After 29 days of the Stay At Home, I had an appointment. I had a thing to do, at a time, in a place other than my house, with another person.
The University of Arizona and the State have come together to ramp up COVID-19 antibody testing, beginning with 3000 healthcare workers, 500 University students, and 1000 unaffiliated Pima county residents. One of the other graduate students shared the sign-up link in Slack, and half of our team of grad students signed up.
(In fact, a surprising number of the other astronomy graduate students said they were signed up. My theory is that, with all the undergrads gone, the only people in the “University student” category both bored enough to read all University communiques and geographically close enough to participate are the grad students.)
This is a blood test for COVID-19 antibodies, which tells you if you were recently infected and recovered. (Not the same thing as the “are you currently infected?” test, which uses a nasopharyngeal swab.) I don’t think I was infected, although apparently many cases are entirely asymptomatic. I just wanted something to do, with the added bonus of helping the study ramp up their process.
My test used the vials with colorful tops, not the swab that goes (I think) right up into your brain.
So, today at 9:40 AM I arrived at the Health Sciences building. The appointment slots on the sign up sheet were in 10 minute intervals, which I thought was a polite fiction. (I always choose early appointments because medical scheduling rivals JWST for delays.)
Incredibly, I was out by 9:47 AM. Let me walk you through the process.
Welcome station: Before you enter the building, you give your name to a worker who ensures you have an appointment and gives you some hand sanitizer. Follow the paw prints to the next station.
Wellness check: A non-contact thermometer (i.e. a one-pixel infrared detector) is used to ensure you haven’t lied about feeling sick. If your readings are within normal limits, you get to follow the paw prints through a scary maze of hallways.
Intake / processing: Present your ID, get led to a room, present your ID again, get everything keyed into their electronic record-keeping system, get a couple of labels for your vacutainer.
Phlebotomy: A nice phlebotomist (mine was seconded from a blood donation organization in Phoenix) sticks you with a needle and collects a couple tablespoons of blood.
All done! I was told results take 2 working days currently, but may be longer due to demand.
It’s funny that we’re in a situation where you really don’t want to get COVID-19, but really do want to have already had COVID-19.
My friend pointed out that phlebotomy is a good cover job for a vampire. Tangentially related, today’s song of the day is “Blood Like Lemonade” by Morcheeba.
In the days of MagAO-Classic, I would write daily blog posts 3-5 times per week. By the time we got to Day 29 in the run I would be so exhausted I was grateful for anyone to write blog posts. Now the tables have turned and here I am, belatedly showing up on the blog after a month on the mountain at home!
Photo from today on Day 29 of the Classical MagAO run. Here I am at the Clay telescope at LCO on a brilliantly sunny day, supervising the ASM being driven up on the Isuzu truck. (Or maybe being driven down.) I have lured one of the local fuzzy fauna for some snuggles. Looks like I found an Andean Cat. Yes, all is fine here at MagAO-Classic. [Image Description: A woman in glasses holds a cute cat, both lit up by interior light. The background shows a sunlit Chilean mountain scene. Magic of Zoom backgrounds.]
OK so what have I actually been working on? Well, the above picture is actually relevant.
Adaptive Optics (AO) for Exoplanets can be done in various different ways. One difference is the type of Deformable Mirror (DM) you use to control the wavefront. You can use an Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM) for better sensitivity to planets that are brighter in infrared (heat) wavelengths. Or you can use a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) for better sensitivity to planets that are reflecting the light of their stars (like our Moon reflects our Sun).
MagAO-Classic uses an ASM, and while it has been successful with both infrared planets with Clio and visible-light planets with VisAO, its sensitivity was limited in the visible. Therefore MagAO-eXtreme uses a MEMS, for more precise wavefront control that allows for better sensitivity to reflected-light planets.
I have worked with both MEMS and ASM DMs. In ancient times (pre-Classical) I characterized many iterations of MEMS DMs for the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), including holding the positions and monitoring what they do over time:
Stability plot of the displacement (measured with a 100-pm-accuracy interferometer) of all the actuators on MEMS device number W10#X in the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics at UCSC. Perfect actuators would be a flat horizontal line in this plot. [Image description: A line plot of actuator displacement in nanometers phase (aka. nm wavefront, rather than nm surface) vs time step since beginning the experiment. Each actuator has its own line, although only a few are called out in color. Most of the actuators were around 0 displacement. A few actuators started out too low. Over several minutes, a few actuators drifted to lower positions, which they are not supposed to do.]
