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Returning to the models of @esoastronomy, I have to applaud whoever built this amazing Lego model of Paranal Observatory.
They included the 4 Unit Telescopes, 4 Auxiliary Telescopes, the VLT Survey Telescope, the control building, the VLTI Lab, and even a representation of the VLTI delay lines and beam combiner lab below the Platform. Unit Telescope 4, the eventual home of the MAVIS instrument, even has its four laser beams.
In the @esoastronomy technical building is the integration hall, where there is more hardware related to the ELT telescope.
In the corner there is a prototype section of ELT primary mirror support structure with 7 aluminium dummy mirror segments on it.
The blue structure is the ELT Phasing & Diagnostic System (PDS), currently under construction. This instrument will be installed on the telescope to measure the shape of the primary mirror, allowing the positions of the 798 mirror segments to be adjusted so that they are perfectly aligned and can act as a single 39 metre diameter mirror.
It is expected that the PDS will be used roughly once a week to tune the primary mirror. Between tune ups the edge sensors between the mirror segments will be used to maintain the mirror's shape.
Elsewhere in the @esoastronomy building is this, a prototype primary mirror segment for the ELT telescope. Eventually the mirror will be assembled from 798 segments just like this one, but shinier and with fewer signatures.
Underneath is a prototype version of the mirror segment support structure and actuators, required to ensure that all the mirror segments remain perfectly aligned with each other.
While at @esoastronomy HQ I also had to snap some photos of this impressive model of the ELT telescope. Soon the real thing will be looking like this. Note the toy cars for scale.
I cannot visit @esoastronomy HQ without photographing and posting about this video game box.
It is not just a bit of astronomy themed retro box art, there is an actual retro game to go with it too. It was written for the Atari 2600 but can also be played online: https://pietrow.net/atari/astronomer/
Jetstar are getting gradually more brazen with their tedious upsell techniques.
They've been deliberately splitting up booking groups to push people into paying extra for seat selection for a while. That wouldn't be too objectionable for a group of adults but they are habitually separating kids from their parents too, in fact based on recent results they seem to be specifically targeting kids with this nonsense.
They just tried it again with us, allocating my wife and I seats next to each other but putting our 11 year old on their own in a completely different part of the plane. Calling them up initially generated the response "I can fix that for you, that'll be an extra $40 for seat selection", more than it would cost to select seats online. When that wasn't accepted the next step in the script was to try to pretend that we might have more luck trying to get our seats changed at check-in. When it was pointed out that they've fixed this for us on the phone before they had to pretend to go ask permission to exercise discretion, then they finally fixed it at no extra charge.
The kid has named this big boy "Jimmy". This is, apparently, His Spot, as he is frequently seen striking a pose in this exact location, near the hotel swimming pool.
My backlog of arrow maintenance is building up, though. I now have three arrows in need of fixing up, one with a ripped vane and two with vanes that have come off. One of those is the vane I'd previously glued back on, which confirms that the glue I used either wasn't suitable or was expired (I suspect the latter). Any recommendations for good adhesives for attaching this sort of rubbery vane to carbon fibre shafts?
It wasn't as hot as forecast today, only about 26°C to 28°C while we were at the archery range. It's going to get a lot hotter than that over the summer, but so far the sun sleeves get a thumbs up. We didn't try the cooling towels, it just wasn't hot enough today to need them.
The kid continues to find the step up from 20 metres to 30 metres difficult, so half way through the session we did drop back to 20 metres so the kid could focus on his form. With some help from the coaches he did manage to build some consistency, and finished up the session by shooting an end of 51. That left him a lot happier.
Meanwhile I was just enjoying the almost complete lack of wind. That was a big improvement on last week.
Of course we already have bucket hats. Can't do archery without a bucket hat.
Preparations for doing archery, in Australia, in summer: a pair of sun sleeves for UV protection and cooling effect, and a cooling towel. I got the same for the kid, too.