SARA 

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

Andor CCD

9

0.3

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 98487, guider focus -50. After quick look at standard stars and Jupiter in twilight, images turned into 10-pixel E-W lines. Cycled camera/mirror support power, images were much improved. At one point, DS9 mysteriously crashed 4 times in quick succession, followed by Connector Client on the camera computer (unclear whether related). The guider x-stage is still stuck.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

Andor CCD

8

1

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 96875, guider focus -100. Had to reboot telescope PC, cycle power to ACE cabinet, restart connector client and ACE control to get guider controlling the QSI camera. Even after that, guider x-stage does not move.

Roi Alonso

IAC

none

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Parked telescope HA 0, Dec-28. Checked with Mercator webcam that dome is closed.

Martha Leake

Valdosta State Univrsity

none

CCD Camera

0

10

Software/Control PC Issues

I hap problems opening the dome. Following the new script, I was not able to log in. Skies in the area looked clear, and received the "Everything OK" label from the NOT site.

Garima Rajguru

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

11

Humidity

Could not open at all due to high humidity and weather conditions.

Kaylee Grace

UD/MCAO

Terry Lisansky, Rishi Sanjeev, Ava Showell

N/A

0

8

Humidity

Too rainy to open. Still was able to hold a training session on how the SARA telescopes are generally used.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

8

Humidity

High humidity all night so never opened.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD

0

10

Other

I was unable to observe because of illness. I contacted the SARA Board, asking them to make the night available to whoever could use it. I hope someone did; it turned out to be a good night.

Aarran Shaw

Butler

None

CCD

0

8

Humidity

Will not open tonight due to inclement weather

TODD R VACCARO

Ball State University

n/a

Andor

6

8

Clouds

Eclipsing binary. High clouds increasing all night till it was too much, so closed. Only issue was that the dome was linked and tele Z parked when I logged on and it wasn't looking through the slit, so I parked scope and drove back to Z and it lined up for flats. I verified dome was closed with the camera and turned shutter power off. I couldn't see the dome at night, so I had to wait till enough Sun was up to see the dome. I tried the night light but that apparently isn't enough to see the interior of the dome at night.

Roi Alonso

IAC

none

CCD

7.5

0.5

Equipment Failure

WD observations. Track loss @45,40alt,az.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

n/a

Andor

3

6

Humidity

EB. Managed to get a primary eclipse in the 3 hours salvaged from not being able to open on time b/c the dome lights were on and we had no way to turn those white vertical strip lights off. After telling R. Berrington and he Peter, it was thought someone had been in there and forgot to turn off. A couple hours later I noticed the lights off, but other, lower lights still on and people were moving around inside. The rest of the lights were finally turned off and I was able to open about 3 hours late. I also had to close a couple hours early for high humidity and fog rolled in around dawn, so I got no BVR flats. It was not clear if people were working on something in the dome as I did see a couple move a cart or something in the lighted doorway and we had no information of contact with the mountain to turn off lights. At 3am UT when humidity got high, I made sure that the dome was closed along with the mirror cover and that the shutter power was turned off. I parked the telescope and dome (after unlinking) around dawn when I saw that I wasn't getting flats. I posted some of these incidents on Discord as they were happening and asked for calibrated, single-binned BVR flats from others.