MagAO-X has a similar but more modern MEMS, and my expertise has come in handy. Now in the post-classical world I’m PI of the “MAPS” instrument (MMT AO exoPlanet characterization System). MAPS is using an ASM that we are building ourselves at Arizona. We are in the lab-testing phase and AmaliVaz (click to read her award-winning blog posts) is running similar tests of actuator stability on the MAPS ASM:
Stability plot of the counts measured at the capacitive sensors vs time. The initial jump is a command by the AO operator. A perfect actuator in this plot would be exactly horizontal after that point. [Image description: A line plot of actuator position measurememnt from the capacitive sensor (capsens) vs. time in seconds. Amali has added a small offset to each actuator to shift them vertically on the plot so that they can be distinguished. Most of the actuators are fairly flat, but a few drift slightly lower over time. This is preliminary work and was done with almost no gap and with the thicker test shell, so this is not concerning at this point. Just interesting to start to do these kinds of tests, and to compare to the MEMS.]
The MAPS ASM project was initially led by the original MagAO-C/Clio PI, Phil Hinz. He has moved to a new job to lead the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics (where the above MEMS work was done) and I am now PI of both MAPS and Clio. So this project has been a way back into DM and actuator characterization. Let’s look at some more pictures.
At the start of stay-at-home, we were still able to go into the lab with a whole group of people. Here are 4 people mounting the thin shell on the reference body of the MAPS ASM. From left to right: Grant West, Oli Durney, Manny Montoya, Emily Mailhot. Oli and Manny are eyeballing the gap, and checking whether the clocking is correct. Grant is keeping an eye on the scale, to detect when the magnets start to lift the shell. Emily is controlling the actuator coil currents, and keeping an eye on the shell. [Image description: In a clean room, 4 people are wearing lab coats, gloves, hair nets, and face masks. An optomechanical structure in the center is the MAPS ASM, looking down as if the telescope is parked at zenith and the primary mirror is below. The thin shell of glass rests on a cart with a scale on a lift, and is being slowly raised until contact with the reference body. The reference body is a clear-ish thick glass circle. Above it is the cold plate, similar thickness and copper-colored but aluminum. The actuators are clamped to the cold plate and their cables are black and run up above the cold plate. The electronics consist of 6 daughterboards and 1 motherboard and are at the top of the unit. The four people are focused intently on the work they are doing to mount the thin shell onto the reference body. Once mounted, the thin shell + reference body + cold plate + actuators + actuator cables + electronics = ASM.]Now that we have come under more strict stay-at-home orders, we are operating the ASM remotely. Here is a Zoom grab from today when Amali was filling Phil in on what she had been measuring and learning. [Image description: A screen grab of a Zoom meeting where the main focus is the web gui being run on Manny’s computer. The web gui has two ASM maps, the one on the left shows the position as measured by the capsens, while the one on the right shows the coil currents as commanded by the AO operator.]
The song of the day is a Classic (that can be pushed to the eXtreme) that I first learned in high school band, Malagueña. I present a study of some of my favorite versions. First the Drum & Bugle Core version, representing ancient history:
Then the classical guitar version, a Classic:
Finally, a special treat, Fuego Malagueña by Esteban featuring Teresa Joy, is the eXtreme version:
I report to you live from my bed, where I have spent a lot of time the last six weeks or so, sleeping, (…sometimes…) working, and playing video games.
[taps my metaphorical microphone] …hello…? Hello! I’m Erin Maier, your guest stay-at-home blogger for this fine Wednesday. I’m a PhD student in astronomy working with Dr. Ewan Douglas in the University of Arizona Space Astrophysics Lab group (UASAL) on various things related to high contrast imaging from space (including continuing the good work of Dr. Kelsey Miller on Electric Field Conjugation.) I report to you live from my bed, where I have spent a lot of time the last six weeks or so, sleeping, (…sometimes…) working, and playing video games.
Video games have become my biggest social outlets in these times of quarantine, and I know they have for other people too. Every day I get closer to buying a Nintendo Switch so I can play Animal Crossing with all my friends. Alas, I’m not quite there yet. The turnip market scares me. As does Tarantula Island. But I’ve picked up Overwatch for the first time in two years or so to play with my best friend; a friend bought me and another friend copies of a JRPG called Octopath Traveler and we’ve been livestreaming with each other on the weekends (we also have a cooperative Stardew Valley farm between the 3 of us); another friend and I have little dates in Destiny 2 every Tuesday evening to do a challenge that’s on a 6 week rotation and grab the special collectibles together. This is what our “we still on for this evening?” conversations have become:
“He’s trying to speak to me, I know it!”
