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SARA
The Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy
Date | Name | Affiliation | Other Observers | Instrument | Hours Observed | Hours Lost | Reason | Observing Program |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10/02/2026 | Billy Quarles | ETAMU | None | CCD | 0 | 10 | Clouds | Could not connect to the CTIO webcams. Radmin allowed me to connect to the telescope and camera computers fine. Weather forecast indicated heavy cloud cover all night and maybe some rain. Did not open. |
10/01/2026 | Ken Watanabe | Florida Gulf Coast University | Evelyn | CCD | 8 | 0 | Connection Issues | Got disconnected from computers for a few minutes while collecting bias frames. Reconnecting to VPN and waiting a few minutes to log in resolved this issue. Besides that. no problems to report. Dome was stowed and homed, shutters were closed, and mirror covers were closed. |
09/28/2026 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | None | Andor CCD | 10 | 0 | No problems to report | White Dwarf. No problems as such, but the telescope seemed to be tracking at the wrong rate since the target drifted almost out of the image after several hours. |
09/25/2026 | Robert Berrington | Ball State University | none | arc | 0 | 8 | No problems to report | Short period variable stars. No clouds and clear night. |
09/22/2026 | William Keel | University of Alabama | 1 cat | Andor CCD | 2 | 6 | Clouds | Focus 127100. |
09/20/2026 | Walter Van Hamme | FIU | Samec | CCD | 12 | 0 | No problems to report | Observations of contact binaries, GSC 8019 872. About 10 hours starting observations of 0.4936791 period system.
Ron Samec
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09/15/2026 | Kaylee Grace | UD | Zach Savery, Caitlyn Mattison, Evelyn Palmer, Ben Kaiser | CCD | 10 | 0 | Software/Control PC Issues | Final night of our observing of this white dwarf. Computer and telescope computers were both slow and crashed a few times in Radmin, which we usually don't have as many problems with. |
09/14/2026 | Kaylee Grace | UD | Evelyn Palmer, Ben Kaiser, Zach Savery | CCD | 10 | 0 | No problems to report | Another beautiful night. Telescope computer was a little slow to respond at the start of the night but seemed to get better as time went on. |
09/13/2026 | Kaylee Grace | UD | Zach Savery, Evelyn Palmer, Ben Kaiser | CCD | 9 | 0 | No problems to report | Good weather again. No telescope issues. Continued WD imaging. |
09/12/2026 | Kaylee Grace | UD | Zach Savery, Caitlyn Mattison, Evelyn Palmer, Ben Kaiser | CCD | 10 | 0 | No problems to report | All worked well! Beautiful night observing a white dwarf with CT :) |
09/11/2026 | Aarran Shaw | Butler U | none | CCD | 0 | 10 | Other | Seeing too poor for my program and I didn't have a backup target, which is on me. Hopefully someone picks up the night! |
09/09/2026 | Ken Watanabe | Florida Gulf Coast University | Evelyn, Jonathan | CCD | 0 | 8 | Software/Control PC Issues | Telescope parked, mirror cover closed, dome homed and dome closed. Could not see any objects in image; camera appeared to be connected. Went through reset procedure several times, did not fix issue or see much change. |
09/06/2026 | William Keel | University of Alabama | DragonCon Space Track Live Astronomy | Andor CCD | 7 | 0 | No problems to report | SARA-CT is BACK! Outreach targets. Focus 127300. Only problem is that system did not confirm mirror closed (near zenith, multiple tries). |
09/03/2026 | Robert Berrington | Ball State University | none | arc | 0 | 10 | Clouds | First night after a weather related shutdown. Unfortunately the night did not permit the opening of the dome for the evening. |
08/17/2026 | Kaylee Grace | UD/MCAO | N/A | N/A | 0 | 8 | Other | Observatory still down. |
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