Status 2011/08/19:

M1 aluminized at Sunnyside on 2011/08/17, from Gary Rosenbaum:
"We coated your 1.5m primary mirror today. The coating looks good, no cosmetic
blemishes and we did a tape test for adhesion, one place at the edge and one
place next to the center hole. It passed the tape test with no aluminum
lifting. "
Robert picked up the mirror at Sunnyside on 08/18. He delivered it to
the ridge on 08/19. With help from Brian Fulton and Robert Hyne, W, T
and E got the mirror off the truck, shuffled it into the chamber, and
hung it with the straps. The first step was to glue the 3 axial hard
point pucks. Robert cut 3 27.5-in long 4x4 pieces of lumber to
stabilize the mirror so it would not move with the 28-in dowels
pushing up on the pucks. With 8-in rubber mats between wood and glass,
that worked very well. The IS808 will cure over the weekend, so the 
mirror will be ready for the next phase. 

Status 2011/08/24:

On 08/22 we found that one of the axial hard-point pucks detached, so
we had to re-RTV it using a length of copper pipe (cut by Steve B) of
the right ID to hold the puck and the right OD to go through the block
to which the retaining bolt is screwed. 

On 08/23 after a prudent cure time of about 24 hours, we restarted
reassembly. The radial actuator assemblies gave the usual resistance,
but Perry overcame it, with a little help from Emilio. The rotation
arms went in, with the NE one giving some resistance that Wayne
overcame.  

On 08/24, Perry, Brian and Ted lifted the cell and bolted it on the
OTA. The radial counterweights are in position (numbers on them were
ignored), as well as the axial hard points and the Lou Boyd
restraints. The mirror is high, from the bottom of the cell about 1.6
in near N, 1.5 in for the rest. We adjusted the axial counterweights
and loosened the rotation restraints. We need to re-adjust the axial
counterweights again. Pain!

As of 08/30, the telescope is ready after some problems with the
paddles and with the ADC (T and W chased, W fixed). We are buying
spare Counter 5 cards, one of which failed in the mount PC. The ADC
was a challenge, W found a broken wire. Fixed that and we added strain
relief for the wires on the S motor. Opticote is out, mirror looks
excellent. Collimation is next, FAST needs baking and cooling,
tomorrow.