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Date
Name
Affiliation
Other Observers
Instrument
Hrs Observed
Hrs Lost
Reason
Observing Program
07/15/2026
William Keel
University of Alabama
4 cats
Andor CCD
9
0
No problems to report
Excellent night on AGN-ionized clouds. Telescope coordinates showed -- at connection; cycled power on ACE cabinet and camera/mirror support outlets (which seems to have fixed guider connection). Guider x-stage is working again. Found night light on when focusing on standard stars at beginning of night. Focus 100656; guider focus 0. Used guider with 1x1 binning out of caution since it has had issues recently.
07/13/2026
Xianming Han
Butler University
Betuel Paz
ccd
8.5
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binaries
07/12/2026
Xianming Han
Butler University
Betuel Paz
ccd
4
4
Software/Control PC Issues
could not slew the telescope. Rebooted ACE cabinet afterwards to fix the problem
07/08/2026
Ava Webber
Clemson University
Dieter Hartmann
Andor CCD griz
7
1
Software/Control PC Issues
Clemson blazar study. The dome tracking malfunctioned early in the night and we had to restart the control PC. There was also an issue with the mirror opening after this, where the mirror open control panel was stuck saying "mirror cover opening." The PC had to be restarted again.
07/11/2026
Steve Gillam
ERAU Retired
Martina Dequer and Desiree Robinson
Andor Camera
7
0
Equipment Failure
ROAp stars in Open Clusters. Twice the telescope pointing jumped unbidden by about 1 arc. minute in declination. The telescope stooped tracking at HA~1.5 hrs with no error reported. Slewing to the target again got the tracking going.
07/09/2026
Tom Rutherford
ETSU
Asher Suter
CCD
8
No problems to report
Exoplanet, M31, M57, M27, a couple NGC targets. No problems, although when I first logged on, the mirror cover was hung on “opening.’ A recycle of everything cleared it and all worked OK after that. Closed everything up, cut power to the shutter, and parked the dome at 235.
07/07/2026
Billy Quarles
ETAMU
Caysen Mayo
CCD
4.5
0.5
Software/Control PC Issues
Asteroid, had to fully restart twice. The first time was because the filter wheel wouldn't select the correct filter. Then during last the 30 minutes of observation, tracking was lost and and the telescope refused to park with the error, "Unable to complete slow due to an equipment error". After the second reboot, dome was closed and parked at 235 degrees.
07/06/2026
Kurtis Williams
ETAMU
Raven Powers
Andor
5.5
1.5
Software/Control PC Issues
Observing rotating white dwarf. ACE crashed after a couple hours so I went through restarting procedure and was able to begin observing again. Then tracking failed and telescope would not slew. Closed everything and rebooted again and got everything working properly but it was close to sunrise at this point so that ended the night.
07/05/2026
Aarran Shaw
Butler U
None
Andor
7
0
Equipment Failure
CV candidate observing program. Best focus at 100800 and guider at -70 (although couldn't get guider to actually guide). Had a loss of tracking for my first source at HA 02:25, but ACE cabinet reset fixed it and I moved on to second source.
07/03/2026
Yong Sheng
Clemson University
Dieter Hartmann
Andor CCD griz
8
0
Software/Control PC Issues
Clemson blazar study. The dome was closed and parked at 235 degrees at the end of the night. The dome power was switched off and the dome light was switched on. After clicking the dome close button, the dome begins closing normally. However, before it finishes closing, it switches back to opening mode, so the dome never fully closes. I resolved the issue by performing a full restart of the telescope system.
07/03/2026
Todd Vaccaro
Ball State University
n/a
Andor
7.5
.5
Equipment Failure
EB and novae BVR photometry. Early in the eve when I went to jog the position an arc min or two the tele stopped tracking and it required a full restart. Later, when the dome reached 0 AZ it stopped tracking and I had to unlink dome, park dome, and relink dome to get it to track again. Then at hour angle 3 the tele tracking stopped as it has typically done. Another target I tracked to about 3 HA and decided to stop for the night before it required another full system restart again. I made sure to shut the dome shutter off once things indicated they were closed.
07/02/2026
Tom Rutherford
ETSU
None
CCD
0
8
Wind
Wind kept pushing the closing limits so I never did open.
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