As a current resident of Arizona and a former resident of New Mexico, part of me must celebrate when water falls from the sky in these drought-stricken drylands or deserts. As an astroengineer and astrophysicist, it does make observing …difficult. Either way, it’s still beautiful:
Afternoon at The Ridge. [Image description: A mountain scene straight outta the SouthWest. The valley floor is covered in brown rocky foothills that look like choppy waves in the ocean. The nearby mountainside is covered in dark green foliage with a scrubby texture. The sky is filled with thick heavy dark rain clouds. Yet a beauiful orange glow peaks through a gap below the clouds and above the distant valley where a sunbeam illuminates shafts of rain falling in the distance.]A photo of the MMT today. [Image description: In the foreground are the crowns of some green and brown pine trees. In the middleground there is some sort of a brown ridgeline, kinda hazy. In the background there is white mist/fog (where the telescope dome is, but cannot be seen).]
You’ll recall yesterday we had trouble with our WFS controller. We reached out to our network of contacts for a spare part. We also began preparations to switch to our other WFS. And we even opened for around an hour tonight in a gap in the humidity and clouds! But we need more time… so we’re staying hopeful for tomorrow night.
The video of the night is “OUR LAND Episode 5: Dry Land”
What’s this, another MAPS run? Yup, the moon is almost full, and here we are again!
Unfortunately tonight we are 0 for 5 on AO engineering/commissioning productivity. Here are the 5 things:
Can we safely open the dome? No, the humidity is so high that condensation could ruin all the sensitive equipment.
Can we safely expose the ASM to the elements? No, the wind is too high, it could damage/contaminate the shell.
Can we see stars? No, there are clouds. Lots of very thick clouds.
Can we close the AO loop? No, the controller of our wavefront sensor camera detector failed.
Can we get PSFs with our science camera? No, it took longer to remove the previous instrument so longer to install ours.
Well the best night to have instrument failures is when the weather is bad anyway. We’re working on a solution. And now it’s time for bed.
No way we were opening tonight. [Image description: Photo of the observatory status screen showing humidity at 99%, winds at 40.1 mph, and a completely socked-in all-sky cam.]Part of trouble-shooting the Little Joe controller involved racking out the computer and directly connecting it to the controller, to make sure it wasn’t the extenders. Manny discovered the problem when he started examining individual boards. [Image description: Manny adjusts the cables and connectors of a computer placed below the Top Box, with cables directly connecting it to the instrument.]
Blog rules:
There must be a post every night.
There must be a “Video of the Night.” Something interesting to share. A song is allowed.
Video of the Night: “How this midcentury modern house harnesses the sun”
The full moon is waning and that’s a wrap on the first MAPS run of 2023B! We have 3 more runs, on the full moons in October, November, and January.
On this run we successfully closed the loop with our new software algorithms, which required taking new timing data and calibrations. We also got offloading within the loop working, and made progress on our other goals. (I made an executive decision to redo how I was numbering the nights, so careful blog readers may notice I edited the night numbers in the previous blog posts, since when I was writing our telescope proposal for next semester I realized it was overly confusing to try to keep the Arizona nights separate from the MMT nights.)
Grant crosses off our top goal for this run: offloading tip/tilt to the mount! [Image description: An astroengineer writes on a white board. On the white board are the Run Goals and the Tonight Goals — one can read a few words such as Alignment, Pisces, Mount, Hexapod, Pupil, Interaction Matrix, Close Loop.]Taking a 50-modes calibration. [Image description: GUIs and displays showing the real-time pyramid pupils, integrated/averaged pyramid pupils, ASM commands, slopes, ]
Manny made cookies!
[Image description: In the telescope control room, Robin offers a plate of cookies to the photographer. Amali and Katie strategize ASM tricks in the background.][Image description: Manny is very happy to cut open the watermelon!]
Thanks everyone — run report to come.
Song of the day: Say Hey (I Love You) by Michael Franti \& Spearhead
[Median description: High energy, joyful, rhythmic song with scenes of the people of Brazil.]
Dear readers, we have no science news to report. It has been windy and has stayed windy, with a fresh splash of humid to boot. So unfortunately, we do not have new science content to report. The experts have already shared their knowledge of some of the instrument’s background so tonight we’ll take the time to get to know our fellow crew mates better.
First we’ll speak with returning costar, Amali Vaz, working hard in the AO Operator’s seat. She’s a jack of all trades, being well versed in the mirror and its moods, ASMs of times gone past, and now the new CACAO wrangler.
Q: What’s your favorite button to push?
