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Date
Name
Other Observers
Instrument
Hours Observed
Hours Lost
Reason
Observing Program
05/28/2023
Fangyi Zhu
None
CTIO
0
15
Clouds
Clouds, ACE software Reached W. software limit
05/27/2023
Fangyi Zhu
None
CTIO
15
0
No problems to report
Time series for white dwarfs.
05/24/2023
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
asteroid photometry
05/22/2023
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
0
10
Clouds
clouds never opened
05/23/2023
Scott Joffre
Dieter Hartmann
CCD
12
0
No problems to report
Was very smooth. It would be nice if the pointing could be a little more accurate.
05/22/2023
William C. Keel
no time for cats
Andor CCCD #2
0
12
Clouds
Did not open.
05/21/2023
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
0
10
Clouds
clouds, never opened
05/18/2023
Fangyi ZHu
None
CTIO
15
0
No problems to report
White Dwarf time series photometry
05/17/2023
Tomomi Otani
Julia Clark
CCD
8
0
No problems to report
subdwarf B photometry time series
05/15/2023
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
asteroid photometry
05/17/2023
Tomomi Otani
Julia Clark
CCD
5.5
2.5
Clouds
subdwarf B photometry time series.
05/14/2023
Ken Rumstay
None
Andor CCD camera
4.5
6
Clouds
AGN variability observations. Tried observing between clouds; I obtained Bessell BVRI images for four galaxies, but I'm not sure they'll be usable for photometry. I finally gave up at around 06:30 UT as clouds increased. No technical problems were encountered. The telescope tends to point north of target after slewing, by as much as three arcminutes.
05/13/2023
Michael Fauerbach
na
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
Asteroid photometry
05/10/2023
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Exoplanet. Thin cirrus clouds the entire night.
05/06/2023
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
6
2
Clouds
Exoplanet. Clouds for about the first two hours, then cleared for the rest of the night.
05/05/2023
Gary Henson
none
Spectrograph
6
3
Clouds
Spectra of Massive Stars - Some clouds and Bright Moon issues - Potential Major issue with FLI camera, ADU level abnormally low.
05/04/2023
Stephen D. Gillam
None
Andor CCD
12
0
No problems to report
Micro-variables
05/03/2023
Walter Van Hamme
Samec
CCD
11
0
No problems to report
Observation of interacting binaries. UNSW 447, short period Algol.
05/02/2023
Walter Van Hamme
Samec
CCD
11
0
No problems to report
Observation of interacting binaries. UNSW 447, short period algol.
04/27/2023
Walter Van Hamme
Samec
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
Observations of short period Algol, UNSW 447.
04/26/2023
Walter Van Hamme
samec
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
Observations of eclipsing binary, UNSW 447.
04/25/2023
Stephen D. Gillam
None
Andor CCD
9
0
No problems to report
Micro-variables
04/24/2023
Stephen D. Gillam
Jacob Romeo
Andor CCD
11
0
No problems to report
Micro-variables
04/23/2023
Stephen D. Gillam
Rhiannan Hicks
Andor CCD
9
0
Humidity
Micro-variables.
04/22/2023
Kurtis Williams
none
Andor
7
0
No problems to report
04/17/2023
Xianming Han
none
CCD
9
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
04/16/2023
Xianming Han
none
CCD
9
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
04/21/2023
William C. Keel
Rainwater Observatory visitors
Andor CCD #2
3
0
No problems to report
Outreach imaging. Focus 127800.
04/20/2023
Amy Lovell
AST200L students
CCD
0
8
Clouds
last lab for student projects - too cloudy to observe
04/20/2023
Kurtis Wiliams
Fangyi Zhu
Andor
7.5
0
No problems to report
White dwarf time series photometry; night 2 of training for Zhu. Excellent weather. Autoguider still nonfunctional (known problem). ACE telescope control app was showing incorrect civil time (what it claimed was EST was really EDT+1), but computers had correct chilean time, FITS headers are correct and pointing was correct.
04/15/2023
Xianming Han
none
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
04/11/2023
William Keel
3 cats
Andor CCD #2
9.5
3
Clouds
Also used spectrograph (H-alpha sure is bright in Eta Carinae!). Focus 128000 (Andor CD), 129500 (spectrograph). Could not connect to QSI guide camera. Had to restart Connector Client once during night, and cycle spectrograph power on APC #2 at start of night. Guiding on light around spectrograph fiber with ZWO camera works well. Gotcha: MaximDL camera selection may spontaneously switch 1/2 when going between guiding and regular imaging. Stray light in Andor images may be gone now.
