I intended to write a beautiful entry in the blog someday but Joseph intercepted me emerging upstairs to the control room and decided that I could start writing at 3 am, in our shift of 24 hours on a row, so let me invite you to enjoy my tiredness. Hello everyone 🙂 You can María everything but these days especially me!
The morning went by slowly, as we lifted MagAO-X to the Nasmyth platform. Us, happy minions, were busy hooking screws onto the instrument, crawling around the platform floor, and running back and forth with the ultra elevator. Time froze, as we slowly realised that only a few of the many hours we still had to stay awake had actually passed. The polarimeter almost gave us a hard time, but in the end, it’s installed and working.
We started cabling around noon, right when they decided to rotate the telescope and lower the secondary mirror so Parker could put his accelerometer in place. I got to enjoy riding the platform once only the DM cabling was left though, and they let me move the elevator down (happy potato). As dinner time rolled in, us minions waited for the supervisors to give the okay—though the second we got the green light, we sprinted to the cars… just in case they changed their mind.
But all the hard work had its reward and we could start observing this same night. Let the first night of observations of the 2025A run begin!
I did some photography today, enjoy the Viscachas and the Milky Way 🙂
I keep discovering short stories about the observatory, but in my only two and a half days here I have already learned the basics of the singing rocks, the favourite spots of all our fauna and who are the crazy drivers I should avoid getting in the car with. I am still confused about who shall I talk to in Spanish though…
I haven’t watched any worth it movie lately tbh, but we have been talking about The Sword in the Stone, which reminded me of my other favourite Disney movie, Atlantis, and its most famous quote, only for those of you literate: “Ki-Ki-Kidamaschnaga”. While the rest figure it out, enjoy the song of the day (and night), which according to Joseph we can reclaim from the other MUSE – Starlight.