Telescope Maintenance

This week in pole was spent repairing the telescope. Early in the week, we discovered that the central column of the AZ Wrap was in contact with one of the sets of cables it guides from the control room to the telescope. After the protective wrapping eroded away, the top of the central column basically turned into a saw and cut the five power cables that run to the deicing system. Shorts occurring during the process also caused faults on the regen system, which is on the same three-phase power as the deicing system. 

The damage.

With the help of one of the ice cube winter-overs and the machinist, we were able to repair the break in the deicing line. In order to prevent further disruption of the lines by the AZ wrap, we had to adjust the wrap itself. 

Repairing the AZ Wrap

The AZ Wrap guides cables and the compressor tubes from the control room up into the telescope. It ensures the cables are properly guided as the telescope slews over 360 degrees of motion. The cables are guided up by an extremely large spring, which allows the wrap to expand and contract as the telescope slews in CW and CCW directions. By expanding the top of the spring outward by a few inches to avoid further rubbing of cables on the central column, the entire dynamics of the wrap were altered, and few days had to be spent changing the wrap setup. There is still work to be done, but for now we are at least back to observing again. 

Extras:

• Really, who designed the AZ wrap anyway?

Next Week in Pole: South Pole Telescope observations of the planet Nibiru

Surviving the Cold

People often ask what type of winter gear is necessary to survive the cold. After the sun had set, temperatures steadily dropped form the minus 30s/40s into the minus 80s. Typically, temperatures seem to hover around -70 / -80 F. Cloud cover increases the temperature, and of course if there is a wind the wind-chill temp can be below -100. We should get some ambient temperatures below 100 F sometime during the winter. Temperatures below about -117 are almost impossible because at that point the CO2 starts condensing out of the atmosphere.

When going outside, I wear: wool socks, FDX boots, long underwear, carhart overalls, wool liners, hand warmers, knit wool gloves, bear paw gloves, fleece pullover, big read canadian goose parka, neck gator, hat, face mask, goggles, and the red headlamp. We always use red lights outside so we don't interfere with any scientific instruments (the station is boarded up as well so there is no light pollution). I use the face mask to prevent my goggles from fogging up. I also strap on my camera tripod.

Generally, all that gears keeps one comfortably warm in most cold weather. An exception is with high wind (> 15 kts). When there's wind, the cold finds a way.

Aurora Season

It has been a while since my last post. Work at the telescope has been really busy. But from now on I will try to make a post a week.

The update for now is that we have started to see the aurora, like this one:




And here's a picture from earlier today:

I'll post more about aurora hunting/happenings in the future, so stay tuned.