Tearing Open a Dewar

Today was a strange mix of very engaging and entirely boring. I came in and watched (and mildly helped) Tonry tear apart the old HiVIS dewar - we're building up a new fast-switching liquid-crystal spectropolarimeter and this means we get new ccd's to replace the $$$$ setup that was killed by a nameless assassin a few years ago. Thank god. I cannot find words for my feelings toward the current detector - hate, loathe or despise just don't quite cut it. At any rate, it was my job to take the wiring diagram, check that the 128-pin cable traces to the jumpers and pins properly so we don't repeat anything that may have fried them last time. Don't want to go wasting extremely expensive silicon....

And for Anne and many others who constantly harasses me about putting figures, plots and other work-related goings-on up on my blog - my life may get boring often and you might not appreciate the geekyness, but at least I've got a job that supports these habits. You'll be seeing pictures of not-tomfoolery, un-lazyness and out-of-stylishness for quite some time. Suck it. ;)


Electronics!
Expensive silicon with delicate wires.... and no conductive epoxy all over them for those that know the story.
Dewar in pieces.

A different kind of squiggle....