Instrument change timelapse on AAT

My first attempt at a timelapse video of a top end instrument change on the Anglo Australian Telescope. The camera was placed halfway up the inside of the dome, and was taking 15 second intervals for most of the duration of the film (it turns out once per 15 seconds is not often enough, but the battery would suffer even more if I let it take more images).

We started about 8:30am, and the camera battery ran out at 11:50 am, just as we were starting to identify a problem affecting the movement of the telescope that took the rest of the day to diagnose and repair. I was too busy attending to that, than to climb back up the ladder and check the progress of the battery.

A crane is built into the ceiling of the dome, and is used to change the topends. Because of the size of the dome and how smoothly it moves, from the crane (and the walls, where the camera was), it appears that the telescope and the rest of the dome is moving. Some people get dizzy if they don't get vertigo first, up there.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• AAT
• dome
• telescope
• crane
• instrument change

[ChrissyoSpace]

Awesome video! Any plans to put some more together?