A: Hmm now that’s a good question. It’s gotta be the space bar. I read somewhere the joke ‘ I keep pressing the space bar but I’m still here on earth, and I still think about that?
Q: What’s your biggest area of improvement?
A: Jared says he can’t hear when I push buttons, so I guess hitting the keys harder.
Q: What’s your favorite book
A: Station 11. It does a weird mix of scifi and post-appocalypse with an emphasis on art.It’s a very elegantly structured book, as well as a good story.
Q: Stranded on a desert island with only one of your crafts, which would you choose?
A: Wood carving knives
Pictured: Amali, humoring me.
Next we speak to Robin, a core member of the the Canadian team, and DOCRIMES Agent, about some poignant and topical questions. Robin is a grad student from Toronto and keeps trying to wear shorts in this sub 70s weather.
Q: What are you excited about for the future of MAPS?
A: Good weather. Getting back on sky.
Q: What’s your favorite day of the crossword?
A: Thursday. It’s always got a little trick to it.
Q: How would you describe grad school?
A: No comment.
Q: What’s your favorite Trader Joe’s snack?
A: Chicago mix, but they don’t have it anymore. This run, easy choice, the leaf chips. They were good, and fun!
Q: How would you describe Jacob.
A:Tall. Complex. Shortily challenged.
Pictured, some of the many Trader Joes snack table options.
Now talking to Jacob, who is more than just his height. He’s been on the team for the last four or so years as a grad student at Toronto, initially working on the IR WFS (That we’re very excited to use).
Q: What are you excited about for the future of MAPS?
A: Can you just write ‘Aliens, Question Mark?’
Q: Would you rather take on an angry Frenchman or a disappointed Canadian?
A: Well I’ve already taken on an angry frenchmen. But if Quebec, no way. But a disappointment Canadian is a lot of emotional labor. Like if you disappoint your grandma, that’s hard.
Q: Favorite astronomy acronym?
A: Well it has to be the one I came up with. ESCAPE, which is when you combine DOCRIMES and SPRINTING.
Q: How would you describe Robin?
A: A cartoon character, like a sly rabbit, but not bugs bunny. Wait but maybe Bugs Bunny. It’s the sarcasm.
Enough said.
Next is Manny. He’s one of our fearless leaders and has been on the last half dozen or so of the last MAPS runs. He is gracious with his supply of fizzy water and doles out moka pot offerings when the night starts to get rough.
Q: What is the historical trendline of your fizzy water intake?
A: Usually bring two cases of 12, but this time I brought 3. I usually run out. For MAPS? I always bring fizzy water.
Q: What’s the hardest part of your job?
A: The hardest part is managing people and many projects.
CROWD COMMENT: But that’s the whole job.
A: So yes, the whole job.
Q: What’s your favorite telescope you’ve worked at?
A: I’ve been to two, no three. I would say that MMT is my favorite. It’s closer to home, and feels homey. We have fewer bares
Q: What animals have you seen on the mountain? Please rank from ‘would pet’ to ‘would run away from’?
A: I haven’t wanted to pet any of them. In ordering from most to least pet-able. Mouse. Rat. Squirrel. Quattie. Turkey. Ring tailed cat. Deer. Bobcat. Bear. Mountain lion. Rattle snake. Helomonster.
COMMENT: Manny goes on to show us many pictures of animals hes’s seen.
This picture depicts some the good care Manny takes to keep us caffeinated.
Next up, the MAPS PI Katie! She is an Astronomer at Steward Observatory and comes from a long legacy of AO work.Watch out for her revolutionary new pet program at the MMTO coming.
Q: What’s your favorite project you’ve PI’ed for and why is it MAPS?
A: It’s MAPs because it’s so many things and that’s what makes it fun. There are so many different parts to it.
Q: What’s the most overblown but technically true statement you can make about the progress of this project (for funding reasons)?
A: MAPS is attempting to do the most number of things that are all related to Exoplanets. It’s all of the different kinds of planets, spectral resolutions. But we’re not galaxies. We’re not doing wide field yet. We’re doing all kinds of exoplanets and all kinds of science with them, imaging, mid resolution spectroscopy, high resolution spectroscopy, without having to be the highest order AO.
COMMENT: We’re the little AO system that could!
Q: You can only take one… Lynx or Ginger? (to the telescope)
A: “Well Ginger is my cat and Lynx is Jared’s , but they have switched allegiances. Last time I went to the telescope actually, so we’ll see when we go back. But for now, I’d say Lynx, he’s very good at advising grad students, he has a lot of opinions about plots. He’s shy at first but would warm up to the control room and walk over some keyboards. Maybe that’ll be the right button we need. AND! He actually snuggles, so a good telescope buddy.”
