Tag: 2024B

We’re off! The Tucson MagAO-X crew (notably sans PI) set out for our 2024B run at pretty much the crack of dawn on Sunday. Delta Airlines must have heard through the grapevine about Jay and Jared’s intercontinental sprint from last time and opted to intervene—when we booked these flights, the only option from TUS-ATL was taking off bright and early at 7:10 AM. We all found each other at our departure gate (we congre-gate-d? that one’s for you, Josh), redistributed the snack load, and boarded the plane without a hitch.

Given that I don’t normally wake up at 5 AM, I was asleep pretty much the second I found my seat. I woke up about an hour later convinced that we must at least be somewhere over Texas, but when I pulled up the window screen I was dismayed to discover we hadn’t moved an inch; perhaps the lack of jet-engine noise and air turbulence was the reason I’d slept so well. From what I gathered from the captain’s announcement (in which I heard an airline pilot say the phrase “this is really embarrassing” for the first time), there had been a minor computer malfunction. Maintenance had been called in to deactivate the broken computer so the backup could be used, but instead they disabled both the broken and the working computer. Oops. This resulted in our sitting on the tarmac for about 2 1/2 hours, de-planing, and then re-boarding before leaving sometime around 10:30 AM. If any of us had wished for a later flight, our wish was certainly granted.

Despite the maintenance difficulties, we arrived at ATL with ample time to grab a smoothie, stretch our legs, and get some homework done. I guess a 6-hour layover really does make you delay-proof.

We boarded our second flight with no issue. However, as a fun little treat and test of our patience, the captain again came over the PA system to let us know that maintenance needed to fix something up before we could take off. Thankfully, this time it only resulted in about 10 minutes of delay, and a (not) short nine hours later we arrived in Santiago!

We learned a few lessons in the Santiago airport, the chief being that the line to re-check bags with LATAM is fast if you have Delta Status, but if you don’t have status you can skip the long “regular people” line by being declared a “problem” by the airport staff. Not naming names. 

An obligatory Starbucks run and a short flight later, we made it to La Serena, traded some Doctor Pepper Zero (a USA special) for some Nespresso at El Pino, and headed up to see our favorite telescopes. At LCO we met up with Sebastiaan and Elena, ate a group dinner, and—of course—watched the sun set.

Welcome back, everyone.

In honor of our journey, the song of the day is Traveling On by the Decemberists:

Hey there, here is Elena from Leiden. I am new to MagAO-X but jumped right in to write this first blog post of the run. But what do I know? This is my first observation run, first time in Chile, first time many things. I don’t even work in Arizona, what is this mess?! Well, as an outsider, I want to document my experience of fitting into the team with a quick tutorial on how to speed up the process, as a reference for newcomers of the future. You will thank me later. There are only two important points to remember. Careful, the second is utterly complex!

1. Write your first blog post. You are not really part of the team until you write your first blog post. Don’t be shy – you know, that chaotic energy you hold inside after 30+ hours of travel? Let it out and write your masterpiece.
2. Stick the MagAO-X sticker on your laptop.

Do you think point 2 is easy? Then you haven’t done it extreme.

Wear shoe protection. That’s not enough, you need to use that… thingie… yes, that thing against electrostatic shocks, you don’t want to get hurt! Close the strap around your foot and the thread goes inside your sock. Good. If you have voluminous hair, tie them before you wear the hair net. You don’t want hairs stuck under the sticker. Also wear a coat, face mask, and gloves. No fingerprints allowed!!! Here you go. Now you can carefully apply the sticker on your laptop and… Welcome to the MagAO-X team.

And now, let me briefly explain the magical journey Sebastiaan and I went through to travel from the old continent, and specifically the land of tulips and sea level, to sunny, caliente, mountainous Chile. The journey actually started off great, if we don’t count the fact that I forgot the charger for my camera at home, and Sebastiaan, having forgotten of the existence of the Sun after 5 months in the Netherlands, didn’t pack his sunglasses.

This is not even nearly as dramatic as finding your way through Madrid’s airport. Fortunately, Sebastiaan already holds a PhD or we would still be stuck there. Here you have practical pictures displaying the madness of this airport:

It was faster to fly from Amsterdam to Madrid.

From Madrid to Santiago? Both our heroes slept through the entire flight so we have no recollection of this part of history.

After stopping at Pollo Stop for a nice chicken wrap – that they had to make twice, as they had put cheese in the Sebastiaan’s “sin queso” wrap – we got on our last flight. This was so short it didn’t even feel like flying. I must say tho, I would have preferred another 10 hours of travel by plane rather than the last 2 hours of drive. Fellow car-sick people will understand me. Those were the 2 worst hours of the journey out of a total of 32.

Song of the day? Heard it on the radio in the car driving up the mountains as I was trying to keep Pollo Stop safe where it was supposed to remain: Inside my body. It’s I will survive but in Spanish. A nice tune to celebrate getting to LCO safe and sound.

People have told me I have now the power to decide rules for the next blog posts. Since it is late, I am tired, I love singing, and I depleted all my imagination to write this blog post, I will stick to: Every blog post needs to contain at least two sentences that are lyrics from songs. Put them between “” and write at the end the songs where they come from. I said two but the more you manage to use, the more pleased we will all be.

Since I am generous, I will give you an alternative. Instead of two lyrics, you can use one quote from a South American writer or poet that links to the events of the day. Sorry, I know this is difficult, but this is my only chance to show off my literary culture. Here my sist Isabel is explaining perfectly how tired you can get when traveling to LCO with an excellent simile.

“I was so drained I felt as if I were staring through a telescope at the light of a star dead for a million years.”

Isabel Allende, The Stories of Eva Luna