2014A Day 7: Closed Loop

Today we went on sky and closed the loop! The first half of the night was cleaning up final guider problems, but then just before midnight we acquired our first AO setup star and were able to close the loop with an audience and everything! I’m glad we showed the GMT folk some good images before they had to leave. Jordan arrived safely today.

First we finished up the final touches — removing the ASM cover and mounting the wind monitor:

Povilas and Laird took off the protective cover of the ASM. It required the scissor lift and then some climbing.

This is what the Clay control room looks like during commissioning and engineering.

Then Alfio closed the loop and we had some beautiful 6.5-m diffraction-limited images!!

First closed loop of 2014A!

A brown dwarf companion imaged in thermal IR filters with Clio2 today

There was also some good wildlife today:

Jared took these gorgeous photos of a horse in the afternoon.

Vizzy has a special affinity for Jared, and she (Mizz Vizz) let him get really close to take these pix with his cell.

The song today is historic and fun:

Well, now we’re all on a night schedule — the run has begun!