NAS Fitcheck Day 9: Like A Record Baby, Right ‘Round

This morning started with yet more plumbing adventures. We filled the ASM cooling system with glycol, which meant pumping the stuff we mixed yesterday into the system. Here’s a tour of the filling operation by Alan.

We spilled a little.
The Captains of MagAO plumbing celebrate a full tank.
We tested the solenoid valve, making sure it does its thing if pressures are out of balance and stops the leak.

Drilling of the hole was completed.

Nelson finishes the cable hole.

And the CCD cooling system was mounted below the platform.

Jason Lewis, the proud father of the MagAO CCD cooling system.

The main event today was bolting the NAS to the Clay telescope for the first time. It fit, the holes lined up, the bolts went in, and it rotates.

Here is the NAS after being lifted into the dome for the first time:

The NAS entered the dome for the first time today.

And here it is ready to roll onto the platform:

All the way up, we're about to push the NAS into position to be mounted.

We then craned it into position and mated it to the telescope:

Carefully aligning the pins and bolts.

And here’s the moment of truth:

It was then bolted on:

Alan and Tyson checking the bolts.

The next exciting thing was to rotate it. This video captures the first time we have turned it upside down:

And here it is upside down:

The NAS upside down for the first time.

There was some fun had listening to lost screws rattle around inside our electronics boxes. Everybody with a box had at least one, but Alan happily accepted the prize for the most screws recovered.

Alan Uomoto takes a little ribbing for the number of screws that rattled out of the guider box.

Here’s mine, after I fished the thing out:

VisAO had one too, a 4-40 screw I dropped while replacing an ethernet pass-through. It took going upside down both ways before it came out of its hiding place.

We finished just in time for dinner, and they started opening the dome as we were leaving.

The PI looks happy.
The NAS, Clay, and the Moon.
The NAS Fitcheck team after a well earned dinner.

Today’s Quotes:

“I’m starting to get a little bit wheeny about the whole thing.” (Laird Close)

“Oh jeez, it’s upside down.” (Laird Close)

Still no more than a distant glimpse of the large mammals, but we started to get lucky with birds today. Laird got close to this raptor (we’re not sure what species):

Any guesses as to what this is?

And Jason got a good look at a turkey vulture, which were soaring all around the peak today.

A Turkey Vulture over LCO. Click for resolution.
The vultures were everywhere today. Click for full wingspan.

The Viscacha was seen several times inside the ASB last night. Tyson put in a solid effort to get a movie of it, including some cookie bait, but his camera had shut off when the moment happened. We are all in agreement that the “Cleanroom Viscacha” is actually at least two individuals. There’s a cute one, which watched us pack up the NAS, and there’s the grumpy faced one that we first saw. Here’s grumpy (by Jason):

The grumpy Viscacha.

Finally, while we waited for the time to be right for mounting the NAS, I took a tour of the Clay Telescope:

Days without a motherboard failure: 8