MagAO-eXtreme Posts

Greetings from the downstairs lounge, where you can see exactly as many stars as upstairs. That’s right: it’s another cloudy evening here at Las Campanas Observatory, but one ray of bright starshine has broken through: Dr. Alycia Weinberger! She had to spend a night in Miami, and another night in Santiago, but she has finally ...

Like that classic painting, LCO took on some majesty and wonder today as the valley filled with clouds to compliment the cloud-covered skies. Ominous It creeps up the mountain Which gave way to another great sunset Which gave way to another set of sad astronomers. Jay was eager to hit his disk target right away, but clouds are ...

For the first time ever, an adaptive optics system at Las Campanas Observatory was installed without the guidance of Professor Laird Close! Laird is back in Tucson supporting his daughter at her high school graduation (congrats Annabel!) This means I got to fill in for my advisor as optomechanical lead on MagAO-X, and align the ...

As the first observation night rapidly approaches, it was time to truck MagAO-X up the hill to the observatory. But first, Joseph furiously tried to solve the software woes and the rest of the crew suited up to decable MagAO-X. Joseph had a long night solving software issues, but remained resolute in the morning. All suited up ...

We made it! Some of us (one of us) lucked into the customs fastpast lane. The traditional Starbucks renaming: Jren – Eden, Josh – Logan, Maggie – Maggie Guess who’s made it to Chile? Everyone else! You know it’s almost time to put the instrument on the telescope because the brawn has arrived en masse. We were luckier ...

It’s cold. But, at least it isn’t windy anymore. A good omen has revealed itself this night and it’s that the domes are actually open at sunset. Good night, sunshine. Orion says hello! In terms of flashy #blontent, today was pretty sparse. But this is perhaps ideal for lab calibration days! For instance, yesterday was ripe ...

How windy is it? This Windy When the door to the Babcock lodge is held open by wind blowing through, you know the domes aren’t open. (that’s a day time pic, but you know what I mean) Luckily Jay and I were snug in the cleanroom almost all day, getting MagAO-X setup for some alignment and calibration ...

“You’re back again, so soon…!” Said Hernan as we passed by him walking to the MagAO storage crate to retrieve some steel toe boots for tomorrow. Here’s a quick play-by-play of travel and arrival day for the first wave of the 2024Ab crew: The traditional pre-flight “Lizzie’s Luggage” at TUS. Left: Sad-which from 2024Aa Right: Good-which ...

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 ...