SARA 

Stephen Levine

Lowell Observatory

None

Andor Camera

7

0

No problems to report

Solar system astrometry and photometry.

Kurtis Williams

TAMU-C

Cheesecake (feline trainee)

Andor

10

0

No problems to report

White dwarf photometry. Excellent weather; no problems to report.

William Keel

University of Alabama

1 cat

Andor CCD #2

7

3

Software/Control PC Issues

Galaxies with emission-line clouds. Focus 129000. Without the guider, telescope tracking in some innocent-looking parts of the sky is so poor that 5-minute exposures trail, in changing directions so changing track rates doesn't help. Gave up early after trying targets in various directions.

Michael Fauerbach

FGCU

NA

CCD

8

0.5

Connection Issues

VPN connection closed twice at the beginning. The computer clock was off by over 8 seconds at the beginning of the night. I set it to my best ability, but it started drifting quickly and stabilized just under 2 seconds. Reset it and It stayed semi stable around 0.5 seconds within NIST time

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

2

0

No problems to report

No issues. Variable stars.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

5

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Kurtis Williams

TAMUC

Various felines

Andor

11

0

No problems to report

White dwarf time series. Computer clock off by 5.4s. No other problems; very nice night. Focus study at 129000 all night

Hodari-Sadiki Hubbard-James

Agnes Scott College

Maddy Buisch, Sasha Arbogast, Linda Ho, Maddie Hoffman, Olivia Joyner, Isabel Masawi, Namu Xiangze

ARC

6

4

Clouds

No Connection Issues. Clouds started to move in towards the middle of the night.

Scott Joffre

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann, yong Sheng

ccd

7

0

No problems to report

No issues. Pointing still slightly off but consistently so

Kaylee Grace

UD/MCAO

Millie Dill, Zach Savery, Tali Natan

CCD

9

1

Connection Issues

Imaged pulsating white dwarf EC14012. Had some issues with VNC Viewer towards the end of the night, kept freezing to the point where I had to restart my computer and re-log into the VPN for it to connect again. Called the night shortly after that as it started to make us nervous.

Antonio Circiello

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

8

0

No problems to report

Clemson blazar study

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

8

0

Software/Control PC Issues

The slewing was very slow at the beginning for around 10 minutes, but went back normal later.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

Andor

1.5

8.5

Equipment Failure

Several positive fixes for the telescope weren't enough. The same non-connection exists and may be the reason that sidereal time ran backward. Using the Andor camera from the Camera telescope does not afford the choices in saving your images or setting up a proper script. I was able to open and close dome, mirror covers, and use dome automation, but did not progress to tracking an object. Sara Observatory computer and its cameras were useful.

William Keel

University of Alabama

None

Andor CCD #2

0

9

Software/Control PC Issues

CCD can be operated from the camera window on the connector-client pane from the CCD computer, but trying to connect the OBSERVATIONS panel from the ACE control system on the telescope computer always waits a bit and says "could not connect to the camera. Please check that the camera computer is powered on and the ACE Node Service is running". This persists across restarts of the node service, connector client and ACE control. I got as far as finding a focus, then figured out why I could not identify any fields. The indicated UT, LST and RA all jump backwards (by up to 2 hours) every minute or two while the telescope is either stationary or tracking. It insists that it's December 30, 2023. Dome is closed, drive off, telescope parked at what may or may not be the meridian at +20.

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

8

Equipment Failure

A problem with the CCD camera at SARA-CT. It has not been fixed.