Gondola Mounting Action (Featuring Cryostat)

Update 22 June 2010: I’ve added some images acquired from Juan’s camera (of the evening’s barbecue).

The scoop and star cameras were removed yesterday. This was to facilitate gyro box orientation tests, and for mounting the cryostat. Also mounted were the receiver crate, DAS (data acquisition system), a new photodiode sun sensor, a transmitter, and […]

Beam Maps, etc

Update 22 June 2010: I’ve added some images acquired from Juan’s camera.

Not a lot of pictures were taken yesterday. I had broken the DAS with a code update and spent a while wrestling with that. Afterwards, we used the XY-stage to make a map of the beam coming out of the cryostat.

FTS Tests and Successfully Pointing

Update 22 June 2010: I’ve added some images acquired from Juan’s camera.

Yesterday was a day for detector tests, while the cryostat is still off the gondola. Several FTS runs were made at different waveplate positions, and the XY stage was set up for beam mapping. In the evening, a small team stuck around to […]

Scoop, Star Camera, FTS, Pointing

Update 22 June 2010: I’ve added some images acquired from Juan’s camera.

Yesterday the scoop was finally mounted; it is very cool. The second star camera was also mounted. Our number increased again as Enzo and Andrei arrived. Enzo opened up the FTS to get it ready. In the evening, after pizza and beer, the […]

Side Scoop, Helium, Star Camera

Update 22 June 2010: I’ve added some images acquired from Juan’s camera.

Yesterday Juan fully assembled his amazing side scoop. It couldn’t be mounted yet because he wanted to mark all the parts so that people other than him would be able to assemble it. The cryostat team started the many hours and several liquid […]

Shooting!

Chris Field, a CSBF flight engineer with a good Texan-sized gun collection, asked us yesterday if we’d like to go shoot some of his guns. The answer, naturally, was yes. (Sorry Natalie, we couldn’t say no.)

So, at about 6:30 we headed to the shooting range close to the base. Chris had brought an AK-47, […]

More Gluing and Mirror, Plus Outside

Yestrday saw more gluing of the side scoop, more mirror alignment, and our second barbecue (this time without pouring rain!). Juan also went exploring a bit and took some good outdoor shots (apologies for awkwardly alliterative appellation).

The day was also sad, since we lost Natalie and Barth. They will both be back, but it […]

More Gluing, Mirror Mounting, World Cup Distracting

Yesterday Juan and Natalie glued the second layer of the side scoop, liquid nitrogen filling of the cryostat started, and the mirrors were mounted. There was also the England vs. USA match in the World Cup, which distracted a large portion of the team. Especially when the English keeper let in a terrible goal.

In […]

Gluing and Mirror Assembly

Other than coding (which yields very exciting pictures, and huge amounts of movement in timelapse videos) yesterday’s work consisted of the beginnings of side-scoop gluing, and assembly of the primary/secondary mirror.

After dinner we had a few drinks outside the hotel. One of the locals brought over a frog to which he had given a […]

Orthogonalizing, Aligning, Tubes, and Other Fun

Yesterday Natalie reothogonalized the gyroscopes, complicated by extra tape and paint added since last time. Mark worked on laser-aligning things in the optics box and gave an impromptu Optics 101 lecture. Half of the carbon fiber tubes for the side scoop arrived, but not the half that would allow Juan to start gluing. The other […]