04/10/2023
Isaiah Cox
Yong Sheng, Dieter Hartmann
CCD
7
2
Equipment Failure
Blazars. Problem with autoguider. Used 80s exposures.
04/06/2023
Yong Sheng
Dieter Hartmann, Antonio Circiello, Kouser Imam
Andor CCD griz
2
9
Equipment Failure
There is something wrong with guiding. Contacted the SARA tech but it can't be fixed
04/08/2023
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
ulGRB host galaxy observations
04/07/2023
Gary Henson
none
Spectrograph
9.5
0
No problems to report
Spectroscopy of Massive (WR) stars
03/29/2023
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
no problems, good night
04/05/2023
Berrington
none
arc
8
0
No problems to report
short period variable stars, no issues with the telescope.
04/03/2023
GARY HENSON
none
Spectrograph
9
0
No problems to report
Spectroscopy of Massive (WR) Stars, Some cirrus clouds limiting Flux, but took time to tweak Guider settings and now dialed in!
04/02/2023
Gary Henson
none
Spectrograph
9
0
No problems to report
Massive Star, WR star spectroscopy, Did have issue of autoguider oscillation, might be cycling too fast with too short of exposure.
04/02/2023
Berrington
none
arc
8
0
No problems to report
no problems.
03/30/2023
Amy Lovell
AST200L students
CCD
7
0
No problems to report
student projects for intermediate lab
03/28/2023
Gary Henson
none
Spectrograph
9
0
No problems to report
Spectroscopy of Massive Stars (WR Stars). All worked fine, did have a few connection dropouts to the Spectrograph computer, but Maxim stayed running until logged back in so no disruptions.
03/28/2023
Tomomi Otani
Julia Clark, Lindsay Spence
CCD
9
1
Connection Issues
Hot subdwarf stars photometry time series. We could not use the telescope during the first hour because of losing connections. After we build the connection back, we did a little experiment and found out that if more than two devices connect to the telescope, the telescope operating PC does not work.
03/22/2023
Kurtis Williams
none
Andor
10.5
0
No problems to report
White dwarf time series photometry. Clear night; seeing 1.8" once telescope thermalized. Ambient T=14 C, focus 129000. No issues at all; tracking with guider camera excellent.
03/18/2023
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
As reported before the Dec pointing is off, object still in frame, but not centered.
03/17/2023
Martha Leake
none
Andor
10.5
0
No problems to report
Productive night for asteroid photometry (two asteroids and other objects), thanks to Ken! Object requested appears south (by 3') of center. All else worked well. My mouse caught an edge which degraded the image I saw (not the original). Date above should be March 17, 2023.
03/12/2023
Robert Berrington
none
arc
8
0
Connection Issues
Guide camera continues to not function correctly preventing proper guiding of the telescope.
03/11/2023
Robert Berrington
none
arc
8
0
Connection Issues
Guide camera no is not even taking pictures for the guide camera to start. So guiding is not possible.
03/07/2023
Robert Berrington
none
arc
8.5
0
Connection Issues
Problem with guide camera persists. Taking an image with the guide camera shows an error. When the guide routine is started the error appears when started, but corrections are not recognized by the telescope.
03/06/2023
Robert Berrington
none
arc
8
0
Connection Issues
When attempting to start an exposure of the guide camera, it throws an error. An image is taken, but when the guide routine is started, the corrections are not received/recognized by the telescope.
03/08/2023
Tom Rutherford
Gary Henson
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Exoplanet.
03/10/2023
Scott Joffre
Dieter Hartmann, Yong Sheng
CCD
12
0.5
No problems to report
All went well
03/03/2023
Yong Sheng
Antonio Circiello, Dieter Hartmann
Andor CCD griz
9
1
Clouds
The start of the night was quiet cloudy. But luckily it turned very clear soon.
02/28/2023
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Ultra long GRB host galaxies observation
02/27/2023
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
5
0
No problems to report
Ultra long GRB host galaxies observation.
02/21/2023
Robert Berrington
none
arc
0
10
Clouds
cloudy, did not open.
02/20/2023
Xianming Han
Kaylee Tenbarg
CCD
8.5
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
02/19/2023
Xianming Han
Josh Wanninger
CCD
8.5
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
02/16/2023
James Webb
Observational Astrophysics class
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Class observing Tarantula Nebula Blazar variability: OJ 287, 0420-01
02/18/2023
Xianming Han
Eric Reed
CCD
8.5
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
02/02/2023
Walter Van Hamme
Samec
Camera
10
0
No problems to report
Observations and Modeling of interacting Binaries.
