Last day of Enhanced LIGO

Today is the last day of "Enhanced LIGO," the project I have been working on since I arrived at Caltech in January 2007. The mood is very quiet. I think the Enhanced LIGO people are worn out and ready to move on. (I am!) Tomorrow morning the two LIGO detectors will be shut down and within hours the disassembly will begin. Almost all of the equipment is being sent away to other labs, surplussed, or thrown away. Then begins a many-year process to build "Advanced LIGO".

Tomorrow afternoon I fly to Germany to check out a post-doc opportunity there.