~1555 - 1605 hrs. local -> Kyle in and out of LVEA 

More data - I'm letting the gauge volume pressure accumulate overnight - I noticed that the pirani gauge mounted between the two in-series turbo pumps has changed again and is now showing 1.8 x 10-3 torr.  This a few hours after the most recent decrease in heating power.  Being positioned between these two turbos, i.e. at the inlet of the downstream turbo, this gauge should be "off-scale low" and unchanging regardless of what temperature the, now baked parts, are.  If this pressure change is real (which it isn't) it would have to be due to a newly developed leak (which it isn't).   

The real reason to isolate the pumps from the gauge volume at this stage is two-fold; firstly, the off gassing/gas removal bang for the buck is over now that we would be pumping on it at, or near, room temperature and secondly, by doing so, we now have (2) closed valves between the site vacuum and any failure modes of the temporary pumping setup that could result in a venting of the pump line.