MagAO-C 2015B

  • 2015B Summary

    2015-12-23

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Summary
    We made it back home! The strike ended the day we flew out so we didn’t end up riding the bus from La Serena to Santiago, but thanks to Nelda for arranging that so that we were sure to get there either way. And thanks to Juan Gallardo and the rest of the ...
  • 2015B Día 34: Última noche en LCO.

    2015-12-21

    Hernán Núñez

    2015B Día 34: Última noche en LCO.
    He revisado las Reglas del Blog y nada dice sobre el idioma que debe utilizarse. Por eso, lo haré en español, una licencia para el último día del equipo MagAO en el Observatorio Las Campanas. Aún no se sabe si viajarán a Santiago en bus o avión, la huelga terminó esta tarde. Durante las 33 noches de ...
  • 2015B Day 33: Wrapping it up, and a few animals.

    2015-12-20

    Brian McLeod

    2015B Day 33: Wrapping it up, and a few animals.
    Greetings from the 3rd and final night of the GMT phasing experiment, and also the final night of the 2015B AO run!   We are in the process of designing a sensor that will be used to phase the segments of the Giant Magellan Telescope.  The GMT will have  seven 8.4m diameter primary mirrors and ...
  • 2015B Day 32 Part 2: Hi, I’m New Here

    2015-12-19

    Dan Catropa

    2015B Day 32 Part 2: Hi, I'm New Here
      It is a thrill to be here at LCO and in particular at the Magellan Clay. Being that it is my first time visiting a major ground based telescope facility nearly every experience is a new one for me, from the endless mountain vistas, to the occasionally spotted wildlife, to the sheer size and complexity ...
  • 2015B Day 32: My new toy

    2015-12-19

    Ken McCracken

    2015B Day 32: My new toy
    I am Ken McCracken the mechanical engineer on the AGWS project.  I have been to LCO about ten times since 2008 primarily to support the MMIRS instrument. Other than the 24 hours of travel time it takes to get here I can’t think of a better place to work given the exceptional facility and accommodating ...
  • 2015B Day 31: My first experience

    2015-12-18

    Alan Conder

    2015B Day 31: My first experience
    My name is Alan Conder.  I work at GMTO and this is my first trip to Magellan; in fact, this is my first trip to any observatory. I came to Magellan to participate with the team from SAO to field the GMT prototype phasing camera.   In addition, I arrived a week early to test a new ...
  • 2015B Day 30: Labor Rights

    2015-12-17

    Alycia Weinberger

    2015B Day 30: Labor Rights
    Labor rights in Chile come up quite a bit at the Observatory. At Magellan, we usually have three telescope operators between the two telescopes so that they can switch off and thereby not work too more than 11.25 hours continuously. This week, Jorge is stuck with us all night though because Mauricio is on vacation. ...
  • 2015B Day 29: Home Stretch

    2015-12-16

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 29: Home Stretch
    We might make it. Alycia has one night left, and our next and last observer arrived today (get ready for something different — more to come). The winds were finally a bit calmer tonight, and seeing was bouncing off 0.5″ for a while — but we still ended up with some clouds after midnight. ...
  • 2015B Day 28: Final Countdown

    2015-12-15

    Angelica Leon

    2015B Day 28: Final Countdown
    Well, dear AO team, you finally entered to the final countdown, there are less than 10 days to leave “Las Campanas Observatory” just on time for Christmas, I guess. I really hope that all the science you obtained, be the source of great discoveries, that will make your team proud, and also all of the ones ...
  • 2015B Day 27: No Meteorological Miracle

    2015-12-14

    Alycia Weinberger

    2015B Day 27: No Meteorological Miracle
    One of the downsides of observational astronomy is the lack of control we have over our experiments. It’s just annoying that we can’t re-create star and planet formation in our laboratories and observe the evolution of planetary systems over billions of years. And then on top of that, we have to deal with the epitomy ...
  • 2015B Day 26: Deepest Bluest

    2015-12-13

    Kate Rubin

    2015B Day 26: Deepest Bluest
    Hello Everyone, Having just finished up three nights over in Baade, the MagAO team has very hospitably welcomed me (Kate R.) as their guest tonight.  As you may have heard, last night didn’t go so well, giving Katie and me the opportunity to poke around in the Baade dome at 1am:   Fortunately, today the clouds have slowly ...
  • 2015B Day 25: Bah Humbug

    2015-12-12

    Kate Follette

    2015B Day 25: Bah Humbug
    I’m glad to not have to come up with anything terribly clever to say tonight, since Jared and Katie already gave away the 2015B blog award (deservedly, to Amali Vaz). Here is why I’m having my own private pity party right now… and a zoom in on the wind data… My two nights are up, and unfortunately ...
  • 2015B Day 24: From Alberto

