SARA 

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

8

Other

Dust levels near the closing limits as well as a few high clouds so did not open.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

8

Other

Dust levels high all night. Unable to open.

Billy Quarles

ETAMU

Ivan Penuelas, Alan Briseno

CCD

6.5

1

Equipment Failure

The first target was an eclipsing binary, and the second target was an exoplanet. At the beginning of the second target slewing failed at about HA = 4, stating "Unable to complete slew due to an equipment error". A full reset of ACE fixed the issue. Then later on, the same issue occurred again, and a full reset of ACE fixed the issue. After the first restart, the DIO panel was all green but the slew and dome commands were responsive. Then after the second restart, the DIO panel was normal and the mirror cover became responsive.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

When I first logged on, the dome was stuck on "opening." I eventually rebooted the telescope and CCD computers and had no issues for the remainder of the night. M31, delta Scuti star.

Alba Rico

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

JKT

6

2

Software/Control PC Issues

Clemson AGN project. Hours lost due to tracking/software issues.

Ken Watanabe

FLorida Gulf Coast University

Jonathan, Evelyn

CCD

6

2

Equipment Failure

A couple problems occurred, but all were solved. Manual dome azimuth control didn't work. Dome Azimuth drive power cycle fixed this (turning on and off for a minute). Camera appeared to disconnect during flat (Image fully white). Quick restart fixed this. Telescope appeared to stop tracking (Stars streaked across entire image) which led to telescope unable to slew due to equipment failure. Full restart fixed this issue. Dome closed, powered off and night lights on. Mirror cover closed and telescope parked.

Kurtis Williams

ETAMU

Billy Quarles, Ivan Penuelas, Raven Powers

Andor CCD

7.5

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

First target was an eclipsing binary which was observed for 4 hours. We tried using the exposure sequence for calibrations and it was changing filter wheel 1 when the sequence only specified a filter wheel 2 switch. Switched to a rotating white dwarf target and had issues with the filter wheel getting stuck. Full reset of everything fixed this problem. Dome stopped tracking and software crashed 30 minutes later but another reset cleared all problems. No further issues.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

None

Andor CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Narrow band imaging search for fossil planetary nebulae.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

No problems, although I could not get the autoguider to respond. Also, at some point during the night, the mirror cover started flashing "opening" even though it showed "open" earlier. Variable star, M31.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

Andor CCD camera

8

1

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN variability program. Performed a full reset at start of night, and again a couple hours later when telescope stopped tracking. No other issues.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

n/a

Andor

7

1

Equipment Failure

Nova and EB. Twice the dome failed to track, once (again like earlier in the month) near AZ 0, like it had trouble going from E to W across due N, but then again later with different target in SW but only after I noticed that the dome was showing as AJAR! and then it started vignetting and upon trying to unlink/link dome and slew to target (with no real tele motion needed, though it worked earlier) it failed; I tried to home the dome and ACE crashed, so I did a full reset like before and closed up early. There was also a Warwick telescope that appeared to have its lights on with an open dome for most of the night. The night seemed to have a haze but humidity was always low and clouds were at lower altitudes. The tele mirror cover and dome appeared to close in ACE, though it was too dark to verify dome closure. I tried to manually move the dome to the N so that I could see it closed in one of the web cams, but it wouldn't move. I noticed that doing a full reset also powered back on the dome Az, which explains the failure to manually move dome, so I turned them both off and then was able to move the dome, but couldn't see an updated web cam image to verify dome closed.

Billy Quarles

ETAMU

Caysen Mayo

CCD

5

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Observed asteroid, no issues with data collection. At one point in the night, I was not able to close the dome (telescope software would just minimize instead of closing the dome when icon was clicked) so I had to restart. Once I did a full restart, I was able to close dome & mirrors.