Progress continues on the recovery at Cerro Pachón this week. We began the week with rain and snow still coming down. Fortunately, the impact on the access roads and summit was modest. The NOIRLab team cleared the roads of new snow and continued work on getting the facility back towards more regular activity. The highlight this week was getting a back up generator working reliably and then bringing up the lights for the first time since mid July inside the control room, level 3 and the dome. We look to stabilize generator power for long periods next week and to then continue to bring up facility services: power, chillers, HVAC, then look in the next period to the computer room, and steadily move to the telescope, camera, and dome. Assessments continue, but the big three (telescope, camera, and dome) look good so far. Reliable water delivery and fuel delivery (for generators) is required for sustained recovery of the observatory and more regular operations. This is looking like it will happen soon. Send your best thoughts to all our NOIRLab/Rubin team in Chile!
The sun is out!