    2015-12-11

    Vizzy Viscacha

    2015B Day 24: From Alberto
    Things are going well this week and the weather is ok. Waiting for the new star wars movie, here we go!!! The song of the day, speaking of Jukebox Heroes and Blockbuster movies: Hero by Chad Kroeger: And a picture of myself for Alberto:
  • 2015B Day 23: Ain’t Never Gonna Stop

    2015-12-10

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 23: Ain't Never Gonna Stop
    Except when corrupt databases and/or fiber communication problems force us to do a hard reboot of the whole system, and there’s not enough time before sunrise to make it worth bringing it all back up again. Then we stop, even with stars in our eyes. In keeping with tonight’s outrageous claims on astro-ph, we observed ...
  • 2015B Day 22: Holes worn through

    2015-12-09

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 22: Holes worn through
    Day 22, Kim is helping a lot, Kate R. arrived today, Kate F. arrives tomorrow, astigmatism is fixed, MagAO is well. Things with holes worn through: Dawn run yesterday: Sunrise today: Yesterday’s song of the day was by Dawid Podsiadlo from Poland. Today’s song of the day is by another overseas David, Davido Adedeji Adeleke from Nigeria:
  • 2015B Day 21: Surprise Surprise

    2015-12-08

    Kim Ward-Duong

    2015B Day 21: Surprise Surprise
    While it is Day 21 of operations for the MagAO team, it’s only Night 2 of MagAO observing for me! But it is my Night 9 of observing in total: I just finished a seven-night run with the Gemini Planet Imager and mountain-hopped over from Cerro Pachón to Las Campanas on Sunday to join Katie, ...
  • 2015B Day 20: Still Here

    2015-12-07

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 20: Still Here
    I’ve been here for more than 3 weeks. 2 more to go. This time we have actual Danzig, singing to the various mothers.
  • 2015B Day 19: Vanessa was here?

    2015-12-06

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 19: Vanessa was here?
    Last night we lost ~5 hours to the X-stage problem. Tonight we lost about an hour (of perfect weather and amazing seeing) due to the BCUs locking up and the shell doing that thing where it panics. Yet we still squeezed in some good data for our own projects. Was Vanessa Bailey ...
  • 2015B Day 18: #LifeOnMagAO

    2015-12-05

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 18: #LifeOnMagAO
    We seem to have more problems on *our* nights than on any others. I guess that’s a great customer service policy, but we’re really in this to do our own science. So, the X stage is dead (again) and it says “Morzinski” on the schedule. We spent the first half of the ...
  • 2015B Day 17: #LifeAtLCO

    2015-12-04

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 17: #LifeAtLCO
    Jackie and the DTM Tweeps have been putting up signs about Tweeting #LifeAtLCO. We are closed due to crappy clouds here at Magellan. So we had a little coffee party and chatted. #lifeatlco pic.twitter.com/0sc08dAcMU — Jackie Faherty (@jfaherty) November 24, 2015 MagAO doesn’t Tweet (yet) but today it’s time for a ...
  • 2015B Day 16: We had . . . get this . . .clouds tonight

    2015-12-03

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 16: We had . . . get this . . .clouds tonight
    Sigh. And also, our X stage started doing that thing again tonight. Laird, we may have to have one of our wonderful cable routing bonding sessions. You know, the kind where I hold the flashlight for 5 hours while you talk to yourself with your head inside the instrument. I can’t ...
  • 2015B Day 15: Back to clouds

    2015-12-02

    TJ Rodigas

    2015B Day 15: Back to clouds
    We had a solid run of 2 nights with good weather and incredible seeing. Sadly, that run is over. Tonight the clouds came rolling in around midnight and didn’t let up. Before they came in, the wind picked up and forced us to point at a very southern star. While we were taking data, we noticed ...
  • 2015B Day 14: Clear Skies

    2015-12-01

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 14: Clear Skies
    After that horrible beginning, we’ve now had a solid run of clear calm skies. Almost relaxing. This is Day 14, and it’s also blog post #360. Did we come back around yet? Last night we had some fun with a surprise binary. This is at H-alpha: One of the clean room Vizcachas ...
  • 2015B Day 13: Amali wins the blog

    2015-11-30

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 13: Amali wins the blog
    Well, we hope you enjoyed yesterday’s blog post as much as we did! Amali’s clever and amusing artistry prompted us to develop the first-ever MagAO blog prize, and a new category of Award Winning Posts (at right). Here we present the 2015B MagAO Blog Award to Amali Vaz for her creation entitled A ...
  • 2015B Day 12: A Post That Cannot Words

    2015-11-29

    Amali Vaz

    2015B Day 12: A Post That Cannot Words
    Dear Gentle Readers: My name is Amali and I come from the LBTI and while I am superlative in many ways, generating coherent sentences from real words is not one of them. However! Katie (after, perhaps, too many nights of my not-sentences) says I am allowed to just blog pictures and diagrams, so, here, CHECK OUT ...
  • 2015B Day 11: Exposing the MagAO Team’s Lies

    2015-11-28

    Ben Montet

    2015B Day 11: Exposing the MagAO Team's Lies
    Regular readers of this blog have been hearing claims this entire run that the weather has been suboptimal and that the poor team has barely been able to take any data. I’m pretty sure this is just laziness on their part, because I’ve barely seen a cloud over the two nights I’ve been here: Tonight the ...
  • 2015B Day 10: !Feliz Gracias!

