MagAO-X 2022A Day 6: on the Sunset Antics of Astronomers and Vizcachas

My day started with a classic LCO breakfast.

A perfect way to start the day.

After that we ran up the hill and cabled our 2040 actuator MEMS DM. We got it on the first try! We are getting better at this procedure.

Sebastiaan and I cabling the tweeter. Photo by Joseph Long.
Sebastiaan is testing the actuator response to see if we got any cable wrong. We didn’t.

After that, we turned the cleanroom over to our Bubbled comrades. Laird and Justin put in a loooong day of aligning the optics. We sat up in the library and watched. It’s sort of like a medical procedure drama.

Laird and Justin working on MagAO-X.
At the end of the day we had a pretty nice PSF. Not perfect, but that’s why we have an AO system. Tomorrow we’ll clean this up with the DMs. That’s Laird at upper right.

We found this book in the library, which we might need if any REAL problems come up.

We don’t use FORTRAN
A panoramic view of LCO just before the sun dips below the horizon, with Dr. Justin Knight a bubble’s length away from the photographer.

After taking the above photo and circling around Justin, I started down the path to begin my walk up. Then I noticed a sliver of moon hanging over the valley. Then the following ensued:

Joseph got an up close and personal Vizcacha interaction.

It can take a second, but you’ll notice that Vizzy is looking into the library at Joseph.

The reference to bananas in the slack convo is to this blog post from the MagAO-Classic Age of Legends. We have a long history of shenanigans with the cleanroom vizcacha family.

The post-sunset show was extravagant tonight.

LCO, the Moon, and a plane.

Changing up the sound tonight for the song of the day. I think this is the best of the “new” Metallica, as good as the old classics.

Metallica: Moth Into Flame