Q: What ply of toilet paper do you prefer for your laptop stands? Does MMTO meet the quality specifications?
A: For my laptop stand I require uniform material of abundance quantities. MY first night here I searched the facilities and this was the materials that meet my needs.
The Laptop stand in question.
Grant, who has been working on MAPS since re-aluminizing the secondary in 2018 (5 years ago) is a key member of the ‘Field trip!’ duo. He helps keeps our alignment in check throughout the night and sometimes trouble shoots from a very high forklift.
Q: What’s been your biggest success on the project so far?
A: The wavefront sensor board. Designing, aligning, and keeping the whole system from falling apart. This was the first WFS board I’ve worked on. How do I keep it from falling off the telescope? Use bigger bolts, and way more than you think you need.
Q: If you had to rename MAPS, what would you rename it?
A: What does MAPS even mean? MMTAO… something? Well we’re basically a big wind measurement devices. MMT AneMometer. So MAM’
Q:”What’s your one must-bring for observing runs?”
A: French Press, that’s been keeping me alive. I’m a novice, so this is my first actual ground coffee that I’ve done. I haven’t always been a coffee person, it really started last year.
COMMENT: this is coincidentally coincides with Grant starting on Observing runs.
Q: Have you worked at any other telescopes? How would you rate their comfy chairs?
I don’t get to sit at any comfy chairs at LBT… sometimes I get to sit on the couches. But the chairs here really have them beat
COMMENT: We leave Grant to enjoy his comfy chair in peace.
A picture from Grant of the ASM re-aluminization from back in 2018.
Finally Jared Males, self proclaimed “I’m just the software guy”. He has been a notable member of many AO teams in the past, and has already made many a git push for MAPS.
Q: What’s your favorite part of an instrument project’s lifecycle, having commissioned and worked on a few at this point?
A: First light. The first time you take it to the telescope and you get starlight into it.
Q: When would you eat the watermelon?
A: I would want to see an airy ring.
Q: What’s your software hottest take?
A: Writing software is a real professional skill. TOo many people just learn enough to get a plot made or whatever. You don’t do that with say, lens design. We don’t teach software like a real technical skill. A lot of people live with real technical debt because they don’t understand their software.
Q: You can only take one… Lynx or Ginger? (to the telescope)
A: Lynx. …. I was in Chile for too long one time, and Ginger abandoned me. I have never been forgiven.
Q: If Olivier was your brother, would he be your older or younger brother?
A: Definitely older, even though I am chronologically older than I am. Professionally he is more experienced. He’s generally thought of things before I’ve thought of it.
Q: If you could script people like you would script cacao, what’s the first shared memory stream you would write?
A: That’s an interesting Question. I would would cause them to listen to the semaphores in my shared memory so that they (my grad students) would instantly do what I wanted.
COMMENT: This seemed like a pointed answer. The interviewer will be returning to work.
The two cats in question, Ginger and Lynx.
Thank you for tuning in to tonight blog! Hopefully the MAPS team will return tomorrow with more science-focused content.
Song of the day:
Inspired by my current most common activity of sitting, and slow musical chairs, I present Sitting.
As was stated in the Mary Poppins Movie “Winds in the east, mist coming in, /Like somethin’ is brewin’ and bout to begin. /Can’t put me finger on what lies in store, /But I fear what’s to happen all happened before.”
For us it has been out of the South with max of 60 mph. Which means that winter is coming and it is the only change we have in the difference between winter and summer and summer and winter.
“Winds in the south, cold coming in, /Like turbulence brewin’ and about to begin. /Can’t put me finger on what lies in store, /But I fear that AO will soon happen again.”
Was it a green flash? To began the night we started with beautiful clear skies and 30 mph winds
Wind is the worse when it comes to observing. Snow, Rain, Clouds I understand, but wind and with skies like this it seems a waste.
An advantage to having intermediate wind you have the ability to work on code and test it out when you are able to get back on sky. So there has been a lot of debugging going on and improvements the the overall MMTO AO experience when it comes to interfacing with the system.
Latency test. 1.35 frames at 500 Hz
The hints of a MMTAO GUI to control all the inner workings of this system. AO systems are like a mechanical watch the majority of people only see the face of it and never see all the gears and inner workings. We build items in the other direction we have all the inner workings first and then we add the fancy face.
MAPS WFS BoardMechanical Watch
Sleeping accommodations working at the MMTO while waiting for winds to die down.
Well that is all folks. A lot of coding, a lot of friendships being made. So all in all a great night and but looking for clear skies and no wind.
