MagAO-X Engineering Run 2024B Day 7: a goodbye and a see you later

We’re on our way home, leaving behind a fixed, upgraded, and working MagAO-X. Ready to go for 2024B.

A Goodbye

While we were there they had just finished stripping parts from the famous “NAS” from the venerable MagAO. They loaded it up to take it down the hill to the bodega, where it will be taken apart and scrapped.

Thanks for all the memories.

and still driven carefully — The NAS was never useless

would love to hear the story on this one! — Some mechanico humor

A See You Later

Been seeing this flashback inducing metro-blue forecast for a couple days:

Flashbacks, such as waking up to messages that they were about to close down the summit, and a slack channel full of grads and postdocs confirming that they got the video games and other assorted necessities down to the lodge, then going up to find fucking water on the actual fucking instrument. But the video games.

And it was rolling in as we loaded up the van:

But MagAO-X is safe in the cleanroom, waiting its next shot at the telescope.

Mysteries For Next Time

The current drama (for us, anyway) is that they have (again) done away with the agua con gas. It does produce a lot of plastic waste, but it was maybe the most discussed amenity by members of the MagAO-X traveling circus.

It appears that the solution is these “soda guns”. But none of use were brave enough to try them out. So next time then.

is it just a bottle of fizzy water, or do you use it to enfizzen? — What will happen next?

The other mystery involves the goat herd that was roaming, and shitting, all over the mountain. First, a reminder that goats are cute

cute morons — yes, that’s someone’s room.

So either the goats have a dog, or this dog has goats.

took me a minute to figure out it was a dog! — Walking up the dog gave me a good barking, and then herded the goats away from me.

Now we have questions about this dog’s life.

center of a goat's life — The dog was always with the goats

peak a boo — And if you got too close would come over to let you know that the goats are off limits

I thought we'd get a pet — Not unfriendly, tail wagging and a good-natured ears-up look

stay back fren — until you made the wrong move

So here’s the question: how does the dog stay alive? We hear that maybe there is a camp nearby. But how does it work? Does the dog herd the goats there once a day? Or does the dog have to wait until the goats decide to go back? Is there a signal?

Walk, not Run

It was a gorgeous day in Santiago. Jay and I took our time and just walked from place to place. It’s the little things.

it's hard to get so far away at walking pace

The succulent wall was as stunning as ever — it always looks extra special when the sun is out.

Lab Rules

For the last god damn time, bring a god damn flashlight when you go to an observatory. We work in the dark. It’s what we do. Your cell phone does not count. When everyone has to share the PI’s flashlight . . .

And a new one. And it’s kind of a big deal, because in over a decade we’ve never had a rule about the blog rules other than whoever posts the first post of a run gets to set them. But from now on, your rules must not set a limit on the number of days in the run. In hind sight it’s just a classic Murphy’s Law blunder. (TBC, I liked these rules, it was fun to look up songs by decades — I was surprised by where a few landed. I just didn’t think about the ramifications until the day we started rescheduling flights and I remembered the ? in the rules . . .)

So here’s a song from the 2020’s. Hoping our last flight to Tuscon goes through because if it doesn’t I don’t know what we’ll do — other than blame the blog rules.