Monthly Archives: September 2016

Week of September 19th

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Big Thunderstorm

One of the many powerful thunderstorms that passed by us this month. This one produced hail just north of the HET.

This week we finally had a break in the stormy weather and started wave front sensor commissioning.  A team from Austin came out and installed an imager and wave front sensor in the IHMP (Input Head Mounting Plate) to calibrate all other wave front sensors on the telescope.  These devices once calibrated will help keep the tracker in perfect alignment with the mirror to optimize the observations we are taking for science.  This will be the main focus for the next month.  Hopefully the weather is more cooperative than it has been.  If you would like to see a time-lapse of some of the recent storms follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shRD2WmPWd4

The week of August 15th

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Virus and Controllers

16 Virus units and their controllers lined up in the HET receiving bay. The controllers are the small boxes near the center of the image.

This week has been a busy one for the virus units at the HET.  All of the virus units were removed from the enclosure, backfilled, pumped to vacuum and reinstalled.  While doing this cooling fans were installed on all of the virus controllers to help keep the electronics cool.  They hope that this will make the virus system a bit more stable.

The HET has been churning out lots of science during dark time this month as well.  All groups that have submitted targets have received data!