Today the construction of the Ground Screen frame was completed, soon all the panels will be installed and it would become more difficult to actually view the Telescope.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Done
Today the construction of the Ground Screen frame was completed, soon all the panels will be installed and it would become more difficult to actually view the Telescope.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Almost there...
The ground shield frame that surrounds the telescope is nearly finished, the last supporting stand should go up tomorrow morning together with the remaining cross members. The panels will take probably another week. Today the also delivered the new generators and we received some material from AMEC that was left behind. Mike Cozza and Jeff Funke (Kuka) arrived later this evening, soon we could have the telescope moving.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Steady progress
Between being very busy and the network behaving badly it's been more than a week since my last post. A lot has happened. Lyman has left on Sunday morning and on the same day in the evening Rolando Dunner arrived from Santiago. We have installed the new final cables between the generator and the Equipment Room (ER) in buried PVC conduit. We also have installed a Cat 5 cable in another buried conduit between the ER and the communication tower. Most of the cables connecting the motion control cabinet (Kuka cabinet) and the telescope are neatly laid down in the trays and connected. The two racks in the ER are also being populated with computers and network equipments. Meanwhile ConPax is busy finishing the ground screen, the frame is more than 50% completed and nearly all the two first panels rows are installed.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Getting there...
The last few days have have been characterized by the arrival of new people: on Friday Adam Hincks, yesterday Lyman Page and today Ye Zhou (AMEC). In the meanwhile the work at the site is proceeding: the telescope motion control electronics (aka the Kuka cabinet) is now in the Equipment Room ready to be reconnected, the telescope's side ground screen has been installed and ConPax started erecting the ground screen. In San Pedro we installed the 4' parabolic dish that together with the 2' one already installed at Cerro Toco will make possible operating the the telescope remotely. Our effort in the next few days will be concentrated in getting the telescope rewired and getting the remote link operational.
If you want to ready a more detailed description of our daily activities check out Adam's new Chile Journal
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Installation Video
I took a video while the 125 Tons crane was moving the Telescope from the cradle used for transportation to its mount. The original video file was huge but today I finally found a moment to re-encode it and post it. The first few seconds are blurry (it's YouTube's fault) but the rest is ok.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
The Telescope is here
Has been 3 days since the last post, the reason being we were very busy.
It all started on Thursday (3/8) when our friend from Astro-Norte on their way to Calama spotted two big oversized loads parked on the side of the San Pedro's bypass. The reason they stopped there turned out to be the fact they have to wait for the night for San Pedro's utility company to cut down the remaining 3 power lines that separated our precious load from the "Paso de Jama" road. This is the road that through the Jama pass connects Chile with Argentina and it's also our main way to Cerro Toco, at least until we abandon it for the dirt road.
The day after we went up the mountain fairly early sure to catch the Telescope on its way up but they beat us. They left around two in the morning and made it up the mountain around nine. By the end of the day the Telescope mount was unloaded and ready to be installed on the concrete pad, but it was late and we decide to postpone it to the morning after.
Today was a really busy day: the Telescope's mount went on by the middle of the morning, in the meanwhile our "very" temporary generator was put in operation. In the afternoon we finally had the "big lift": the Telescope was lifted from its transport cradle and installed on the mount that was bolted down to the concrete pad early today. Toward the end of the day two more containers arrived, they were loaded with steel beams to erect the ground screen. Yesterday Madhuri arrived and this afternoon (i.e. Chilean morning) she helped set the Adobe container in its final location.
It all started on Thursday (3/8) when our friend from Astro-Norte on their way to Calama spotted two big oversized loads parked on the side of the San Pedro's bypass. The reason they stopped there turned out to be the fact they have to wait for the night for San Pedro's utility company to cut down the remaining 3 power lines that separated our precious load from the "Paso de Jama" road. This is the road that through the Jama pass connects Chile with Argentina and it's also our main way to Cerro Toco, at least until we abandon it for the dirt road.
The day after we went up the mountain fairly early sure to catch the Telescope on its way up but they beat us. They left around two in the morning and made it up the mountain around nine. By the end of the day the Telescope mount was unloaded and ready to be installed on the concrete pad, but it was late and we decide to postpone it to the morning after.
Today was a really busy day: the Telescope's mount went on by the middle of the morning, in the meanwhile our "very" temporary generator was put in operation. In the afternoon we finally had the "big lift": the Telescope was lifted from its transport cradle and installed on the mount that was bolted down to the concrete pad early today. Toward the end of the day two more containers arrived, they were loaded with steel beams to erect the ground screen. Yesterday Madhuri arrived and this afternoon (i.e. Chilean morning) she helped set the Adobe container in its final location.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Construction site
The telescope has not arrived yet but the Cerro Toco site has been buzzing with activities. Both our containers: the 40' Silver and the 20' White one are in their final locations. These two container will serve as control room and hardware integration room respectively.
With the help of ConPax (the site main contractor) we installed the jib crane and we also put together the top extension to the White Container (a.k.a. Kinco), it will be installed tomorrow. Today we also received a temporary electric generator that will power the telescope for the initial trial period; two larger generators will be installed when we reach full capacity. ConPax has been busy getting ready to receive the telescope and unloading containers full of all the construction material needed to erect the ground screen that will surround the telescope.
With the help of ConPax (the site main contractor) we installed the jib crane and we also put together the top extension to the White Container (a.k.a. Kinco), it will be installed tomorrow. Today we also received a temporary electric generator that will power the telescope for the initial trial period; two larger generators will be installed when we reach full capacity. ConPax has been busy getting ready to receive the telescope and unloading containers full of all the construction material needed to erect the ground screen that will surround the telescope.
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