SARA 

Saida Caballero

Florida Tech

Keefe Kamp

CCD

7

1

Other

Observing Program: Eclipsing binary light curve. Telescope stopped tracking when the object was over HA 2. Decided to close for the night.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

Gary Henson

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet Transit, M31. Had to reboot the computers at the beginning of the night, but everything worked perfectly after that. Dome shutter jammed when trying to close up, but closed after a second try.

Ross Silver

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

ORM 1.0m

9

0

No problems to report

Observing blazars to obtain photometric redshifts.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

Gary Henson

CCD

7

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Exoplanet Transit. About three hours in the telescope began mistracking (images trailing). Ran through the restart procedure twice and all was good. At some point later on, images began trailing again, but I did not detect it since ds9 had stopped updating. Restarted again before parking.

Roi Alonso

IAC

None

CCD

0

9

Other

High dust levels (50-100 ugr/m3 at the TNG page), I did not open.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

Andor CCD

0

9

Clouds

Images for classes. Wiped out by atmospheric dust. Brian Brondel connected, fixed problem with Node Service hanging during stop. Also worked on preload.

Roi Alonso

IAC

Two geckos

CCD

9

0.1

Software/Control PC Issues

WDs. Some problems after a full restart at the beginning (restart of the ace control server taking forever), that were solved by some magic intervention at the right time (thanks, whoever it was!)

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

None

Andor Camera

9,5

0.1

Software/Control PC Issues

,Asteroid photometry and class images. Pointing off east of the given center. Doing fine until third objects when I was unable to slew and noted tracking stopped. An alert helper contacted me via the chat link and recovered from the HA drive fault and fixed it so I was able to continue. Time down was minimal. Thank you. Encountered "jumping" that Bill referred to when wind (?) caused an E-W shift in the object. This continued and occasionally the second image was not "in motion" but not always. Dome closure worked fine, but needed to unlink dome first, otherwise the "Dome ajar" message occurred. Was able to go to zenith without problem, and I will soon place the telescope in the rest position. I'm not sure where all the notes about observing were stored (once on notepad), but I needed them on occasion..I will retrieve my data later this morning, as my home system is unlikely to transfer it quickly.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

Andor CCD

8.5

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Comet NEOWISE, dead quasar survey, H II regions. Had 5+ instances of drive shutdown, all 3h48m or more west of the meridian. Also more instances of double EW images as telescope bounced, all when preload was not automatically on (fixed by turning it on). Following recommendation on desktop file, turned off Andor cooler at night's end.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

Andor CCD

7.8

1.2

Software/Control PC Issues

Dead quasar survey, H II regions. Dome was 76 degrees off its indicated position at start of night. Following drive shutdown and hard reset (cycling cabinet), telescope ran away beyond E limit during slew to meridian. Brian Brondel had to use system magic to restore control. (Also, thanks to Brian for adding 3 more degrees of elevation limit to 27). 0 15 W +60 bouncing back and forth EW by 55 pixels (19”) for at least 20 minutes. Tried turning preload on in reset/oil pump switch window. Maybe preload should be commanded ON over more of the sky (happened again about 0 45 W +47). I suspect that (like CT but not KP) E-W offsets do not incorporate the cos (dec) factor.

Nuria

Clemson University

Meena, Dieter

CCD

8

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

BL Lacs Problems: Had an issue with tracking of the telescope twice in the night (starts were shown as long traces in the images). Fixed it once with a full restart, and once with a quick one.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

Andor CCD

8.5

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Transient night: (the other) comet, TDE, SN, guider tests, plus H II regions and galaxies. Guider does not seem to communicate corrections to telescope. Lost 30 minutes to telescope tracking dropping out and taking 3 full resets to restore. Can we please have a lower telescope elevation limit than 30 degrees?