How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
An arc lamp bulb for the AO calibration sourceNearly every morning I begin the day with reading the nightlogs, a write-up of everything that went wrong in the night on both telescopes. Normally there is nothing I need worry about, or perhaps something to follow up on during the day. But occasionally, not very often, I find a nightlog that indicates I will be re-scheduling my whole day, dropping any previous plans and driving up the mountain.
This is one of those times. A nightlog coded as critical, the Keck 2 adaptive optics system has a slight problem, no output from the white light source, no calibrations, no science. Waiting until after 9am I call the support crew on the summit… Do you know how? No. I wrestle with the thought for a few moments. No avoiding it, I need to drive to the summit.
So how many engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
