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Date
Name
Affiliation
Other Observers
Instrument
Hrs Observed
Hrs Lost
Reason
Observing Program
08/19/2023
William Keel
University of Alabama
3 cats
Andor CCD
10
0.25
Software/Control PC Issues
Ionized clouds around AGN. Focus 100230, guider focus 40. During evening twilight flats, camera PC got into a mode where it would not register numbers from the keyboard, even after cycling NUM LOCK multiple times. In desperation I connected from a Mac with VNC and pasted numbers from another field into the filename sequence field. This magically cured the issue. I am puzzled.
08/18/2023
TODD R VACCARO
Ball State University
N/A
Andor
8
0
Other
Eclipsing binary; Dome needed to be linked, unlinked, homed, linked to get tele looking through slit, which stalled flats and had to get more in the morning. The tele pc kept popping up a notification that an anonymous user had connected and then would say left, periodically occurred all night. The vpn banner constantly said to update for improved security and the anti virus program popped up on both machines saying there were 4 potential issues and that it needed updating. Connecting to OneDrive from Chrome or Edge refused to let me upload things to my directory (there was no upload button to be found), so I used my Dropbox. Initial slewing to a target required several attempts before it would land. But once it got going it tracked all night with no issues.
08/16/2023
Robert Berrington
Ball State University
none
arc
7
1
Other
The telescope lost tracking at +2 and +3 HA, and I was unsuccessful in getting the autofocuser to function correctly. I have used the auto focuser successfully numerous times in the past but this time, no matter the star field, and the exp time only returned that the focus routine failed with a click to restart. Fortunately I was able to watch the images go through focus, and I was able to find focus manually.
08/15/2023
Xianming Han
Butler University
none
ccd
6.5
1
Equipment Failure
eclipsing binary. Telescope stops moving and cannot slew after that.
08/14/2023
Kaylee Grace
UDel/MCAO
Zach Savery, Henry Sanford-Crane, Jarrod Bieber, Millie Dill, Judi Provencal
Andor
0
8
Other
Dusty! In addition, at one point we accidentally took an exposure with QSI and the image wouldn’t process nor could we abort. It became stuck with the progress bar at 100% but it seemed the camera wasn’t actually connected.
08/12/2023
Matt Wood
A&M-Commerce
None
CCD
0
8
Other
Dust 33 and cloudy so didn't open.
08/13/2023
Ken Rumstay
VSU (Emeritus)
None
Andor CCD camera
0
10
Other
AGN photometry. Did not open because of high aerosol content (24-35 micrograms per cubic meter). There appears to be some confusion as to what concentration should be cause for ceasing observation. Since the sky was not photometric (scattered clouds throughout the night) I decided not to risk opening the dome.
08/03/2023
Walter Van Hamme
FIU
Samec
Andor ccd
9
0
No problems to report
Observations of short period algols.
07/31/2023
Tom Rutherford
ETSU
None
CCD
0
6
Clouds
Clouds all night-- did not open.
07/30/2023
Tom Rutherford
ETSU
None
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Exoplanet, M31.
07/29/2023
Tom Rutherford
ETSU
None
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Exoplanet, M31.
07/28/2023
Tom Rutherford
ETSU
None
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Exoplanet, M31
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