All the panels are on the reflector!

For those of you who keep up with the other SPT blogs, you might have already heard, but all 218 precision-machined, aluminum panels are on the reflector! This was a huge milestone for us. The following is a transcription of Tom's transcription of Jeff's email to the collaboration to announce this exciting news:


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Hi all,

Last night we placed the last panel on the bus, and here is the
picture to prove it. The dish may look flat, but that is just the
fish eye undoing its curvature- every indication is that it is very
close to the correct shape. Just wanted to send out a picture so
you can share in our enthusiasm.

-Jeff


ps. The sun dog picture is from right after we finished.

The (almost) fully populated reflector:

Auspicious omens in the sky on the occasion of the placement of panel #218:

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So we get to go home now, right Steve? Actually, I know full well that I will (gladly) be here until the end of January. After all, this is only 1 of 3 BIG MILESTONES for the season. The other two are

2) installation of the optics cryostat, an automobile-sized, very fancy metal box that holds our secondary mirror (a 1-meter diameter mirror)
3) installation of the receiver, our astoundingly fancy camera, built by our collaborators at UC Berkeley. (By the way, I promise to give these components of the South Pole Telescope a better description in a later post).

In fact these two installations will happen in parallel. I will most likely be helping with installing the optics cryostat, which should be a lot of fun (and stress!).