MagAO-X 2022B Day 8: Our Last Day Without MagAO-X

MagAO-X is coming to LCO! We received news late last night that the trucker strike that has left our team on the mountain with no instrument has come to a conclusion. MagAO-X is scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning/early afternoon wherein our team will be eager to greet it and start preparing for out first night on sky (Dec. 2).

In other news, non-bubbled members of the team enjoyed sorting pants and watching the USA vs. Iran match of the World Cup in the lodge.

You can’t have the blues in blue-jeans!
Go team USA!

Eden, Jialin and I tried to escape bubble mode early this morning, accidentally making our way to the medical tent for bubble-ending covid tests a day too early. Upon realizing the medical tent wasn’t open and checking the informational email after we made it to the bottom of the hill, we chalked the experience up to a good way to get the blood moving before returning to our rooms to continue on our coursework expeditions. We did however return to the great outdoors for another walk after lunch, this time visiting the Magellan telescopes.

Jialin’s first encounter with a 3m+ sized telescope.

Per tradition the team met up outside of the dorms for sunset, tonight’s being accompanied by some lovely cloud formations.

There are more mountains out there somewhere.
True candids are the best candids.

And last but certainly not least, Dr. Laird Close spotted our cleanroom Vizzy this afternoon!

MagAO-X must certainly be on its way now!

To end my first blog post of the trip, I leave you with the song of the day.