The GD guys finished installing the last of the adapters into the junk sockets this morning, and they finally lifted the primary out of the cradle and the box. I cant believe we dont have to sit in that box working overhead anymore.
They lifted the primary at four points, with the ability to tilt the primary once it was in the air, so we could set it down level and reposition the crane.
After all the trouble with the adapters, I expected the primary to not mount at all. It did take a long time, the hardest part was hitting all six threaded rods at the same time, without enough access. The primary did eventually slip on.
Next up was the secondary, but that proved to have other interesting problems. We have not tried to move the elevation very much, and it turned out that the imbalance was pretty bad. Al did something clever, which was to use the anchor points to ratchet down the elevation enough to first mount some weightlifting weights, then get the secondary in.
Incredibly, the secondary went in without indecent, but the boom looks funny with the weight hanging. They also ended up removing about 1500 lbs of counter weight, so now the boom is easier to move.
On another note, flies have made it to the site, and so have some anti-fly measures. This particular device sounds horrible. A fly attractor-filled bag is filled with water, and when the flies enter, they drown. The bag is supposed to hold a thousand flies.
The most hilarious thing that happened today was Marius spilling the fly juice on himself while trying to mount the fly trap. Yum.
Overall, a very productive day, and the telescope finally looks like a telescope. Tomorrow the outer ring shield panels go on, and it should really look cool.
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