SSO Update
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue18 1–31 July 2021
It’s snowing
A couple of times a year SSO receives a light dusting of snow. This year, we had a bit more than a dusting. In the late afternoon of June 9th, it started to snow. The road to SSO was soon closed by the local council, and it continued snowing until the following morning. The attached video shows the snow falling that morning. The snow was soon replaced by light rain and most of the snow had gone by the end of the week.
A video of the snow falling from the SSO Lodge.
2dF Simulator Roadworks
As part of the 2dF refurbishment plan, we have resurrected the 2dF simulator. We’ll be using the 2dF simulator to test out software and components before installing them on 2dF.
The Road Goes Ever On
(with tip of the hat to Tolkein, Bilbo, and Frodo).
Roads go ever ever on (we begin on an engineering road that has
been well used by others before us, much of our time is spent
reading previous documentation and reverse engineering what we have),
Over rock and under tree (the dome is built on rock, surrounded
by trees),
By caves where never sun has shone (the vacuum coating laboratory
on the second floor, like the rest of the dome, has no windows,
and is very very cold),
By streams that never find the sea (ask us about the water leaks, or
the fun we've had speculating about wind-driven microclimate pressure
effects on the dome that change the dew point),
Over snow by winter sown (we couldn't get to site, the road was
closed, snow and ice everywhere),
And through the merry flowers of June (bazinga, see photograph),
Over grass and over stone (kangaroos grazing at night can get noisy,
and can be scary in the dark),
And under mountains in the moon (bright, grey, and dark nights a
plenty, but the mountains aren't easily seen on the dark nights),
Still round the corner there may wait (some random compiler fault
or CANopen behaviour),
A new road or a secret gate, (some magic incantation in code),
And though I oft have passed them by, (we wish),
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun (some day this thing will sit on the telescope, yay!).
Chris Lidman and James Cameron on behalf of the team at SSO.
