We’re on our way home, leaving behind a fixed, upgraded, and working MagAO-X. Ready to go for 2024B.
A Goodbye
While we were there they had just finished stripping parts from the famous “NAS” from the venerable MagAO. They loaded it up to take it down the hill to the bodega, where it will be taken apart and scrapped.
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Thanks for all the memories.
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A See You Later
Been seeing this flashback inducing metro-blue forecast for a couple days:

And it was rolling in as we loaded up the van:
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But MagAO-X is safe in the cleanroom, waiting its next shot at the telescope.
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Mysteries For Next Time
The current drama (for us, anyway) is that they have (again) done away with the agua con gas. It does produce a lot of plastic waste, but it was maybe the most discussed amenity by members of the MagAO-X traveling circus.
It appears that the solution is these “soda guns”. But none of use were brave enough to try them out. So next time then.
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The other mystery involves the goat herd that was roaming, and shitting, all over the mountain. First, a reminder that goats are cute
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So either the goats have a dog, or this dog has goats.
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Now we have questions about this dog’s life.
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So here’s the question: how does the dog stay alive? We hear that maybe there is a camp nearby. But how does it work? Does the dog herd the goats there once a day? Or does the dog have to wait until the goats decide to go back? Is there a signal?
Walk, not Run
It was a gorgeous day in Santiago. Jay and I took our time and just walked from place to place. It’s the little things.
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The succulent wall was as stunning as ever — it always looks extra special when the sun is out.
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Lab Rules
For the last god damn time, bring a god damn flashlight when you go to an observatory. We work in the dark. It’s what we do. Your cell phone does not count. When everyone has to share the PI’s flashlight . . .
And a new one. And it’s kind of a big deal, because in over a decade we’ve never had a rule about the blog rules other than whoever posts the first post of a run gets to set them. But from now on, your rules must not set a limit on the number of days in the run. In hind sight it’s just a classic Murphy’s Law blunder. (TBC, I liked these rules, it was fun to look up songs by decades — I was surprised by where a few landed. I just didn’t think about the ramifications until the day we started rescheduling flights and I remembered the ? in the rules . . .)
So here’s a song from the 2020’s. Hoping our last flight to Tuscon goes through because if it doesn’t I don’t know what we’ll do — other than blame the blog rules.