We got some test images last night at Site #2 using a small Andor Zila CMOS camera.
Photos and some test images are shown below.
Enrique and Bosco installing camera mounting fixture on telescope.
Temporarily installing filter holder to see how it fits.
Installing camera on filter plate.
Reinstalling filter plate with camera.
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We worked to finish as much as we can at Site #2 today. We fixed an unhappy servo motor on the Dec axis (motor encoder was mounted a bit off center), and got the dome home switch working with the TCS software.
We finished the modifications on the camera mounting adapter, and we will try again to take some images tonight.
If all goes well tonight, we will try to move the control electronics form the observing room t...
I arrived at SPM yesterday afternoon with Mark Kelley from DFM Engineering to start wrapping up the work on the telescope installation. We are starting on fixing the wiring and other electrical issues, and we will finish up fixing the HA backlash problems at Sites #1 and #3.
So far we have gotten all of the dome controller boxes working, fixed one of the focus problems at Site #1.
I will stay here until April...
We fixed the dome shutter problem at Site #3 today. We had to replace one of the rollers and grind a bit off of the roller mounting bracket. We also pulled the tracks closer together at the bottom of the range of motion for the upper shutter. The whole process only took about 2 hours.
All lthree domes are working correctly now.
We finished installing the mirrors and we spent the past few days working on getting the telescopes aligned and operating. Ian is going back to San Diego tomorrow and will fly home Saturday, and I will be here a few more days to finish up some things.Almost everything is working now, but there are still a few issues that need to be fixed. Ian is working on a plan to return with someone else from DFM to help him out....
We finished installing the mirrors on the telescopes this afternoon. We ran into a snag Wednesday when we found a possible mixup in the secondary mirrors, and we found out this morning that the mirrors for Sites #1 and #2 were in the wrong crates. We swapped them today and finished early this afternoon. After installation of the mirrors at each site, we went ahead and adjusted the counterweights to bring the system i...
We got the primary mirror and mirror cell installed on the telescope at Site #2 today. I will post photos after we get the secondary mirror and focus housing installed tomorrow.
We got the secondary mirror and focus housing installed on the telescope at Site #1 this morning. We then worked on the primary installation at Site #2 in the afternoon. We are ready to glue on the radial support blocks first thing in the morningHere are photos of the secondary mirror and focus housing installation. (Some of the photos are form yesterday, before we gave up for the day.)Secondary mirror rigged up and...
Today we installed the primary mirror on the first telescope, at Site #1. The operation went very well, with no problems to report. We worked on the installation of the secondary mirror this afternoon as well, but we found a couple holes in the truss ring that needed to be countersunk, so we will do that tomorrow morning and finish the installation then.Here are photos of the primary mirror installation this morning....
We started installation of the primary mirror into the mirror cell at Site #1 this morning. We got the mirror centered and leveled relative to the mirror cell, then at the end of the day we were able to glue the blocks onto the side of the mirror which are attached to the radial support arms. We left the mirror cell covered with a space heater underneath to help cure the glue overnight, and we plan to install the mir...
We finished assembling the main telescope structures and installing all of the cables this morning. We are now ready to start the installation of the mirrors in each of the telescopes.Here is the telescope structure at Site #1 after completion this morning.
Here is some drone footage showing the TAOS II sites.Aerial view of SPM at sunset. The TAOS II sites are in the distance.
Here is a drone video of the TAOS II sites.
Your browser does not support the video tag. Thanks to Eduardo Lopez for the photo and video.
