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SARA
The Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy
Date | Name | Affiliation | Other Observers | Instrument | Hrs Observed | Hrs Lost | Reason | Observing Program |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
08/31/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | None | CCD | 3 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable stars. No problems. Used the telescope for the first few hours of the night, then turned it over to Bill Keel for the remainder of the night. |
08/31/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | None | CCD | 5 | 0 | No problems to report | M31, exoplanet, binary star. No problems. Used the telescope for the first half of the evening, then turned it over to Bill Keel. |
08/30/2025 | William Keel | University of Alabama | DragonCon Live Astronomy | Andor CCD | 6 | 1 | Software/Control PC Issues | Outreach objects. Focus 100053. Two events where CCD hangs during readout. Once it was fixed by cycling ACE control cabinet, second time shortly before morning twilight not so (so I shut down, dome at 235 and dome control hidden). |
08/29/2025 | William Keel | University of Alabama | DragonCon Live Astronomy | Andor CCD | 2 | 1 | Other | Outreach objects. Focus 99364, tracking seemed poor since 5m exposures even near the meridian would often be trailed. Session ended by hotel fire alarm at 0030 local time (a new one for the bingo card). |
08/27/2025 | Garima Rajguru | Clemson University | Dieter Hartmann | ANDOR CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | Clemson Blazar Study |
08/26/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | None | CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | M31, binary star, NGC 7331. No problems. |
08/25/2025 | Todd Vaccaro | Ball State University | N/A | Andor | 0 | 8 | Humidity | Never opened. Took bias frames near sunset and they looked fine, but that was it. |
08/24/2025 | William Keel | University of Alabama | 2 cats | Andor CCD | 8 | 2 | Software/Control PC Issues | AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 100087. QSI camera still not guiding - it will do single exposures and is in good focus, but the guiding panel gets only a single exposure and the second one never shows up. (Peter called in and saw the behavior). One tracking shutdown at 3h23 W, +56. Dome stowed at 235. |
08/22/2025 | Yong Sheng | Clemson University | Dieter Hartmann | Andor CCD griz | 8 | 1 | Software/Control PC Issues | The tracking stopped at HA=03:59. Then the software stopped saving fits files. I restarted multiple times to solve the issues. The dome was parked at 235 degrees at the end of the night. |
08/21/2025 | William Keel | University of Alabama | 2 cats | Andor CCD | 9 | 0.5 | Software/Control PC Issues | AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 100765. Did restarts/power cycles to restore control of mirror cover (worked) and QSI camera (did not work, even with advice from Peter). Had to cycle power on ACE cabinet to clear mirror-cover fault and filter wheel 1 sticking at shutdown. |
08/20/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | Faith Simmons | CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | No problems. Telescope stopped tracking at HA +03:04-- no issues other than that. M31, Exoplanet, Supernova. Dome closed and parked at 235, dome controls hidden. |
08/16/2025 | Kurtis Williams | ETAMU | none | Andor | 8 | 1 | Other | Started closed due to high dust; it dropped below limits but stayed marginally high all night. I had to do a full restart with power cycle of cabinet three times at start of night before the connector client on camera computer would fully connect; last time I allowed 3 minutes between each step and it worked, at least until I went to focus and the focus mechanism would not move until I did a quick restart on just the telescope connector client and node services. Then everything worked through the night. Parked dome at 235 and closed dome tool at end of night. Still unable to connect with a Mac or a PC using VNV without Radmin. QSI camera did not connect. Pointing and tracking were awesome though. |
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