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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
08/14/2025 | Kurtis Williams | ETAMU | Breadstick (feline) | Andor | 8.5 | 0 | No problems to report | Both telescope & camera computers sluggish at login; during autofocus the focuser failed to move. Did quick restart to no avail; full restart solved both latency and focuser problems. Still unable to log on without Radmin viewer or Radmin VPN. Unable to connect to QSI but tracking was excellent even without autoguider. Parked dome at az=235 and closed dome tool after closure. |
08/13/2025 | Kurtis Williams | ETAMU | Breadstick (feline) | Andor | -- | -- | Other | Addendum: Just-submitted report was for civil night of 13 Aug 2025, not 14 Aug 2025 as stated. Mea culpa. |
08/14/2025 | Kurtis Williams | ETAMU | Breadstick (feline) | Andor | 9 | 0 | No problems to report | Dome turned to 235 deg and dome control window closed as requested. QSI camera not connecting so unable to autoguide; since autoguiding is not required for my data, I did not try and troubleshoot. Unable to connect from school computers due to prohibition to connect via radmin and need to connect via Mac and/or VNC. |
08/12/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | None | CCD | 5 | 3 | Other | M31, DDE 155. No real issues, although the scope stopped tracking at HA -00:10 (target was at DEC +02). I sent it to the zenith park position and then back to the target where it tracked until HA +03:30 (about what was expected). Closed up early due to rising dust levels. |
08/10/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | None | CCD | 3 | 5 | Other | Dust kept hovering around the closing limit so I closed up, then reopened for a short period of time once my target was high enough, then closed again. Comment-- dome reported being open when I first opened the dome control window-- I checked with the camera and it was in fact open. M31. |
08/09/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | None | CCD | 0 | 8 | Other | Dust all night. Did not open. |
08/06/2025 | Todd Vaccaro | Ball State University | n/a | ANDOR | 8 | 0.5 | Equipment Failure | EB program. I did not encounter the dome failing to follow the tele as I did last night, but the tracking of the tele stopped at the exact same point in HA (3h29m) for an object at 69 dec, so I moved to another target. When closing the dome I watched with the cameras and it looked closed but the Ace gui said it was ajar, so I opened and shut again while watching and it looked closed again but the gui didn't complain, so I parked the dome. |
08/05/2025 | Todd Vaccaro | Ball State University | n/a | ANDOR | 7 | 1 | Equipment Failure | Eclipsing binaries program. Missing Maxim DL made it difficult to gauge s/n and seeing conditions, I may have wasted time on a saturated star. The dome stopped following the tele after the first hour and ACE crashed requring a full reset. The target at the time of vignetting was northern with a +69 Dec, but not quite transiting yet; however, when the dome was at exactly 0 AZ it failed again and I had to slew tele, unlink dome, slew, link to finally get it to move with the scope and it was fine till the tracking of the scope failed at around HA 3h29m and I had to move on. There's no time checking on the CCD pc, the time.is web page is blocked as a threat, though it works on the tele pc and the time was good. There's a setting on the CCD pc that likely needs tweaking for the file browser as sorting on the Date Modified usually would have new images appear at the top of the list to monitor progress it requires constant refreshing and scrolling for every new file, which is a major nuisance. |
08/04/2025 | William Keel | University of Alabama | 2 cats | Andor CCD | 4 | 5 | Software/Control PC Issues | Constellation of problems which Peter traced to corrupted instruments.cfg file. CCD stuck on fast readout with extremely high bias ~4100, guider completely unreachable, no autofocus, object names not transferrable to headers. Parked dome at 235 and closed dome-control panel. Focus 99500. |
08/03/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | Faith Simmons | CCD | 8 | 0 | Software/Control PC Issues | No real issues but the autofocuser window never appeared, even following a couple of recycle sessions. Exoplanet, M31, NGC 7331. |
08/02/2025 | Gary Henson | ETSU | none | Andor CCD | 6 | 0 | Other | Asteroid light curve and tracking test. Dome closed, parked at 235. No tracking problems following target to 24 deg in SW, however tracking stopped ~3.5 HA for target to NW, still at 45 deg altitude. Details on Discord. |
08/01/2025 | Tom Rutherford | ETSU | None | CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report |
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