Reassembly and Outside

With the telescope disassembled, inspected and cleaned, it is ready to be put back together again. Then the mirrors get aligned in preparation for focus testing.

Reassembly also starts in gondola land. On a nice sunny morning, I take a walk around the highbay.

Leeav setting up the telescopes ground-testing mount

Marking the center of the secondary mirror

For alignment

Giving the mirror a final wash

Dish soap and water is the cleaner of choice

Reinstalling the primary mirror

Checking alignment

With a slightly startled Jurgen

And startled Barth

The locals are beginning to notice my presence.

Burgers for lunch

Thanks to John

Mathew prepares counterweights on the telescope mount

Looking into the telescocpe

Vy works on laser alignment

Laser alignment target

Please do not touch! Optical alignment going on!

Javier repairs some power wires

Inside the master control computer box

The tip-tilt mirror

This provides fine correction for the telescope wobbling around

Outside the highbay, looking west

On a nice sunny morning

The concrete post

Showing signs of having once served some purpose

Looking towards the launch pad

Storage shed

Fire truck

Hidden resting spot

Behind the highbay

Installing the reaction wheel

Aldous helps from below

Working on "the boat"

The BIT outer frame is boatlike (other than the holes near the bottom...)

Installing boxes

Fine tuning mirror alignment

The collimator telescope set up

This produces light that looks like it comes from far away, to test the main telescope with a fake "star"

Looking through the collimator

Jurgen cleans the collimator mirror

Laser alignment of the secondary mirror

Steven and Javier check the alignment