Final Installation and first light:
8/16/03 - 8/18/03
Alan Dressler installs a slit mask on Monday morning.
All optics installed for the f/2 system. The dewar is installed on the back of the camera (left center of image).
Bruce Bigelow installing a guide camera the hard way...
The f/4 camera shutter in first light position. Both shutters must be installed for the shutter controller to function, but the f/4 camera is not yet installed.
Time to install the instrument enclosure panels...
The rear panels are brought up on the equipment lift (left of image).
Rear cover and panels installed.
Alan Bagish installs the rear, side, and door panels for the electronics racks.
Rear view of racks - both are cooled by a single heat exchanger.
Installing the center panels.
IMACS on the west platform of Baade (Magellan I).
Mark Phillips inspects the enclosure panels from the equipment lift..
Mark Phillips and Frank Perez.
Ready for first light! The bulge on the side of the center panels covers the 8K array when installed on the f/4 camera.
One last look at the dewar and f/2 filter changer (both blue). The orange lines are fiber-optic cables for the data lines out of the CCD controller. Yellow hoses are for liquid cooling of the CCD controller electronics (plumbing not yet installed).
Dave Osip re-installs a guide camera "in the pit".
Bruce Bigelow, Alan Dressler, and Brian Sutin at the control computers. Dave Osip, Mike Gladders, and Gus Oemler look on.
Skip Schaller and Bruce Bigelow watch the Shack-Hartmann sensor output.
Christoph Birk was present in voice (on the speaker phone) and spirit.
Alan starts the first-light exposure.
Bruce, Alan, and Brian watch the detectors read out...
And a galaxy (NGC 253) appears!
IMACS is off and running - 0.55 arcsec images (center) and a 27 arcmin FOV