After 10 days of heavy labor and several hours of sweeping away snow, scraping ice, and mopping water, the first dome 1.0m (nicknamed "Stellan" which is Latin for "Set with Stars") at Cerro Tololo was installed Friday! The second dome was installed on Saturday just in time for lunch. And the third dome will be installed on Tuesday (the walls are already assembled). John Martinez is down in Chile helping with the assembly and installation, as well as all the other details. Fantastic job to everyone involved! We are incredibly excited and proud to have our first domes at Cerro Tololo!
From the summit, here is John's perspective on the installation:
"It had snowed all night and woke up to a white winter wonderland. Clear, near freezing temps, and calm winds. We did NOT want to hike up to the cold site at 7:30 am, tramping through snow, but we did.
The site was a mess from the snow, ice, and melting snow creating a REAL BIG mess. Took many hours to clean up the observatories in preparation for the dome install, so the lift was delayed until 3:00pm. Observatory floor was covered in a layer of ice that needed a hammer whack to break
Still no trash pickup so I took matters into my own hands tracked someone else down to get the job done. Fortunately this guy (Marco) was an immediate action guy and got it done pronto. They hauled a huge load of plywood crate debris, pallets, etc. That really cleared the way for the dome and crane just in time.
The dome was first craned onto a flat bed trailer, then SLOWLY driven up to the site, a distance of about a mile. I was worried about the dome passing through the 2 retaining walls at our site, but no problem. Enrique was in charge of rigging and communication with the crane operator, and did a good job. Clearly they have done this many times before.
The lift and the install all went smoothly!
Because we had such a late start because of the ice, we only had time for one dome install, and also could not get wall set 3 assembled. Tomorrow we’ll do another dome, but because it is Saturday no one will be able to work more than half a day. So tomorrow will be one dome also. That pushes the third dome install to Monday afternoon."
