I have not posted in a long time because the last week had been grueling. I have been up all night in the dark for about five days, and I think I have finally recovered.
We did photogrammetry, and have had mixed results. The primary still appears okay, although I do not think that our setup is precise enough to see something subtle. The panels have also been aligned, except for one. The measurements were showing that one of the panels was off by 0.08 inches, while the rest were about 10X closer. Al came up with a way to suck down the bad panel, but in the process, he and Brian found that the panel was actually resting on the Primary.
After yanking the panel off, however, it sill looks like Al's contraption will have to be installed after all, a job for tomorrow.
But I am getting ahead of myself, we were hit by a couple of problems, the first was that it rained on almost every night, and we not only lost the time that it was raining, but I am also afraid that the mirror would do weird thermal drifting while drying.
In the end, we were not able to align the secondary. I think the problems were in both the software, and the adjustment mechanism. I think I will work on both, an then we will try again. They cryostat mount is still not here, so it is likely that Jay, the photogrammetry person, will have to come back in a few months to try again.
Pictures will be coming later
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