01/28/2023
Walter Van Hamme
Samec
Camera
10
1
Connection Issues
Observation and Analysis of Eclipsing Binaries.
02/14/2023
Van Hamme
Samec
Camers
11
0
No problems to report
Observing and modeling interacting bi9naries.
02/11/2023
Martha Leake
Jordan Hewins
Andor
9.25
0
No problems to report
Asteroid light curve and several other objects (galaxies, clusters, planetary nebulae). Great night.
02/06/2023
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
5
0
No problems to report
Asteroid. Cloudy at first but soon cleared.
02/05/2023
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
2
3
Clouds
ULGRB host galaxies observation. Was cloudy at the beginning.
02/04/2023
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
0
8
Clouds
Clouds all night
01/26/2023
Martha A. Leake
Tools class of 10 for 2 h, then none
Arc Camera
6
3
Connection Issues
Asteroid photometry after class. Unable to access the camera computer. Help from Todd, Ken and Yong Sheng (and Bill). Todd power cycled the camera computer and it responded to radmin. I activated connector client and the telescope PC was able to send images to the camera PC. No problems after that. Thank you to all.
01/25/2023
William Keel
2 cats
Andor CCD
8
0
No problems to report
Merging galaxies, LMC H II regions. Focus 128500, guider focus 8900. Reset guider parameters.
01/24/2023
Scott Joffre
Hartmann
CCD
4
null
Software/Control PC Issues
Had tracking/slewing issues - after 1-2 300s observations. Would slew away and slew back, correcting for only a short time. May also have had some focus issues in conjunction, became difficult to correct for both.
01/21/2023
Ken Rumstay
Apollo the cat
Andor camera
9
0
No problems to report
AGN observations. Telescope tracking very good. Telescope tends to point north of target by varying amounts (depending on declination) after slewing.
01/20/2023
jim webb
none
ccd
4
0
No problems to report
Blazars monitoring, Stars of Star Trek, tarantula nebula
01/17/2023
Isaiah Cox
Yong Sheng, Dieter Hartmann
Andor CCD
9
0
No problems to report
Clemson blazar study
01/14/2023
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
8.3
0
No problems to report
ultra long GRB host galaxy observation.
01/13/2023
Yong Sheng
Dieter Hartmann
Andor CCD griz
8
0
No problems to report
Clemson blazar study.
01/12/2023
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
ultra long GRB host galaxy observation. Had initial connection issues for few minutes.
01/04/2023
William Keel
2 cats
Andor CCD #2
7
2
Equipment Failure
LMC str-forming regions. Focus 127000, guide focus 8900. Drive shut down once near 0H -70. Had several connection interruptions (possibly local), decided to shut down after recovering from one 30m before twilight for safety.
12/29/2022
William Keel
2 cats
Andor CCD #2
8
0
No problems to report
Calm midsummer night. Merging galaxies outside Legacy Survey coverage. Focus 127600, guider focus 9330. One incidence of guider running away to SW, near 3h30 E -26. Internal stray light still present. CCD computer still accessible only via RAdmin, so using Mac I had to connect to telescope computer with VNC and the use RAdmin from there.
12/27/2022
Yong Sheng
Dieter Hartmann
Andor griz
9
0
No problems to report
Clemson blazar study
12/24/2022
Isaiah Cox
Yong Sheng, Dieter Hartmann
Andor CCD
8
0
No problems to report
Blazars
12/13/2022
Van Hamme
Samec
CCD
10
1
Equipment Failure
Observations of Eclipsing Interactive Binaries. WISE042533.6., TYC6462 195 1.
12/13/2022
Van Hamme
Samec
CCD
11
0
No problems to report
Observations of Eclipsing Interactive Binaries. WISE042533.6., TYC6462 195 1.
12/17/2022
Martha Leake
none
New Intel NUCExposure start failed
0
7
Equipment Failure
Asteroid light curve. New equipment just installed and I was unable to have a complete readout and reset without the message "Exposure start failed." Next exposure prevented, countdown of remaining seconds not running. Closing and Opening the Operating menu id not solve the problem. Also, was unable to save images and unclear about latest image storage drive (D, Z, or "image storage (\\ISP address)). No files showed up, binning uncertain. Cause could lie in guider menu or connection of other CCD on menu. Seemed that de-interlace choice changed. Peter left message for help to which I replied. Closed down, never opened.
12/14/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
7
0
No problems to report
Standard Stars, Exoplanet
12/03/2022
Laina Tallman Bogusta
N/A
N/A
11
0
No problems to report
Super clear night. Got some solid data. Everything was working properly although when I tried to about an exposure, the telescope computer seemed to freeze? I was done anyways so I logged out and logged back into the system and closed everything up. Great night.