Of all my games, I’ve been spending the most time in Destiny 2, and it’s been a major help in keeping my mental health up, mostly by being an escape fantasy. I mean, sure, the Universe is once again under threat by the powers of Darkness that nearly destroyed us a couple centuries ago, but that’s something I personally can do something about, unlike this pandemic. It’s an open world looter-shooter with plenty to do at all levels of commitment. It’s easy to spend a couple hours exploring and doing bounties on my own,
This game is incredibly gorgeous. I spend a good amount of time just taking screenshots, even after playing for over a year…here’s me standing above Earth’s last safe City.
or hop into the Crucible (6 player – vs 6 player battle royale mode) on my own or with friend(s) for a few matches,
Destiny 2 switched to being hosted by Steam in October. Steam allows people to change their display names at will. It can be pretty hilarious. There’s also been a rash of people making their names things like COVID-19, which in my opinions is in pretty poor taste, but it leads to situations like this: “Defeated covid-19.” Pretty satisfying. I recommend checking out the twitter @destiny2names, which takes submissions of funny names people see in game. Good for some laughs.
or throw up a “looking for game” post to preplan an activity if I want to do something mechanically difficult to take my mind off things. There’s a group of us slowly working through the list of achievements required to get the special title “Rivensbane” for Last Wish, my favorite raid in the game. We run it a couple of time a week together, and cheer on each others’ successes and commiserate the failures.
Group hug in the middle of Last Wish! This took us like 5 minutes to coordinate because it’s 3 pairs of people doing the same “hug” emote and we kept accidentally pushing each other out of it.
My fellow UASAL grad student in OpSci, Jaren Ashcraft, has also recently picked up Destiny 2! Which has been exciting! We yell about optics, take a break to go shoot some aliens, go back to yelling about optics. It’s been fun dragging him all over the Solar System and being like “oh god is this what my friends felt like when I was a new player?” I feel a deep sense of responsibility to make sure he gets to see all of the cool places and things and also to laugh when he misjudges his jumps and falls off a cliff (karma usually gets me a few minutes later).
He’s also still leveling his character, which means he’s often stuck with the ugly low rarity gear. I try very hard not to be mean about it because I was there once, but also, I can’t believe there was a time I thought this stuff was fashionable.
Jaren’s character. His character is a sentient robot called an Exo.For fairness’ sake, my main character (we’re called “Guardians”), circa February 2019, post-written qualifying exam, when I started playing. My character is an Awoken, a variant of a baseline human. Both Jaren’s and my characters are Warlocks, which means we’re space wizards.
You know what, this seems like a perfect time to do a reenactment of the Old Spice “Look at your man” skit.
Hello, Guardians.
My main character now, circa April 2020. Bit of a glow up!
Look at your Guardian.
The base power level is now 750. Back in my day, we had to grind all the way up from power level 10. UPHILL, BOTH WAYS.
Now back to me.
Now back at your Guardian.
Now back to me.
Sadly, they aren’t me. But if they keep grinding, and find some decent gear, they could, someday, have a power level like me! Look down.
Back up. Where are you?
The Moon in the Destiny 2 universe is unfortunately infested with an insectoid alien race called the Hive. Stopping to stare at the Earth and cry about how beautiful it is is likely to get you killed.
You’re on the Moon, with the Guardian your Guardian COULD be! What’s in your hand?
This is my Ghost, who raised me from the dead to be a Guardian and is my little robot companion who protects me and carries my gear and continues to resurrect me when I do dangerous stuff and get myself killed.
Back at me.
I have it. It’s the materials you need to upgrade your gear.
Upgrades are e x p e n s i v e.
Look again.
There are so many cute emotes in Destiny.
The materials are now pigeons. Aren’t they adorable?
Suave.
Anything is possible when you work hard, Guardians.
I’m on a tiny sparrow.
(I spent like half an hour in game yesterday taking all these screenshots. Many thanks to Nan for their help with my shenanigans.)
We’re playing patty-cake here.
If you’re looking for another game to play during this quarantine and enjoy shooters, I recommend Destiny 2! The base game and first 2 expansions are free. If I finally break down and get a Switch and Animal Crossing, I’ll let you all know…MagAO-X’s own Lauren Schatz has recommended the game Astroneer though, so I might pick that up first.
Stay safe and healthy, my dear readers. Take some time for yourselves when you need it.
– Erin
Oh, I almost forgot – your song of the day! The “Escape” version of “Shell of What Was” from the Last Wish raid in Destiny 2. Great motivation music. Plays while you’re running a combination relay race/high stakes hot potato with the heart of a dragon.
