The past few weeks have been full of exciting firsts* for me: first trip to South America, first real Spanish conversations, first taste of mote con huesillos, and especially exciting — first time observing at Magellan, and first time using MagAO!
*Unfortunately, there’s not been a first sighting of the famed viscachas — or any other high desert mammals, apart from astronomers and observatory staff! — but I don’t leave Las Campanas until this afternoon, so perhaps there is more time…
![Clay](/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-2014-11-19-at-9.01.59-AM.png)
![A splendid afternoon view looking back toward the lodge, taken during the daily jaunt up the hill.](/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/10807036_10204188057354432_523662430_n.jpg)
I’m a graduate student at Arizona State, but am on a fellowship in Santiago until the end of January, so I was fortunate to arrive a couple days in advance of my run to learn the ropes and help Katie and Jared on their marathon MagAO run (so I had the lovely opportunity to overlap with Kate and Jordan too!) It was great fun training to operate Clio and learning about the AO system and VisAO.
![Of course, I had to say hello in person!](/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-2014-11-19-at-9.32.07-AM.png)
In terms of last night and tonight, everything went incredibly well — better than I could have expected! We had literally the best seeing I’ve ever encountered, anywhere. That number in the left upper corner is, indeed, 0.34 arcseconds:
![Jared: "It's criminal how good this seeing is!"](/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/unnamed5.jpg)
These fantastic conditions, coupled with a well-behaving AO system, meant that we powered through all my science targets for a whopping 38 targets — 22 of which were observed tonight! It seems this may be a record of some sort.
Slewing to lots of targets provided many opportunities to refine the sweet-spot landing between acquiring a star from the telescope with MagAO and placing it on Clio, and Jared and Katie worked on that in addition to running AO and VisAO while I was at the helm for Clio. Our quick observing cadence also meant little time for breaks during integrations, but I snuck outside to try some nighttime photos (difficult without a tripod!):
![cap](/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-2014-11-19-at-8.54.49-AM.png)
Even at the end of a busy night, some late RA targets also meant observing well into (nearly beyond?) the morning twilight. Let no photon go unmeasured! Here is what it looked like immediately after I was finished observing this morning:
I can’t believe how quickly these past few nights went by! I am sad to depart the excellent company of Katie and Jared, who are the most stalwart endurance observers I’ve ever met. They do an incredible job of keeping MagAO a well-oiled machine! I am so looking forward to coming back and observing, and helping out with future runs.
![Katie and Jared follow their well-worn path back to a full day's sleep.](/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/10751604_10204188054354357_277476004_n.jpg)
![Every sunrise was breathtaking.](/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-2014-11-19-at-9.49.00-AM.png)
Finally, given the fact we finished at 6:17 am, I can think of no more appropriate song than this:
Until next time!
– Kim