12/04/2022
Jacob R. Romeo
Dr. Stephen Gillan
ANDOR
9
0
No problems to report
Observations went smooth for the imaging of star HD45698 (a field roAp), I hit abort on accident in the beginning so had to cycle everything, besides that nothing to complain about! Got 1300 exposures, 20 seconds each, at a median of 1.2 Mil counts for Intensity and 20k for Source. No cloud coverage with an average humidity of 40% and 1 mph winds! Beautiful night.
12/02/2022
Scott Joffre
Yong Sheng, D. Hartmann
CT
9.5
0.5
Equipment Failure
Clemson University Blazar observation program Issue with auto-tracking failing to be calibrated correctly after a few runs. Seems to correct if point away to a different location and then point back.
12/01/2022
Ken Rumstay
Apollo the cat
Andor CCD
9.5
0
No problems to report
AGN observations. As noted previously, the telescope points 1-2 arcminutes north of target after slewing.
11/30/2022
Kurtis Williams
none
Andor
0
10
Other
Unable to observe due to inflexible class and laboratory duties; night put up on sara-tech at the last minute and there were no takers.
11/29/2022
Kurtis Williams
none
Andor
0
10
Other
Forgot about the night despite having this on my calendar.. I'm embarrassed. Sorry.
11/28/2022
William Keel
2 cats
Andor CCD #2
7.5
0
No problems to report
Artemis, Didymos, SMC, search for NEA Scout. Focus 128500. Guider didn't have enough authority in some parts of sky.
11/27/2022
Martha A. Leake
none
ARC
null
0
No problems to report
Asteroid photometry for light curves. Weather was great.
11/17/2022
William Keel
3 cats
Andor CCD
8.5
0
No problems to report
Galaxies. Focus 127500, guide focus 1000.
11/14/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
7
0
No problems to report
Exoplanet
11/13/2022
Yong Sheng
Dieter Hartmann
Andor griz
6
4
Clouds
There were a lot of clouds for the first half of the night. I also noticed that there was an out-of-focus problem.
11/09/2022
Tomomi Otani
None
CCD
7
1
Clouds
Photometry time series. Everything was working well.
11/01/2022
VanHamme
Samec
photometer
10
0
No problems to report
Observations of interacting binaries. Wise042533.0 Samec
10/28/2022
Tomomi Otani
Erin Abraham, Adrian Moraga
CCD
5
0
No problems to report
Public Outreach. Great night with no problem.
10/27/2022
William Keel
Class
Andor CCD #2
9
0
No problems to report
Class demo, galaxies. Focus 126600, guide focus 1000. Guiding had apparent hysteresis (did not keep up with drifts), or gave sawtooth pattern in RA, in some parts of the sky.
10/25/2022
William Keel
AY20 class
Andor CCD #2
8
0
No problems to report
Class demo, star clusters, galaxies, nebulae. Focus 125700 (changed around the sky), guider focus +1000.
10/22/2022
Matt Wood
NA
CCD
0
12
Software/Control PC Issues
Connection Client not working on SARA CAM. Without this, time of exposure start is not written to FITS header, so I can't use the data for time series. I will email sara-tech to see if anybody needs imaging data and doesn't care about time precision.
10/21/2022
Matt Wood
None
CCD
0
12
Software/Control PC Issues
Time series photometry of intermediate polars. First time on CTIO in a long time. Got things going with a little help from Brian and Kurtis and Todd. DS9 was not displaying images, but I managed. At about 06:00 UT I realized that the exposure start time was not being written to FITS headers, so data are basically useless. The Connector Client is not working on Camera computer. It will not start - crashes every time. I restarted the computer and that did not help. I did a reboot from the PDU, and that did not help. Tried again, and now I can't even get SARACAM back in VNC. So I'm shutting down for the night. It was a beautiful night with reported sub-arcsecond seeing. It would be helpful to have instructions on how to get things going again on the desktop or website. Nowhere could I find the instructions for how to restart everything from scratch. Such a document would be useful to have on the desktop. Why is "other observers" a required field of this form? (yes, I'm grumpy).
10/20/2022
Kyle Pellegrin
N/A
CCD
3.5
0
No problems to report
Good conditions at the observatory.
10/19/2022
Lilyanne Pepe, Jacob Romeo
Stephen Gillam
ARK
0
3.5
Connection Issues
Camera GUI would not connect, tried restarting NODE service multiple times , restarted both computers, recycled ARK camera power and camera computer and eventually lost VPN connection to the camera computer in the process. roAp research
10/14/2022
Martha Leake
none
Andor
10.5
0
No problems to report
Great weather and conditions; all equipment worked. Pointing a bit north of center as Ken noted.