One of the best features in Tucson, in my opinion, is The Loop, a 70+ mile paved bike and pedestrian paths that encircles the city, mostly on the shoulders of a dry wash. I live pretty close to the Loop on the westside of town, and to keep active and get out of the house, I’ve been walking, running, or biking on the loop nearly every day for weeks now. My office is situated such that at ~4:30 the afternoon sun makes it impossible to sit there anymore, and I guess I have to stop working now, oh darn. So I’ve been heading to the same portion of the Loop at about the same time at least 3-4 times a week to walk or run. Thus I’ve developed “Loop friends” – I see the same people nearly every time who are also in the same routine. There’s the lady with the fat dog (she will smile at me), and the one guy who runs back and forth on the same ~0.5 mile stretch, so he passes me several times as I’m walking (he does not smile at me). There’s that ~12 year old kid on the skateboard who held his hand out to me for a high five one time like a psycho (don’t you know there’s a virus on??), and those two homeless guys always in the same spot by the cool tree.
Some other Loop friends:
I see this guy nearly every time.
What is this ground squirrel doing? He did not move as I approached.
This is usually the place where I stop my run and turn around. I wonder what always makes me stop here…?
We all know that the nation-wide shutdown has caused many people temporary or permanent loss of income. There are calls online for rent and mortgage payment requirements to be temporarily restricted, since so many people everywhere will find it very hard to make those payments at the moment. Unsurprisingly, this has not yet happened. But #RentStrike has sure taken hold online. So for today’s blog entry, I present to you a gallery of #RentStrike related art to be found on the Loop’s west side.
Simple, straightforward. Placement is unique, and being the wash it can’t be missed. The space in the middle of hashtag was an interesting creative choice.Housing = essential, Landlords = non-essentialI applaud the subtle placement, but the contrast with the nicer “Bored” makes the “Rent Strike” look shabby.This one’s sneaky, you gotta look for it. It says “No rent”. Excellent use of color in this one.This one used to say “no rent” but appears to have changed its mind?Small, impactful.Translation, unsurprisingly: “Rent strike”
Say what you will about the quality, the artist’s message was clear and consistent throughout their body of work.
And then, one day, it was all gone. Just like that.
Although the bridge underside doesn’t appear to be any cleaner than it was before. So maybe the paint was magicked away? Who cared so much to paint “Rent Strike” all over everything on this one section of the Loop? And then who swooped in to clean it all off without managing to also clean the bridge underpass wall it was on? The Loop keeps her secrets.
Song of the day is “Rent” from the broadway show “Rent”. Some particularly apt lyrics from this song for the current global climate and today’s topic.
Today is the largest national holiday in the Netherlands, Kings Day. Kings Day is a bit of a difficult holiday to describe. It originates from the 19th century when the great-grandmother of the current king was reigning. The government decided that it was necessary to have a national holiday to celebrate the monarch. And so, Queensday was born. The holiday is held every year on the monarch’s birthday. Except during the reign of the previous queen, who wanted to keep it during her mother’s birthday to honer her.
Since 2013 we have king, which didn’t have for over a century the previous three monarchs were all queens. Nowadays we celebrate the kings birthday on the 27th of April. While I say we celebrate the king, we actually just use it as an excuse to have the largest party of the year. In the video below you can get a bit of a feeling of what Kings Day means.
For us in the USA we sadly can not party on a boat. That is especially difficult here in Tucson where we are getting or first 40+ C day of the year this week, pfoeh. So we decided to make and eat the traditional Kings Day pastry, Tompoes. The Tompoes is a pastry that consists of two layers of puff pastry with custard cream in between and colored icing on top. Tradition dictates that the icing is pink, and this is a pretty hard rule. You can not do something else without getting some disapproving Dutch eyes on you.
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=362413
Except on Kingsday, then you are allowed to switch to orange icing on top. So we made some orange Tompoezen for ourselves. The recipe is relatively easy but takes a bit of time. You need to make the custard a day before so that there is enough time to solidify a bit. The next day you bake some puff pastry sheets that are cut into rectangles. You grab one sheet of baked puff pastry and you just put some custard on it. Then you add the second sheet and you color the top with some icing. And well that is it. You can add whipping cream on the top according to your own preference.
Our home made Tompoezen with orange icing. They were great.
The most difficult part of the Tompoes is the whole thing. Because the pastry sheets are crispy you can not really cut into it. Usually what people do is take off the top and it eat. Then they use a fork or spoon to eat the custard. And finally, they eat the bottom pastry. But there are many different variants. Here we have a video that shows 12 different ways that people can be classified into based on their way of eating a Tompoes (commentary in Dutch).
With this I end the blog post of the day. The song of the day is the Dutch National Anthem, which is one of the oldest national anthems in the world. It was composed in 1572 during the 100 year war against the Spanish king.
