MagAO-X – Page 68 – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking Day 1: The Unpackening

So it’s finally time to write my first blog post! My name is Alex Hedglen and I’m a 3rd year Optical Sciences PhD student at the University of Arizona! I’ve been involved with MagAO-X for the past couple of years, mainly helping Laird with the optomechanical design and alignment of the instrument. My first year project was to design a compact K-mirror (A.K.A. “derotator”) for MagAO-X, which you may see a blog post for in the future!

This is my first time here at LCO, and so far I am loving it. Clear skies every day, mountains as far as the eye can see, telescopes, amazing food, and fellow astronomers to geek out with…you really could not find a better place to do astronomy. It’s “astronomy wonderland” up here.

Today we unpacked MagAO-X, and it went very well. All that engineering and planning really came into effect today. We started the day with a group meeting at 9:00am, with PI Jared Males going over the unpacking procedures for the day.

A nice way to start the day — PI Jared Males going over the unpacking procedures with the LCO mechanics.

The first step of the day was to unpack the electronics rack, which we brought inside the unpacking room yesterday. Immediately after we started lifting the box, the crane broke down! But luckily the LCO mechanics fixed it within the hour, so we were right back on track.

Craney business — The electronics rack was left in this position when the crane broke!

LCO mechanics don't fuss around — The electronics rack was successfully lifted upright after the crane was fixed!

hello electronics rack. Hooray! — LCO mechanics removing the electronics rack from the box.

Happy PI — PI Jared Males is happy to see his electronics arrive safely to LCO.

Welcome to LCO electronics rack! — Electronics rack stored safely in the clean room to give space for MagAO-X.

Once the electronics rack was safely unpacked, it was time to bring in MagAO-X! The instrument was left outside overnight, so once the electronics rack was out of the way, MagAO-X was brought inside.

Here comes the big boy — MagAO-X entering the unpacking room.

Nice job guys! — The front box panel was unmounted first.

PI gettin' those hands dirty — The MagAO-X cart was assembled around the instrument.

balancing technique — The cart was used to lift the instrument off of the wire-rope-isolators.

Laird patiently waiting — The legs were rolled under MagAO-X.

MagAO-X was placed onto the legs.
We used Laird’s guide pin invention to align MagAO-X to the legs

PI and his old mentor workin' together <3 — The cart was disassembled and taken away from MagAO-X.

MagAO-X was brought into the clean room!
Saran wrap cut off

Took you a while! — Welcome to LCO MagAO-X!

With MagAO-X unpacked by 5:00pm and no optical damage noticed, everyone is feeling pretty good. PI Jared Males will sleep well tonight! Tomorrow we will start getting MagAO-X up to speed. Kyle and Jared will work on the electronics while Laird and I work on the optomechanics.

Thank you shipping crates for carrying MagAO-X safely. You are so good. — Another beautiful sunset with the MagAO-X shipping crates.

Goodnight kangaroo-rabbit-squirrel — Viscacha also watching the sunset.

Since the song of the day has to relate to the previous blog post’s song of the day, we’re gonna hit it one more time with Britney Spears:

MagAO-X 2019B Unpacking Day 0: The Arrival

MagAO-X is now at Las Campanas Observatory! The truck finally made it up the hill at about 3 pm, and we got all of our boxes safely off.

if you have to point out your detection it's low S/N — The truck appears!

blue is our wavelength preference — This is an “air ride” truck. Look at all of our stuff!

soon — MagAO-X with ultimate destination in view.

should have done a before and after grey count — The big box coming off — I was pretty nervous during this step…

Things are pretty busy, with MagAO-C and now MagAO-X unpacking. There are lots more cool pictures, but not enough time to post them.

vizzy with a view — I spotted a viscacha hanging out on the ASB upper level.

I am bound by the blog rules to give you Brass Monkey, by The Beastie Boys.

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.

spy cam — I learned about the dome camera today. You can see Katie and Alex at the lower right, they’re working on Clio’s cables.

no snuggles — A cuddly looking vizcacha. They are almost tame this year.

never the same again — 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.

from outside the rail — 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.