10/13/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
9
0
No problems to report
asteroid photometry
10/13/2022
Lilyanne Pepe, Divyeshwari Vansadia
Steve Gillam
ARC Camera
8.5
0
No problems to report
The telescope computer was a little slow starting up, but after the first 30 minutes, there were no issues. Weather was fantastic and collected lots of data! roAp research team
10/10/2022
Gary Henson
none
Andor CCD
6.5
0
No problems to report
Asteroid light curve, no problems all systems working fine.
10/08/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Exoplanet.
10/03/2022
Todd Hillwig
None
Andor CCD
8.5
1.5
No problems to report
photometric monitoring of WD binaries. Bright moon, thin clouds and poor seeing early on. Took the night from someone else (thanks Ted) late in the day and had a few already scheduled things that kept me from using a few hours of the night.
10/02/2022
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
2
3
Connection Issues
Ultra long GRB host galaxy observation. The air mass was high during the initial hours of observation and high level clouds. The connection to the computers got disconnected for few minutes while observing.
09/29/2022
William Keel
2 cats
Andor CCD #2
7
0
No problems to report
Galaxies, Didymos dust trails. Focus 126300. At one point telescope control system crashed but left a frozen window, confusing me mightily until I sent CTL-ALT-DEL from VNC and made everything refresh. At one point near 4h W -77, guider could not keep up with NS daifts (or didn't have the control authority against backlash to do so?)
09/28/2022
Yong Sheng
Dieter Hartmann
Andor CCD griz
11
0
No problems to report
Blazar study at Clemson University
09/27/2022
Todd Hillwig
None
Andor CCD
3
7
Clouds
Photometric monitoring of hot WDs. Clouds most of the night.
09/24/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
6
3
Clouds
cery cloudy at beginning of the night, but it cleared up late
09/21/2022
Ken Rumstay
Apollo the cat
CCD camera
10
0
No problems to report
AGN monitoring program Telescope points north of target after slewing, by as much as three arcminutes (amount varies with hour angle).
09/19/2022
James Webb
none
CCD
0
10
Equipment Failure
Blazar Microvariability and star of Star Trek Informed telescope was down , but later on after too late it became available. Could not at that time log in to use it. Should be good now.
09/14/2022
Steve Gillam
Lilyanna Pepe, Jacob Romeo, Laina Talman-Bogusta
Andor Camera
0
7
Equipment Failure
rOAp stars. At the beggining of the night, I could not connect to Telescope computer. I power-cycled it. And it is now working and I can access the TCS. I cannot connect to the Andor camera. I to connect to the guider camera. This failed. I then tried stopping and starting the camera ACE node service. Didn’t fix the connection to the camera. I then tried closing and reselecting the main camera service. The ACE connector client failed. This likely indicates that it cannot connect to the camera. This probably requires a restart of the camera and a full ACE services restart. The failed guide cam together with this failure suggests something systemic is wrong. I power-cycled the camera. This did not restore the connection to the ACE connector client. I then tried to power-cycle the camera computer because the broken ACE connector client remained that way, even after stopping and starting the ACE node service. It appears that the camera computer would not reboot completely as I cannot connect to it.
09/02/2022
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
0
5
Equipment Failure
Telescope (camera) is not operational at the moment.
09/01/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
0
11
Equipment Failure
CCD still kaputt
08/31/2022
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
0
5
Equipment Failure
Telescope (camera) is not operational at the moment.
08/29/2022
Ross Silver
Dieter Hartmann
CCD
0
10
Equipment Failure
Telescope is not operational at the moment.
08/26/2022
James Webb
Jonathon Barata
CCD
0
8
Connection Issues
Stars f Star Trek, blazar microvariability My home computer with VPM wouldn't connect, it is old and fickle. Couldn't log in. I wasn't sure of the other problems at CTIO were fixed anyway.
08/20/2022
Martha Leake
none
Andor
0
11
Equipment Failure
No camera at present. From Todd on Friday "Fault in camera connection at SARA-CT, ...part being shipped...estimated several days to a week" (paraphrased). No observing tonight. (Weather was also turning cloudy later.)
08/16/2022
Ross Silver
Dieter Hartmann
CCD
0
10
Equipment Failure
I could not observe due to issues with the telescope.
08/17/2022
Yong Sheng
Dieter Hartmann
Andor CCD griz
0
12
Equipment Failure
The Andor camera and the QSI camera are not working
08/15/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
0
8
Equipment Failure
M31. CCD would not download images so restarted everything-- telescope limit warnings began flashing when everything came back up, even though no commands had been sent to the telescope.
