Blog
We installed the first pieces of the telescope at Site #2 today. The pedestal and fork are now in place, along with the HA and fork counterweights. The crane had another fuel line issue this morning after the installation of the pedestal, so we went and unloaded the rest of the parts from the container while the mechanic fixed the problem. While finishing the installation of the fork, the weather turned bad so we closed up the dome and headed back to the dormitory until things cleared up. We were able to install some counterweights on the fork this afternoon, as well as get the HA drive mecha...
2017-09-02
#Telescopes
We finished preparations for the telescope installation yesterday. All the pier holes are finished, and the domes, lift tables, and hoists are all operational. The cranes also arrived yesterday. (We are using two cranes: a large crane to do the lifting and a smaller crane with a flatbed to pull the parts from the containers and transload them to the sites.) The small crane arrived at the observatory last night, while the large crane made it as far as the park entrance since it needed to be delivered on a large flatbed trailer. This morning we began the work of transloading the telescope pedest...
2017-09-01
#Telescopes
I got back to SPM yesterday with Ian Huss and Justus Drake from DFM Engineering to start work on the telescope installation. The crane will arrive in time to begin the heavy lifting Thursday morning, but we wanted to spend a couple days preparing. In short, we need to get all of the nuts, bolts, and various pieces of equipment required for the heavy lifting organized and put into place. In addition, we wanted to get the big parts in the containers ready for the lift, so we need to unbolt everything from the containers, and get the rigging set up as much as possible. Finally, we need to prepare...
2017-08-30
#Telescopes
I will arrive at SPM Monday afternoon August 28 with Ian and Justus from DFM Engineering. We will have a couple days of preparation work (drilling and tapping a few large holes in the piers), and the crane work will start on the 31st. We expect to finish all of the heavy lifting by September 8.
2017-08-20
#Enclosures
My trip to Mexico is over. We wrapped up a few things before I left. In no particular order:Electrical power:The transformer at Site #2 that brings power to Site #3 died, so no electricity at Site #3. Electrical crew should be replacing it this week, as well as installing a new and improved ground system at tall of the sites.Dome azimuth home switches:We got it installed correctly at Site #2. This was after we broke one of the switches because there was a low-hanging bolt on the hydraulics that I missed, it snapped off the top of the switch as it moved by while rotating the dome. We replaced t...
2017-08-20
#Telescopes
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...
2017-08-10
#Domes
We installed the domes at Sites #2 and #3 this morning. Everything went very well. This afternoon we got the dome at Site #2 leveled and powered up. We will do the same for the other two domes tomorrow.Here are the photos from the installation at Site #3.Crane setting up early this morning.
Crane with spreader bar.
Straps hooked to spreader bar.
Completing the rigging.
Rigging complete. Ready to start lift.
Start of lift.
I'm on my way to the top with the socket set...
Mauricio relaying instructions via radio from the top of the enclosure to the cra...
2017-08-09
#Enclosures
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....
2017-08-09
#Domes
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...
2017-08-07
#Domes
Here is an update on things at SPM.Domes: We are negotiating with a new crane company after the one we were dealing with couldn't commit to a date to bring a sufficiently large crane to SPM for the dome installation. The new company is a bit more expensive, but they are a larger company and they so far seem quite a bit more professional. They will visit the site Saturday to see what needs to be done, and the UNAM crew is pushing to get them to commit to do the installation next week.We finished the installation of the "slit hoists" in the domes today. These are bars that hang from each of the...
2017-07-28
#Enclosures
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...
2017-07-20
#Domes
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.
2017-07-19
#Domes