How do you unpack and move a 15 ton telescope? Very carefully!
February 21 was not only a cold and snowy Tuesday, but it was an exciting Tuesday for the staff of the MRO Interferometer. The second Unit Telescope which had arrived in January was going to be unpacked and installed in its temporary home in the Maintenance Facility at the Observatory.
The 1.4 meter telescope, which was designed and built by AMOS, is the second of the eventual ten optical telescopes that will make up the MRO Optical Interferometer.
After many hours of unpacking and moving, the telescope was lowered into position on the special pad where it could be hooked up to electricity and other subsystems to be ready for assembly and then finally its site acceptance tests, which will happen sometime next month.