08/11/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
7
0
Other
Autofocuser would not operate correctly-- everything else worked well.
08/11/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
0
5
Equipment Failure
Camera would not download images. Cloudy all night so it ended up not being a a usable night anyway.
08/06/2022
Alex
Dieter
CCD
0
10
Humidity
Clemson Blazar Photo-z measurement program. High humidity and clouds so did not observe
08/03/2022
William Keel
3 cats
Andor CCD #2
11.5
0
No problems to report
Transient night - a quilt of asteroids, a comet, supernovae, planets, and the odd filler galaxy. CCD computer sometimes had such poor connection that VNC went down to "low" screen quality, although Dropbox uploads from it stayed very fast. Focus 125000, guider focus 0. Guiding in some parts of the sky acted as if it had little control authority.
08/01/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
10
1
Clouds
High Cirrus and rather poor seeing, but no technical problems to report. Asteroid photometry
07/26/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
8
3
Clouds
intermittent clouds, not sure how good data will be. Else no problems to report
07/25/2022
Kurtis Williams
none
Andor
0
14
Snow
Observatory closed due to snowstorm and subsequent power failure
07/24/2022
Kurtis Williams
none
Andor
0
14
Snow
Observatory closed due to snowstorm and subsequent power failure
07/19/2022
Priya Gokuldass
None
CCD
0
5
Snow
Didn't observe due to the snow storm on Friday night and power failure.
07/18/2022
Ken Rumstay
None
CCD
0
10
Snow
Unable to observe as a result of Friday's snowstorm.
07/12/2022
William Keel
public event
Andor CCD #2
4
0
No problems to report
Public program: NGC 3132, JWST, Focus 12580.
07/09/2022
Yong Sheng
Dieter Hartmann
CT griz
1
11
Humidity
Program: Clemson University blazar study Problems: the humidity > 80%. Can't observe at all. But I took bias and darks since they can be done with dome closed
07/07/2022
Kent Montgomery
Mamosa Mohoto
CCD
0
8
Clouds
Asteroid Photometry
07/05/2022
William Keel
3 cats
Andor CCD #2
5
7
Clouds
Galaxies, comet. Increasing cirrus wiped out later part of the night. Focus 126700. Connection was slow, but Dropbox uploads from the CCD computer were extraordinarily slow (especially when trying to do multiple files - makes me wonder about a browser version issue). I could usually only get a single file at a time uploaded without a timeout.
07/03/2022
Robert Berrington
none
arc
12
0
No problems to report
Short period variable stars.
06/29/2022
Núria Torres-Albà
Dieter Hartmann
SARA CT
11
0
No problems to report
Clemson University high-z blazar observations. No problems to report.
06/29/2022
Kent Montgomery
Mamosa Mohoto
CCD
7
1
Equipment Failure
For the second night in a row the declination limit came on at the beginning of the night so the telescope would not slew in declination. The problem was resolved by a text to Todd and someone from ACE logging in to override it. This needs to be fixed whether mechanical or software related because I expect it will continue to happen every night.
06/28/2022
Kent Montgomery
Mamosa Mohoto
CCD
7.5
1.5
Software/Control PC Issues
At the beginning of the night the telescope wouldn't slew in declination. The north limit had been triggered even though the telescope was at a declination of -3 degrees. After a call to Todd, Brian got on and overrode the limit switch so we could observe the rest of the night. Thanks to both of them.
06/26/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
0
11
Clouds
clouds, never opened
06/25/2022
Martha Leake
none
Andor
6
6
Clouds
Asteroids and galaxy. Connection problem with SARA telescope solved by Todd (thank you). Completed biases and darks while waiting for cirrostratus clouds and began at 11 pm. Filter menu is touchy, but I believe it is correct. Moving to stow position was slow at the lock stage. Vicuna forecast "soggier" than conditions at CTIO.
06/23/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
0
11
Clouds
clouds, never opened
06/21/2022
Alex
Dieter
Andor CCD
0
11
Humidity
Clemson Blazar Photo-z measurement program. Bad weather. Humidity, clouds, and snow throughout the night
06/20/2022
Robert Berrington
none
arc
2
10
Clouds
Short Period variable star program. Lost several hours due to clouds.
06/19/2022
Robert Berrington
none
arc
0
12
Clouds
Short period variable stars. Lost evening due to high clouds.
06/17/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
3
7
Clouds
Asteroids.