    2015-11-27

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 10: !Feliz Gracias!
    We give thanks for the stars coming out and the wind dropping down a bit, enough to get Trapezium in the North: And my first Thanksgiving dinner was a few weeks ago when my folks were visiting: Thankful astronomers: I really hope all those papi’s let JLo go:
  • 2015B Day 9: Only Partly Cloudy

    2015-11-26

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 9: Only Partly Cloudy
    Now that our engineering time is over — without us getting to do any engineering — it of course was a fairly clear night. Still some clouds blowing around, but the kind we can burn through with a 6.5 m telescope. Since we haven’t had much time to shake down MagAO, our first group ...
  • 2015B Day 8: Clouds Say Hey

    2015-11-25

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 8: Clouds Say Hey
    Well another night like last night. Amali got here today and she started up AO and also learned how to operate Clio. And then we sat here like this: And this: Sadly this means we didn’t get much of our engineering done. Oh El Nino… Another song dancing in the streets: This one to cheer ...
  • 2015B Day 7: Did You Hear About The Clouds?

    2015-11-24

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 7: Did You Hear About The Clouds?
    Open for less than 1/2 an hour tonight. I can’t work like this. Since we had a flash mob last night, here’s a song about people dancing in the streets. It also describes our cloud problem.
  • 2015B Day 6: Arizona Engineering Clouds

    2015-11-23

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 6: Arizona Engineering Clouds
    Today was our first night of Arizona engineering. We have a lot of calibrations to do, with all of our modes, but sadly it was cloudy and windy out of the North. I hear it’s because of El Nino. Sunset: These pictures are all from the past week or so. Which one is Tucson ...
  • 2015B Day 5: Clio Shows Up

    2015-11-22

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 5: Clio Shows Up
    We have reached 100% MagAO for 2015B. If you visit LCO you’ll notice that many, if not most, of the car doors have bird droppings all over them just behind the mirrors. This video shows you why — some of the birds have discovered that other birds live inside the mirrors, and spend most of ...
  • 2015B Day 4: The Loop Has Closed

    2015-11-21

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 4: The Loop Has Closed
    For the first time in MagAO’s history we closed the loop on our first night. It usually takes too long during the day to get everything done. We didn’t get Clio bolted on, but we were able to close the loop with the “dummy dichroic”. Following last night’s song, which was a Gaga Parody, ...
  • 2015B Day 3: MagAO 2 GMT

    2015-11-20

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 3: MagAO 2 GMT
    Clio is cold, thanks to Mauricio Navarette’s help with the liquid nitrogen. He brought a longer hose, showed me how to clear out the warm air before pumping it in, and filled Clio when ever he could today. Jared and I went for a ride in the new Clay car with Michigan grad students Jeb ...
  • 2015B Day 2: Computing Computers Compute

    2015-11-19

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Day 2: Computing Computers Compute
    Based on the issues Jared has been having with the Adsec Supervisor harddrives, we decided to test booting off the Clio harddrive spare that Vanessa and I made a few runs back. Laird and I supervised the crew moving the ASM to the top. Mauricio and I began pumping down Clio. And ...
  • 2015B Day 1: Cloudy Days

    2015-11-18

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 1: Cloudy Days
    It’s been really cloudy the last 48 hours. There have been no vizcachas at the clean room. I found a couple on the north side of the telescope this morning though. The clouds were still around after sunset. Laird and Katie made it! Laird lost some luggage, and they’re both tired after a hectic trip, but ...
  • 2015B Day 0: Configuration

    2015-11-17

    Jared Males

    2015B Day 0: Configuration
    I spent my whole day working on computers — hard drive partitions and RAIDs and RAM. So I don’t have much to talk about. There is a new power line going in just west of the road to the 100 inch. I’m not sure, but my best guess is that it has something to ...
  • 2015B Day -1: Back On The Hill

    2015-11-16

    Jared Males

    2015B Day -1: Back On The Hill
    We’re back. Actually I’ve been back since yesterday, but after a long stressful trip with lots of delays and lost luggage I didn’t get around to a post yesterday. All of our stuff turned on and is working great. I did find a failed hard disk, but the RAID is already synched. Our new ...
  • 2015B Blog Rules

    2015-11-14

    Katie Morzinski

    2015B Blog Rules
    2015B is upon us. I’m getting ready to leave in a couple days. My parents drove down from NM for a visit since I won’t be seeing them at any of the upcoming holidays. We hiked to the top of Blackett’s Ridge — a 1700-foot elevation gain — and it was a ...