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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 officially completed the installation of the domes early this evening. We leveled each dome (or rather, we checked and found that they were installed level when we placed each dome on the top of the enclosures), installed some rubber sealing around the bases, greased up the dome tracks,  got all of the control boxes and cables hooked up, and tested that everything still worked. No photos today, all of the exciting stuff was during the past couple days, and there is nothing really new to see.I now plan to wrap up the remaining work on my list so I can get out of here for a little bit. Tomorr...

The dome at Site #1 was lifted into place yesterday. The lift went well, although it started getting a bit scary at the end since the wind started picking up while we were setting the dome down. The dome fit into place fairly easily, and it was successfully bolted down onto the ring beam. We will level the dome and install the power tomorrow. Here are some photos.Crane setting up at the enclosure site. Installing the boom extension. Getting the cable set up with the boom extension. Boom extension ready. Crane ready for the lift. Spreader bar on the crane. Start of lift....

The large crane arrived at the park entrance today. They will drive it the rest of the way to the observatory early tomorrow morning. Brandon from Ash will arrive here tomorrow afternoon, so with any luck we will get the first dome installed by the end of the day.I spent the week mostly working on the panels for the dome control boxes and installing lights. Not exciting work, but it needs to be done before I finish my trip here. Made quite a bit of progress, so not much left to do after the domes are installed. I should be out if here early next week.I will post photos tomorrow if we make any...

As mentioned in the previous post, the crane company sent up a crane that was too small to install the domes. Instead we lifted the scissors lift tables up to the observing floor on all three enclosures. The installation is not complete, since we still need to bolt the tables down and install the hydraulics. This will be done after the domes are installed. Installation at Site #1:Lifting hydraulics. Lifting hydraulics. Beginning to lift scissors lift table. Scissors lift table coming into observing chamber. As mentioned, crane was too small to reach center of enclosure. This is as close as...

The crane company sent up a crane that was too small for the job. It could not extend far enough to get the dome centered on the enclosure. We are working with the company to schedule a larger crane to come to the site. Updates will be posted once I hear anything.

The painters got the inside of the enclosure at Site #2 primed today. Here is a photo.

We got back to work on the dome at Site #3. We built the roof and got the shutter tracks installed. Tomorrow we will try to get all of the braces installed inside. We had to leave the mountain twice today because of thunderstorms, so hopefully the weather is better tomorrow. Here is a photo of the dome at the end of the day today.

We finished the dome at Site #1 this afternoon. Everything is working well. Photos below. Replacement shutter arriving at SPM. Drilling hydraulic arm mounting holes on lower shutter. Installation of lower shutter. Installation of lower shutter. Dome at Site #1 after completion.

Today we got the shutter tracks sealed with putty, got the upper shutter installed with the motor and drive, and got the electrical installation completed. The replacement  bottom shutter got flagged for further inspection when going across the border this morning, so they only got as far as Ensenada today. They will now deliver the shutter tomorrow afternoon. After delivery, we will have the dome completed within a couple hours.Here are a couple photos from today: First top shutter section being lifted into place. Middle top shutter section being lifted into place. Top shutter compl...