Comm2 Day 3: NAS and CRO day – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

Today we installed the NAS (the metal ring that mounts to the telescope and holds all our instruments) and the CRO (the calibration return optic, for internal alignment and calibration). We also said goodbye to Tyson — thanks for everything! It was a long day and I’m tired so this will have to be quick, even though lots of fun stuff happened.

First the NAS was installed.

optics is a French sport — Povilas collimating the telescope before the NAS was put on.

Mission Impossible? — Here comes the NAS, up from the basement of the dome.

Then we needed to create a new fiducial for the CRO so that we could align our internal light source along the optical axis. It was a fun exercise by me, Marco, Alfio, and Vanessa, and it reminded me of the Inquiry labs I did in the Professional Development Program when I was a grad student.

Great job, everyone! — Coming up with a procedure and then implementing it to create a new alignment fiducial on the back of the CRO.

Yay! — The final result of the new fiducial on the CRO.

was pretty fun — Laird and I putting some more tape on the CRO fiducial.

thanks — Juan and Laird going up in the scissor lift to install the CRO (that I’m handing to Laird)

Quotes:
“Here, try it — shine a light in your eye!” — Laird

“I know I don’t like it just from looking at it.” — Laird

Laird: “This is a little unexpected.”
Povilas: “If it’s unexpected, that’s your fault.”