06/15/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
7
0
No problems to report
Asteroid, Novae
06/13/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
1
10
Clouds
Asteroid. No mechanical issues, but clouds the whole night so no data.
06/12/2022
Xianming Han
Josh Wanninger
CCD
9
2.5
Clouds
eclipsing binary
06/11/2022
Xianming Han
Josh Wanninger
CCD
11
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
06/10/2022
Xianming Han
Josh Wanninger
CCD
11
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
06/09/2022
Xianming Han
Josh Wanninger
CCD
10
0.5
Equipment Failure
telescope could not slew properly. ACE helped found a temporary fix.
06/09/2022
Stephen Levine
N/A
Andor Camera
0
10
Equipment Failure
Outer Solar System astrometry program. Telescope locked a Dec limit on first slew. I thought it was reasonably above the nominal pointing limits, but apparently not. I would have expected a possible E limit, if anything. Once the Dec limit was set, it would not unset. The telescope was mobile in E/W, but no N/S motion. Dec is at about -00:12. If you bring up the hand paddle and try a manual move, the direction of the button push changes the Dec limit to that direction (ie, push S button, the read back registers Dec Limit S). Closed up.
06/07/2022
Otani
Julia Clark, Adrian Moraga
Andor CCD
6
4
Software/Control PC Issues
Student observation. Photometry time series. The telescope control panel showed the DEC reached both the N and S limit and stopped slewing. The touch panel did not work. We rebooted the ACE and rebooted the telescope PC. When I had the similar issue before, I was suggested to move the telescope to -4h and -89 degrees, then move it over to +4 and -75 degrees. We tried that too but nothing worked, so we ended the observation.
06/06/2022
Otani
Adrian Moraga, Julia Clark
CCD
9
1
Software/Control PC Issues
Hot subdwarf photometry time series. CCD camera disconnected once. The regular procedure fixed the issue.
05/31/2022
Yong Sheng
Scott Joffre, Dieter Hartmann
CT griz
1
9
Clouds
Too cloudy. Only took bias and darks.
05/08/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
Noticed that I forgot to send a report for this night, sorry
05/28/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
0
11
Clouds
clouds, never opened
05/27/2022
Todd Hillwig
None
Andor CCD
10
0
No problems to report
PN central stars
05/26/2022
Xianming Han
Josh Wanninger
CCD
9
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
05/24/2022
Ken Rumstay
None
CCD camera
11
0
No problems to report
AGN photometry. Increasing clouds towards dawn.
05/23/2022
James Webb
none
CCD
0
10
Other
Observing Star Trek stars in southern hemisphere and blazar microvariability. Computer with VPN wouldn't boot so I couldn't log onto the telescope. Put the night up for grabs but don't think anyone took it.
05/21/2022
Gary Henson
Rutherford
Andor CCD
7.5
0
No problems to report
Asteroid Light Curve At end of run, with telescope at ~35 deg altitude to NW, oscillation in Dec tracking occurred. Turned tracking off/back on and was stable after that until target down to ~30 deg in altitude.
05/20/2022
Ken Rumstay
None
CCD camera
1
10
Clouds
Complete cloud cover at start of night. Observed MCG 06-30-15 during a partial opening*, then closed dome when clouds rolled in again. *I'm n ot confident the images are usable.
05/17/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
Asteroid.
05/16/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
Asteroid. No problems.
05/15/2022
Nayra Rodriguez Eugenio
Irene Puerto
Andor CCD
5
0
No problems to report
Crater timings during lunar eclipse
05/14/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
9
0
No problems to report
Asteroid. No problems.
05/12/2022
Ross Silver
Dieter, Yong
CCD
10
1
Clouds
Observing photometric redshift of blazars
05/07/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
0
11
Clouds
Clouds --never opened
05/06/2022
Walter Van Hamme
Samec
CCD
null
0
No problems to report
Observations of interacting eclipsing binaries, ASASSN-V J113943.95-611732.1 and GSC 5149.2845.
05/04/2022
Michael Fauerbach
NA
CCD
10.5
0.5
Software/Control PC Issues
There seems to be a light on in the dome. I do not know where to switch it off. The image -D-drive on the camera PC is full. I did not receive a warning it just wrote empty files to disk. They of course displayed normally in DS9 and it took me a while to notice the problem. I was able to clear some old files from a colleague.
05/03/2022
Watanabe
N.Rimbert
CCD
6
0
No problems to report
Blazars
05/02/2022
William Keel
3 cats
Andor CCD #2
9.5
0
Software/Control PC Issues
AGN, SN, nebulae. Guider corrections were not being received by telescope control (numbers appear on CCD computer but all zeros on telescope computer). Focus 126300, guider focus 9000.
