CFHT, at work, A day at the summit - Index

Welcome to CFHT! Here's a small tour illustrating a typical day at the summit during an instrument change. Enjoy!
In the early morning, inside the dome... The 3.6m telescope is standing still, resting from the previous night. Ready for some action?
Personnel from the daycrew preparing the f/35 secondary mirror on the top-end ring to replace...
... the actual Prime Focus top-end. A giant claw is carefully brought around the ring...
... getting there...
Got ya! Time to go down...
Hello, please to meet you!
During that time, others are working at the other end of the telescope, taking off the instrument to be replaced (here, the Adaptive Optics Bonnette, or PUEO).
Tom in the cage and getting ready to grab the other top-end.
And up you go ...
A little bit more ...
Done ! And now we have a very different telescope
Some of the team take a break ...
... while some other work on the mezzanine, preparing an instrument, the Fourier Transform Spectrograph (FTS).
Working at the summit makes you hungry ...
Let's go for a ride to replace the electronic crates. It helps to digest the food!
Getting ready to move the AOB...
... back to...
... the mezzanine where it will rest until the next run.
Getting the Cassegrain environment ready for FTS...
Attaching the cables to the top of the FTS...
...and on the telescope floor you go! The instrument is mounted on a special support...
... and slowly put on the platform
FTS is now installed on the telescope!
The technical team discussing some aspects of the instrument installation.
Right voltage? Yeah!
Cables, cables, cables....
At the other end, some action is still taking place. Here, a baffling system is removed with the crane.
Paniolo Grant is getting ready for...
Going up? Mooommmmmy !
Wow! Nice view isn't it? Uh, can we just finish this cabling job and go down, pleeeaaease?
The telescope is now ready for some tests ...
... under the vigilance of the Roger and Yasu
Inside, in the control room, another team is starting the telescope balancing and instrument setup.
The computer room which is the brain of the telescope control system ...
Balancing the telescope - moving this way...
..or the other way...
Tom checking some electrical circuits. Ah, we should be able to open the dome tonight!
In the back room, the setup of the instrument is taking place.
Hmmm, we are getting signal. That's good.
Perfect! We're done!
Everybody has left and the control room is ready to welcome the observing assistant and the astronomers!
Well, maybe, if they can reach the dome through the fog... We did all that for this weather???
No comments!
And this is Hawai'i?