Dave's Turn

Albert and Brian are arriving super early these days, and they were able to check the balance of the telescope before we arrived. San Jose had requested that they do the standard balance test, by measuring the torque required to move the telescope at many different elevations. It turns out that the orientation seen below is the min torque, meaning that the center of mass is right above the elevation axis. The plan is to now add counterweights below the axis, and we are waiting for San Jose to make a recommendation.


There is a minor problem with the elevation cable wrap, it hangs on one of the counterwieght bolts.


Brian was able to rinse away all most of the residue from the recent rain. This photo also shows the current gaps in the panels. We are still waiting for a recommendation on how to deal with the panel hardware interference.



It was Dave's turn to crawl into the hole today to redo the shims. He spent half the time with his legs hanging out of hole, and just like in the cartoons, he kept kicking them around as he was squirming around in the the yoke.


He had to poke his head out once in awhile to let the blood drain.


We re-created the scene in the box for the blog.




Here's how we left the telescope today. It is in sad polarbear orientation, but I am actually happy that our problems are slowly getting resolved.