MagAO-X 2019B Day 12: The End

Well it has been a long, exciting, and successful run for MagAO-X first light, but now it is time to say goodbye to LCO (until next time). We successfully closed the loop on-sky with MagAO-X and took plenty of data to take home with us, and now we are all packed and ready to ship MagAO-X back home! We expect MagAO-X to arrive in Tucson by January, so we will have a few months to work on the instrument before we return to LCO in May 2020.

Today, we finished boxing up MagAO-X and the electronics rack. We cleaned and organized the clean room and made sure all of our MagAO-X tools and equipment were stored safely, and then we were done! We finished just in time for a nice, relaxing dinner and now we only have our clothes to pack. Here are some pictures from today:

MagAO-X was moved onto a wooden pallet for shipping support.
Juan took a big hammer to the pallet to shim it to the center of the MagAO-X box.
The MagAO-X box lifted by the fork lift.
MagAO-X is ready for pickup!

After lunch, we spotted a family of guanacos! There seemed to be a mother, father, and two children in the family. I was quite pleased to see guanacos two days in a row after not seeing them the entire time I’ve been in Chile.

The suspected “dad” of the guanaco family.
The rest of the guanaco family (mother and children?).

We headed up the hill after lunch to pack up the electronic rack.

Juan and the mechanics lifting the electronics rack shipping box.
The shipping box lifted up.
The front cover removed.
The top cover removed.
The electronics rack being inserted into its shipping box.
The front and top panels were bolted on.
The box was laid down.
The fork lift was used to place the electronics rack next to MagAO-X
They are ready to go!

We were glad to finally see the instrument safely packed up and ready to go. The mechanics did a great job, so thanks to them!

We finished cleaning up the clean room and put all of our stuff away. Now the clean room looks super clean!

Now we are ready to go home. It’s been a great run LCO, we will miss you (the food). But no matter where we go, there is almost no place like home for the holidays.