SARA-RM Report Archive

Date	Name	Affiliation	Other Observers	Instrument	Hrs Observed	Hrs Lost	Reason	Observing Program
01/13/2026	Kurtis Williams	ETAMU	none	Andor	0	12	Equipment Failure	Observatory closed due to inability to communicate with Andor camera.
01/12/2026	Kurtis Williams	ETAMU	None	Andor	0	12	Equipment Failure	Corrupted config file and nonresponsive camera prevented observations
01/09/2026	Gary Henson	ETSU	Rutherford	Andor CCD	3	0	No problems to report	M31 H-alpha monitoring
01/11/2026	Stephen Gillam	ERAU	Matthew Hernandez, Nishi Patel, Desiree Robinson	CCD camera	0	10	Software/Control PC Issues	I am unable to bring up the camera controls on the SARA RM camera computer. The services box shows that the camera conputer ACE Node service is "stopping". When we click the ACE connector shortcut on the desktop, a login box comes up. Clicking this connect results in another login box. I don't know the root password, so I cannot complete the login and (presumably) start the camera control system. I power-cycled the camera control computer which left the ACE node service running but running the ACE node service exe still results in a login box.
01/10/2026	Martha A. Leake	Valdosta State University	none	Andor	0	10	Equipment Failure	(Was asteroid and planet photography.) Uncertain if the camera was working or not, due to inability to take and save biases and to check whether camera was at the right temperature. Did not open the dome or alter the telescope. Did try to use the new manual but with no success. Observing conditions were OK,, compared to previous nights.
01/05/2026	Tom Rutherford	ETSU	None	CCD	0	12	Humidity	Temps below freezing with humidity at 100% for the entire night. Never opened.
12/30/2025	Yong Sheng	Clemson University	Dieter Hartmann	Andor CCD griz	8	4	Humidity	Lost around 4 hours due to high humidity. Everything else was good.
12/29/2025	Todd Vaccaro	Ball State University	Robert Berrington	Andor	6	5	Humidity	M31 Nova and an EB. High humidity came in about halfway through the night and was never clear across the map enough to open (frost seen on the all -sky cam). I couldn't connect to the outside dome cam either from off site or from the telescope PC. Instructions need to be put on the tele PC on how to access the control panel (login/pw) since it's not the usual to connect (I had to dig through emails over the past few months to find the secret), so it took me some time to get the dome powered and opened. We associated MaximDL with fits files as it was set to open with AIJ, but now it opens an additional instance of MaximDL instead of opening the image within the initial running instance, so something should be done about that.
12/28/2025	Tom Rutherford	ETSU	None	CCD	0	12	Clouds	Clouds. Did not open.
12/27/2025	Michael Fauerbach	FGCU	NA	CCD	12	0	No problems to report	Asteroid photometry. Focus @95473 with sdss r' filter.
12/26/2025	William Keel	University of Alabama	2 cats	Andor CCD	11	1	Humidity	AGN-ionized clouds. Closed for ~1.5 hours when humidity spiked twice before and after sunset. Software could not move secondary for focusing until I stopped control programs and cycled power to the ACE control cabinet. Telescope focus 95478, guider focus 0 (93478, -100 for 510-nm filter).
12/20/2025	William Keel	University of Alabama	2 cats	Andor CCD	12.3	0	No problems to report	AGN-ionized clouds. The joys of a solstice in the dark of the moon! Focus 96075. Guider working great (although I haven't had the nerve to ask it to find its own guide star lately).