The other day we said we were back to normal… the clouds had gone away and we had a great night on-sky with a good AO correction, doing fun science. However, some not-so-normal problems cropped up again, and we just got through a bit of a stressful time. We were losing communication with our slope computer, and having other strange symptoms. In the end, we managed to get ahold of our Italian friends, who helped us trouble-shoot.
The project spent a lot of time in Florence and some in Bolzano, and we are so grateful for our friends and colleagues who show such great interest in our project and in helping to keep it running! Here is Arcetri where Laird and Jared built the system with Alfio, Simone, Armando, Runa, Marco, Enrico, Luca, and more:
Alfio has been following our progress this run, our first run without him. Here’s Alfio with Jared last summer:
And here is Laird, Jared, and me with Galileo in Florence:
So after Laird went home, we talked to Alfio, Roberto, and Mario, and got some ideas on what to check. So Jared, Pato, and I adjusted the voltage in the BCU and also switched to the spare fibers.
And…success! Slopes were being sent, slopes were being received, and nary a divide-by-zero error to be seen!
We celebrated by replacing the batteries in the wind monitor, getting on sky, and closing the loop!
At the end of a night of good hard work, we were rewarded with the sunrise, a vizcacha, and a herd of burros:
Shake it off!