Focus On : Closing Out Site Testing for TMT October 2008 was a happy month for the TMT Site Testing Team. With the take-down of the site testing equipment from Tolonchar, it marked the end of the TMT site testing work and the successful conclusion of arguably the most extensive and rigorous astronomical site survey done to date.
The work does not stop there, of course. TMT continues to operate one set of equipment in order to observe long-term trends. The equipment might also be used in the future as a platform to test potential new site characterization instruments and methods. We also are keeping busy writing up all the results and experiences gathered for the scientific literature, and will continue to analyze the data in different ways to provide input for the TMT design. But that is only part of the story we will remember. October 2008 was also a sad month for the TMT Site Testing Team. Just as much as being a job, the site testing work had been a lot of fun. Of course, when you have been sitting on a tower for several hours, 7- or 15- or 30-meters above the top of a remote mountain, exposed to cold and wind, trying to align the optics of the turbulence profiler telescope or to set up meteorological equipment, you might not want to sign up to that assignment right then, right there. But memory is short and after you have been back in the office for a few days, sitting at your desk or in meetings all day long, you begin to wish for the equipment to stop working soon so that you can get back onto that tower. Doing this kind of work takes a certain kind of person. When TMT advertised for the site testing group positions, we contemplated adding phrases like "the successful candidate will frequently work outside in adverse conditions and at high altitude" or "will be sleeping in unheated containers at the candidate sites" to the job announcement. We decided against this so as to not scare away potential candidates. In retrospect, this kind of statement would have attracted exactly the kind of people we ended up hiring for the job, people who thrive on challenges and producing the best possible results no matter what the circumstances -- not because they are told to do so, but through their own motivation. So this is a bitter-sweet time for our team. We are looking back happily on—in our not-so-modest opinion—a job done well. At the same time, we are sad that this marks the end of the fun we have been having during the last seven years and the splitting up of our group. However, we are certain that there are similar challenges ahead in whatever comes next for each of us. Life never gets boring for people you attract by promising them adverse conditions. If you happen to meet one of us, make sure you ask us to tell you some of the stories, not just the facts. And if you buy us a drink, we might even tell you a story that we will not put down in writing.
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