sunset at LCO without MagAO-X (for a while).

If you’ve ever been to an NBA game, you’ll recognize this song. If MagAO-X arrives safely, I plan to make Laird, Kyle, and Alex perform this dance to celebrate.

MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking Day -2 (-1?): Santiago!

MagAO-X arrived in Santiago yesterday! There’s even a chance that it gets to LCO tomorrow. My plan has been to call “Day 0” the day it actually arrives, so maybe we have to reset the blog counter.

Alex v2 and Kyle arrive today. Other than Jared and Laird worrying about it, no MagAO-X work was done today.

So here’s another sunset panorama.

This one is from the back deck of the lodge.

The goats are a new thing for us. We always see them on the drive, but only lower down. They poop everywhere.

The last several days of being unable to get any information about where our precious cargo was has been pretty maddening. It’s 2019 … almost 2020! One expects to not go 5 days without a status update. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I knew that it had officially arrived from our friends here hours before they updated their system.

The song of the day is Gaga’s Telephone. The blog standards committee won’t let me post the official one, so hopefully this works for you.

MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking Day -3 (estimated): Still Waiting

MagAO-X is probably in Santiago.  But the shipper isn’t updating their website, so . . .

We unpacked some stuff that we shipped down to help with MagAO-X, so it wasn’t all MagAO-C.

Unpacking counts as work on a project.
Hopefully this stuff has a reason for being here.
Some horses are hanging around the lodge.
Sunset panorama from the lodge from last night.

The MagAO-X song of the day is Alive, by Pearl Jam:

MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking Day -4 (estimated): Waiting

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.

MagAO-X gets taken for a ride

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)
  • 2019-10-25 — Held in Miami while the people of Chile demonstrate against inequality
  • 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).