Radiotelescope RIP (continued - I)

The dish, pedestal, and just about anything else left were picked up
with a crane, cut in pieces, and carted off in a big truck.  Here's
a shot of the scene of destruction.






Radiotelescope RIP (continued - II)

Naturally, some stuff got, well, squashed.  For example the
feedhorns.  Here's 19 tons of polar-axis counterweight showing one
of the horns who's boss.






Radiotelescope RIP (continued - III)

The general method involved liberal use of chopsaws and of cutting
torches.  Here's a fearless saw operator at work.






Radiotelescope RIP (continued - IV)

And here's a piece of artistic whimsy that its creator seemed quite
proud of.






In With the New

Meanwhile, up at the allsky optical telescope, we've completed a
long-planned upgrade to the optical detector.  It involved replacing
the eight "daughterboards" of the allsky camera with improved boards,
such that the system is now approximately five times as sensitive:
It now triggers on ~20 photons per square meter, compared with its
previous threshold of ~100 photons per square meter.  Here's a photo
of the camera backend, with the new daughterboards in place.  Notice
the connections to both pairs of power rails, delivering the extra
voltages needed for the new amplifiers.  This new system reliably
detects "Gelfand-II" flashes steered to any pixel in the full array.
We are now beginning a second scan of the full northern sky, along
with reobservations of all "interesting" locations from the first
year's observations.






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