[doogerdog]

The scope can’t image anything at all right now, and it will be quite a while before it can.

Each mirror segment was firmly supported to withstand the violent forces at launch. In the past few days, the two 3-segment wings swung into position and every mirror segment moved slightly so that now they can be aimed by their actuators. Each segment has actuators on the perimeter that will fine tune the pointing and one in the center that can deform it slightly to change focus. Each one will now need to be fine tuned. There are also many adjustments to be done in the secondary optics.

Inevitably, surprises will crop up as well and have to be dealt with. They do this quietly now for PR reasons. While the Hubble was being commissioned, some engineers talked freely about the things they were dealing with. At first it was very interesting to follow along. But once it was determined that the primary trouble was misconfiguration of the objective, all the chatter stopped. Since then all space missions tightly control their press. This is understandable but makes it a little less fun to follow along.

The good news is that most of the single use motors and actuators have done their thing and and are now retired. The ones that remain (like the mirror pointers) are based on designs that have worked many years on many spacecrafts. It is great to see the project get to this stage. I can’t wait to read about what we find out there.

[usrusr]

Thanks, now I'm looking forward to the inevitable (even more) pop-sci explanation: "imagine waking up double-vision drunk, but instead of two eyes going astray it's eighteen eyes. And it all happens while you know for a fact that you won't be able to tell up from down anytime soon"