MagAO-eXtreme Posts

First sighting of a large water body since early March. Like any triumphant victory, the champions must eventually turn homeward. After an amazing few weeks of scientific discoveries, engineering miracles, and accidental binary friends, we packed up our many multi-terabyte hardrives and headed down all 8000 ft back down on our way home. The pine ...

Offloading is a major, but sometimes under-appreciated, part of an AO system. It makes sense when you really think about what we’re doing. The moving part of the Magellan Clay Telescope weighs more than 100 tons (I don’t know the exact number, but that is the OOM that has stuck in my head ...

Tonight was an oddball: we were off the telescope for another observer for the first half, then came up at 1:30 for the second half, which was solely Sebastiaan on VIS-X, our spectrograph. So we had half a Haffert night. Various angles of Sebastiaan squinting at spectra It also the last night of the ...

Today was our second to last night and our last engineering night. We all woke up (or went to bed) with a happy surprise because today was Easter. We all got some chocolates and some unknown piece of candy. The bag of candy that everyone got. The interesting textured candy that is not chocolate. The night itself went ...

Another day of observing for the MagAO-X Team at LCO. Even though the inmensity of the Pacific Ocean is not observed from Las Campanas, as the sun sets over the west the twin Magellan Telescopes get ready for a new night of work. As always the local fauna provide their company to the daily(nightly) routines of ...

Well, it’s nearly time to add another MagAO-X night under our belt and be greeted by the calls of the exceedingly uncommon black-billed shrike-tyrant (identified by Prof. Close!) from atop the lodge. I won’t be able to top the wonderful post by our skilled telescope operator, but the show must go on. The Magellan Clay ...

After a long time, MagAO-X has arrived at Las Campanas, bringing the full team and others partners. It is a crowd that keep you alert all night long.  This past Summer 2024 we were visited by several “friends” coming from the valley and also from high mountains. Apart from burros, vizcachas, we had “crias de cóndor ...

It appears precedent has been set by An astronomer’s guide to Valparaíso and Bonus Feature: Santiago de Chile. So here is the chronicle of Katie’s and my traipse through La Serena, Chile on our way back to Tucson. First and foremost we hit the beach! Just like California on the other side of the equator, the ...

Around sunset, two of our finest graduate student AO operators took time lapses of the dome opening. Jay covered the inside of the dome, providing us with a view of the primary mirror cover opening. Eden on the other hand, set her phone on the tripod outside the dome and managed to get a video ...

Every MagAO-X morning begins with a hearty breakfast. Jialin and Logan enjoying their pigs in a duvet. Jialin constructs a finderscope. Jay constructs a breakfast hot dog. Sebastiaan makes an interesting face. Following a scrumptious meal and a full night of observing, I entered hibernation. … … Zzzzzzzzzzzz While I was in my state of low activity, the other group members observed a ...