<\/a>Telescope in middle boat <\/div>
With AC-blocking tent, which also proves useful for leaks during the rain storm<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Collimator telescope <\/div>
Pointed down, because the main telescope must point up a bit in its frame<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Vibrolator <\/div>
A gadget John cooked up to shake the inner frame at a fixed frequency, during fine-pointing tests<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Mess of hastily connected cables <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>RAIN! <\/div>
There has been a lot of this lately<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Outer frame up on jack stands <\/div>
So that the ballast hopper can be test fit<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>The top of the outer frame <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Outer frame in the air <\/div>
As its lowered back down<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Aldous and Mathew Shinifying <\/div>
The outer frame must be covered in aluminized mylar, to prevent overheating in the sun.<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Barth operates the crane <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Javier lines things up <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Now the middle frame up on jack stands <\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Vy and John install the cooling strap for the main science camera <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Fully assembled baffle tube <\/div>
Prevents stray light, and has lots of heaters to control the telescope's thermal environment<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Not-quite fledgling swallows being fed <\/div>
At the hotel<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Last minute modification of the inner frame computer <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>The guts of the IFC <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>The master control computer gets a foam box <\/div>
To keep it warm<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Neatly routed cables <\/div>
Remember that mess earlier? This makes me happy.<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>More cable routing <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Inner frame electronics, ready to install <\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Heater control box <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Steven searches for junk with a magnet <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Finds a few nuts and a bunch of ball bearings <\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>![\"Screwing](\"https:\/\/c7.staticflickr.com\/8\/7541\/27374053566_11daa98f17_n.jpg\")
While I was away on my day-trip to Fort Sumner, assembly of the telescope into the gondola structure was started. The goal was testing it in its flight configuration…and eventually flying. Asmebly continued over a couple days, with intermixed stretches of testing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530"}],"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=6530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6531,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530\/revisions\/6531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}