04/26/2022
Stephen Levine
N/A
Andor Camera
5
0
No problems to report
Outer solar system astrometry.
04/27/2022
Stephen Levine
N/A
Andor camera
5
0
No problems to report
Outer solar system astrometry.
04/25/2022
Stephen Levine
N/A
Andor Camera
5
0
No problems to report
Outer solar system astrometry.
04/22/2022
Todd Hillwig
None
Andor CCD
10
0
Other
A lot of E-W telescope motion/drifting throughout the night. Also one case of large N-S oscillations for about 20 minutes at Azimuth 77 degrees and Altitude 48 degrees. Also, the guider was not sending corrections to the telescope.
04/17/2022
Ted von Hippel
Alondra Valentin-Torres, Ryan Bowen
imaging
8
0
No problems to report
student projects
04/21/2022
Yong Sheng
Dieter Hartmann
CT griz
11
0
No problems to report
Clemson University blazar study. The night went pretty smoothly, no issue to report
04/13/2022
Todd Hillwig
None.
Andor CCD
10
0
No problems to report
Student Projects for the first half of the night, PN central star observations the second half.
04/10/2022
Tom Rutherford
None
CCD
0
11
Equipment Failure
Asteroid. When I first logged on, the CCD camera would not respond to commands-- actually, it would appear that it was working, but not actually take any images. After four restarts of the CCD computer it begin operating correctly. I restarted the telescope computer along-side the CCD computer and when it came back up, many of the control windows were blank. Several restarts later, the controls were all back and everything except one thing appeared to function-- that one thing was the telescope pointing. The telescope would accept commands to slew to a particular area, but would not actually slew to the new location-- it stayed where it was, with "slewing" never disappearing from the control window. The hand paddle would not move the telescope either. Several more restarts had no effect so I closed up.
04/08/2022
Van Hamme
Samec
CCD
11
1
Equipment Failure
Drive problems on first start up. ACE rapidly fixed them. 625 observations on 2 interacting binaries. Beautiful night. No airmass issues.
04/08/2022
Van Hamme
Samec
CCD
12
null
Equipment Failure
Drive problems fixed rapidly by ACE. All went well afterwards, some 634 observations of 2 interacting binaries. No airmass problems.
04/07/2022
Ken Rumstay
None
CCD
5
2
Connection Issues
Was observing from home; my Internet connection failed just before sunset at CTIO. Relocated to the university and resumed observing. All worked fine until about 12:30 am EDT. While slewing to a target the N and W limits turned red, even though the telescope was east of the meridian. I was able to close the mirror covers and the dome, but could not budge the telescope. Restarting ACE and the telescope computer did not help. I've informed Peter Mack and Brian Blondell of the problem.
04/05/2022
Judi Provencal
DAS
Andor
6
0
No problems to report
Observed multiple open clusters and nebulae for DAS members.
04/04/2022
Todd Hillwig
None.
Andor CCD
0
10
Software/Control PC Issues
Camera computer non-responsive. Difficulty contacting telops. They should be on it today.
04/03/2022
Stephen Gillam
Leila Alamos, Lilyanne Pepe
Andor Camera
0
10
Equipment Failure
ROAp stars. The camera computer remained incommunicado. So, we finished up at 8:30 pm.
04/02/2022
Stephen Gillam
Leila Alamos, Kiara Richardson
Andor Camera
2
8
Software/Control PC Issues
ROAp stars. Around midnight, the camera stopped working. We restarted the ACE node service seven times. The camera remained inoperable. Then, the TCS reported that the encoder had failed. We completed the procedure to reset the DIO96 board (Shutting down the Tele. computer and power-cycling the tele computer and ACE control cabinet.) The camera was still not connecting. We then tried to power cycle the camera and the camera computer. using the APC switch rack. The camera computer did not come up again. We were unable to connect to it.
03/25/2022
Xianming Han
none
CCD
9
0
No problems to report
eclipsing binary
03/31/2022
Priya Gokuldass
Kamp
CCD
10
0
No problems to report
Be stars, Multiplicity survey and TESS follow-up. We had no problem during the hours of observation.
03/25/2022
Walter Van Hamme
sAMEC
ccd
0
10
Connection Issues
Inability to connect since Win10 computers cannot connect to CTIO through VPN at present. We gave time tonight to another observer.
03/24/2022
William Keel
3 cats
Andor CCD #2
9
0
No problems to report
Merging galaxies. Focus 128300, guider focus 9000. Found telescope in afternoon at west limit 4h49W -15, Backed out with soft paddle. Also indicator said lower dome shutter was open.
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