Tyson and Jason finished designing our new cable wrap system. Here are some views of the plan (note: if you are an important person at Magellan, check your email for more):
Luckily Juan found a piece of 4″ PVC pipe to use for the “stove pipe”. I don’t want to know where it was used before.
This morning we declared our CCD cooling system air-tight and started running water through it. Here are some videos of the filling, pressurizing, and starting of the pump for the first time.
All this plumbing appears to have paid off. Our CCD39 read noise is down to 4.1 electrons, and we can read our CCD47 (the VisAO science camera) full-frame with 4.5 electrons – and maybe lower depending on ambient temperature. The cooling system helps us achieve these numbers because it keeps dark current low. The CCD 39 having low RON helps us work on faint guide stars, especially important for Clio2 (in case you missed it, Katie posted an update on Clio2’s progress towards shipping here).
It wasn’t all work today.
Today’s quote: “I can imagine the feeling.” (Alan Uomoto)
And speaking of Alan, I know at least two things about him. He reads this blog, and he cares. So much so that he went out of his way to make sure that Marcia Males has a poop-free picture of her son.
And on my way down for supper, I had a close encounter with the VisAO mascot. He’s getting to know me I think.
Days without a motherboard failure: 4