Tag: 2015B

My name is Alan Conder.  I work at GMTO and this is my first trip to Magellan; in fact, this is my first trip to any observatory.

I came to Magellan to participate with the team from SAO to field the GMT prototype phasing camera.   In addition, I arrived a week early to test a new laser scintillometer at cerro Las Campanas.  We plan to use this device to measure the Cn2 of the surface layer at the GMT site.

I was asked to write a post to this blog describing my experiences as a neophyte at Las Campanas.  So OK.  I’ll do it.  My story will be brief and is intended to poke fun of my niave expectations about coming to LCO.  And as I make fun of myself, I want to be clear that my experiences have been fantastic.  And that everything I was told was absolutely true.

To start, I was told to expect the nights at the telescope to be cold and to come prepared.  So I went to REI and bought warm clothing that would protect me on Mt. Everest.

This is me, trying on the warm clothing I had just bought for this experience.

I was told the LCO lodge was in the Andes foothills, with beautiful views, and that in fact there was a hot tub.  So I imagined something like the Stowe Mountain Lodge in Vermont.  OK, may be a little more quiant.

It is true, there “was” a hot tub.  I was a little concerned that there would actually be a hot tub.

I was told that the skies were almost never cloudy.

I was told that MagAO had its own console in the control room.    This is what I imagined.

I was told that the wildlife was very different.  I tried to photograph wildlife, but it was difficult.  However, I was eventually able to photograph an ass.

I was told that the night skies are spectacular.  And, the night skies are spectacular.  I couldn’t even imagine until I saw for myself.  A couple of photographs with a commercial Nikon camera.

And of course we did work.  Here are some photographs of my colleagues at work.  Notice that you don’t see me in any of the photographs.

Starting with the work at cerro Las Campanas.

And the work to field the GMT prototype phasing camera.

This is me after about 1 ½ weeks at LCO.  A little more facial hair than when I arrived, but no worse for wear and with a soul that has been rejuvenated by the experience.

And finally, the song.  Yesterdays blog featured the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald. And I thought of the tenor sax legend and the Prez of Jazz, Lester Young.  The song, “Stardust.”

 

 

 

Labor rights in Chile come up quite a bit at the Observatory. At Magellan, we usually have three telescope operators between the two telescopes so that they can switch off and thereby not work too more than 11.25 hours continuously. This week, Jorge is stuck with us all night though because Mauricio is on vacation. Luckily it’s summer here, and the nights are short. We have been working about 10 hr this week, from the time we open the dome to the time we close it (well, when I say “we open” I really mean “Jorge opens”). Labor laws also make it hard (impossible?) to hire employees who work at night sometimes and during the day at other times, such as, for example, a person who could do AO operation during AO runs and other technical jobs at other times.

Chilean labor rights don’t extend to University of Arizona employees (i.e., Jared and Katie), alas for them. They get to be those night AO operators here (though perhaps they work at night back in AZ too). Again, it’s not so bad this time of year, and they seem pretty cheerful despite the “Day 30” title of this post. Last June was a different story. To quote Katie, “If you’re doing 80+ hr of real work, you will absolutely burn out in 6.5 weeks. See 2015A.”

Labor relations have been on my mind today because the Chilean airport workers are going on strike tomorrow and Friday, just in time for me to try to get home. Laird Close arrived today and said the airport was a zoo. Lan Chile has cancelled its flights from La Serena to Santiago (and vice versa) tomorrow. Luckily, I asked the helpful staff at Las Campanas to book me a bus ticket. So even though I now have to leave the mountain at 8 AM after finishing observing at 6 AM, I should get to Santiago in time for my flight to Estados Unidos. And I’m looking forward to sleeping in my Salon Cama seat (fully reclining, like business class) for a blissful 6 hr.

Even more luckily, the air traffic controllers are not striking, so the international flight seems likely to go (though the fact that the American Airlines representative I talked to today claimed there were no disruptions at all just led me to think AA is clueless more than it led me to think the situation is fine).

Meanwhile, today’s been a good day. It was sunny, and this lizard and I both enjoyed that:

I also saw two guanacos, thanks to Katie who alerted me to their presence down the hill north of Magellan. It turns out they make a really interesting sound calling to each other. Listen carefully to hear one calling to the other (and look carefully to see one running).

This guanaco is also running — running MagAO that is!

And of course, sunny means clear!

The Devil is still the NE winds, which briefly caused me to have to abandon one of my northern targets, but only briefly. Ah, LCO, here between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

Wait, I hear a song coming on. Last night, Jared used “The Devil went down to Georgia,” which brings me back to Ella Fitzgerald, First Lady of Jazz, and one of my favorite artists to listen to while observing, relaxing, stretching after a workout, flying, and probably (we’ll find out tomorrow) taking a 6 hr bus ride.

We might make it. Alycia has one night left, and our next and last observer arrived today (get ready for something different — more to come).

The winds were finally a bit calmer tonight, and seeing was bouncing off 0.5″ for a while — but we still ended up with some clouds after midnight. Nothing too bad, but still a little frustrating.

Two days ago we had a song about a miracle. Here’s another one of sorts — though Johnny would disagree.

I saw the CDB live at the South Dakota State Fair. This was the encore, during Johnny’s solo the old man thrashed on a golden fiddle for 20 minutes.

Well, dear AO team, you finally entered to the final countdown, there are less than 10 days to leave “Las Campanas Observatory” just on time for Christmas, I guess.
I really hope that all the science you obtained, be the source of great discoveries, that will make your team proud, and also all of the ones that made your science possible.
I admire you Katie and Jared, you stay here more than 30 days it is hard to believe, but I guess easier with so nice company as the Magellan Operators ;), and of course the very nice food! Specially empanadas!!!

Good Luck

See you the last night.

One of the downsides of observational astronomy is the lack of control we have over our experiments. It’s just annoying that we can’t re-create star and planet formation in our laboratories and observe the evolution of planetary systems over billions of years. And then on top of that, we have to deal with the epitomy of the unpredictable and uncontrollable — the weather! I think this accounts for the rather superstitious way that astronomers, not generally given to magical thinking, talk about the weather. I remember hearing that one should always walk around the telescope catwalk clockwise (or was it counterclockwise? Luckily the point is moot here at Magellan where the catwalk doesn’t go all the way around.) to keep away the clouds. We joke about the colleagues who are “weather curses” and seem to always bring the clouds with them.

We can’t even enjoy all the wildflowers up here without seeing them as evidence that El Niño is out to get us. Out for a walk earlier today, in the glorious sunshine of a clear blue sky, I still managed to scowl at the butterflies.

Tonight was the 8th night of Chanukah. Alas, there was no meteorological miracle. The winds only came below our AO-secondary-imposed 20 mph limit for a couple hours before returning to sit at about 20 mph and taunt me:

So, last night’s incongruous song involved sharks, among other things. And sharks reminded me of the TV show “Shark Tank” for entrepreneurial products, and one of their successful products was a Chanukah Christmas tree topper, which brings me to the fact that tonight is the final night of Chanukah. Wait, you didn’t like that link, ok, here’s LL Cool J telling you to do a mitzvah (good deed) this Chanukah and support the “I have a Dream Foundation.” Satisfied by the link to Chanukah? Good. Tonight’s song is: All About that Neis – Hanukkah by the Maccabeats. Neis means miracle, though not of the meteorological type. And it’s a parody, so it gives fond memories of previous years’ song rules.