Last week the BLAST cryostat arrived to begin the first full(-ish) integration of BLASTpol. Upon arrival it was undressed and bore its tender bits, to have travel legs replaced with thermally isolating ones. Also the HWPR (pronounced “hooper”, despite what Natalie may say about whatever the “whipper” is) had to be removed and sent immediately to Cardiff. The opening of the cryostat and optics box is an exciting moment, so Juan and I took a lot of pictures.
Matt and Tony arrived with the cryostat, and Nick had been here for a little while already.
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- The cryostat is first flipped upside-down to access the bottom bits
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- It’s hat is lifted off by the crane
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- …only to hang ominously in midair
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- Matt removes a layer of insulation to reveal…more insulation
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- Nick vs. medium-sized gloves. Winner: Nick
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- To remove further insulation requires detaching thermometers
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- Nick and Matt share a moment
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- After several Russian nesting dolls of insulation, the excitement builds
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- …and builds
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- …until the optics box is revealed
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- On one side: a cryo BOB and fancy woven-manganin cables
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- Closeup of wiring
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- Closeup of Cryo BOB
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- On the front, the vacuum window
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- And on the other side, the fridge
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- And at the back a leg. It’s aluminum for travel, but is replaced to be more thermally isolating
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- Another travel leg
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- The optics box has a special removable platform to be opened onto
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- Before it can be opened, some pesky bolts must be removed
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- The optics box is carefully tipped onto its platform
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- Inside is a black space, with the HWPR beneath
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- Closeup of the HWPR
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- Inside the optics box can be seen cables and the base of M4 (with Lyot stop)
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- On the top side (opened to find a bolt that had rattled loose during shipping) can be seen M5 and the dichroic filters
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- Nick vs. sticking metal legs. Winner: metal legs
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- A detector array (500um) and feed-horn stack
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- The other (250um, 350um) arrays, and their alignment mirrors
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- The optics box, as seen by submm light
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- The whole front side revealed (that loose bolt was awfully tricky)
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- Near the cryostat’s eventual new home: the preamp crate
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- The DAS, below the preamp on their lab rack
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- The preamp and DAS together: the brains of BLAST (the ACS is the heart)
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- Unrelated arts and crafts: I had to make lens caps for star camera baffles. Turns out frisbees we had lying around are the perfect size
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- I climb the front of the inner frame to cap the star camera (courtesy Matt Truch, via flickr)
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