<\/a>BLASTPol <\/div>
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<\/a>Mark cleans the mirror <\/div>
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<\/a>The plug removed, cryostat window visible <\/div>
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<\/a>Shutter closed <\/div>
Because both are white, this doesn't look a lot different than the window<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Reinstalling the plug <\/div>
Using the patented reaching rod also useful for star camera covers<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>The cleaned telescope <\/div>
In profile, slightly<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>The Side Scoop of Joy <\/div>
Giant mylar-covered carbon fiber structure that lets us observe very close to the sun<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Lifting the scoop <\/div>
It's not very heavy, but it is somewhat unwieldy<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Barth guides from the mezzanine <\/div>
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<\/a>Tyr guides from the ground <\/div>
With a tag line<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Elio prepares to guide in front of the telescope <\/div>
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<\/a>Getting closer <\/div>
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<\/a>![Using "The Convincer" \u2022 <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/27717602@N03\/8268692208\/" target="_blank">View on Flickr<\/a>](https:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8080\/8268692208_356ee8ef95_m.jpg "Using \\"The Convincer\\"")
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<\/a>![\"Wrestling](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8493\/8268691724_cba6d9354f_n.jpg\" "\\"Wrestling")
Yesterday we installed the Side-Scoop of Joy, now that there’s enough free space in the highbay. This is a large sun shield structure mounted around the telescope; the joy is due to it allowing us to observe desirable regions, which during the Antarctic summer are very close to the sun. Because this makes the mirror much less accessible, some last mirror touch-ups were conducted first. Plus, the mirror and scoop are both shiny. Today has a shiny theme. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6051"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6055,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051\/revisions\/6055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}