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SARA
The Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy
Date | Name | Other Observers | Instrument | Hours Observed | Hours Lost | Reason | Observing Program |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
04/21/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 0 | 9 | Clouds | Cloudy for the entire night so never opened. |
04/18/2024 | Millie Dill | Tali Natan, Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker | Andor CCD | 11 | 0 | No problems to report | The connection on VNC Viewer was great tonight! We got 10 hours of images of a pulsating hydrogen atmosphere white dwarf. |
04/17/2024 | Millie Dill | Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan, Zach Savery | Andor CCD | 8 | 0 | Connection Issues | Cycled both telescope and camera computers, significantly improved response time. |
04/16/2024 | Kaylee Grace | Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan | CCD | 15 | 0 | Connection Issues | |
04/15/2024 | Lindsay Spence | Tomomi Otani, Julia Clark, Ellesse Lynum-Lozano | CCD | 0 | 12 | Clouds | Too many clouds and rain |
04/14/2024 | Lindsay Spence | Tomomi Otani, Julia Clark, Ellesse Lynum-Lozano | CCD | 0 | 12 | Clouds | Too many clouds and rain :( |
04/13/2024 | Lindsay Spence | Tomomi Otani, Julia Clark Ellessee Lynum-Lozano | CCD | 4 | 8 | Clouds | Raining and Clouds |
04/11/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 4 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable stars. |
04/10/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 5 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable stars. |
04/09/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 4 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable stars. |
04/06/2024 | Yong Sheng | Dieter, Kouser, Ava, Garima | Andor griz | 10 | null | No problems to report | Clemson University Blazar study. |
04/05/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 4 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable stars. |
04/02/2024 | Matt Wood | NA | CCD | 12 | 0 | No problems to report | Great night. Sub-arcsec seeing. |
04/01/2024 | Kurtis Williams | None | Andor | 11 | 0 | No problems to report | Night scheduled for Matt Wood. Lum5 filter. Focus started at 129000, ended night at 128000. Clear weather, no problems. Did not try autoguiding |
03/31/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 7 | 0 | No problems to report | Exoplanet, variable stars. |
03/29/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 4 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable stars. |
03/24/2024 | Hodari James | Sasha Arbogast, Tuesday Muse, Isabel Masawi, Daniela Garcia-Lara | CTIO | 4 | 0 | No problems to report | AST 200L Class, variable star |
03/20/2024 | Maddy Buisch | Viv Felso, Linda Ho, Hodari James | CCD | 0 | 6 | Clouds | Too many clouds to observe. |
03/18/2024 | Hodari James | Isabelle Adams, Maddie Hoffman, Elliot Arp, Viv Felso, | ARC Camera | 3 | 0 | No problems to report | We observed clusters for AST 200L. |
03/17/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 4 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable Stars. |
03/16/2024 | Michael Fauerbach | NA | CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | asteroid photometry |
03/13/2024 | Michael Fauerbach | NA | CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | asteroid photometry |
03/15/2024 | Stephen Levine | None | Andor Camera | 7 | 0 | No problems to report | Solar system astrometry and photometry. |
03/15/2024 | Kurtis Williams | Cheesecake (feline trainee) | Andor | 10 | 0 | No problems to report | White dwarf photometry. Excellent weather; no problems to report. |
03/12/2024 | William Keel | 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. |
03/11/2024 | Michael Fauerbach | 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 |
03/07/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 2 | 0 | No problems to report | No issues. Variable stars. |
03/04/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 5 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable stars. |
03/04/2024 | Kurtis Williams | 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 |
03/01/2024 | Hodari-Sadiki Hubbard-James | 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. |
02/28/2024 | Scott Joffre | Dieter Hartmann, yong Sheng | ccd | 7 | 0 | No problems to report | No issues. Pointing still slightly off but consistently so |
02/18/2024 | Kaylee Grace | 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. |
02/16/2024 | Antonio Circiello | Dieter Hartmann | Andor CCD griz | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | Clemson blazar study |
02/13/2024 | Yong Sheng | 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. |
02/11/2024 | Martha A. Leake | 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. |
02/09/2024 | William Keel | 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.
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02/04/2024 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann | Andor CCD griz | 0 | 8 | Equipment Failure | A problem with the CCD camera at SARA-CT. It has not been fixed. |
02/02/2024 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 0 | 9 | Equipment Failure | CCD camera would not download images-- seemed to hang on "exposing," but I don't know if it was actually exposing at all since it wouldn't download or save anything. |
02/01/2024 | William Keel | none | Andor #2 | 0 | 9 | Equipment Failure | CCD temperature was cycling between -10 and -50 C, while telescope computer froze repeatedly. Brian Brondel checked in did some diagnostics and power cycling, with no joy. The last straw was the readout freezing while trying to do a series of darks to see whether the temperature was really doing that or it was a sensor issue. |
01/28/2024 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann | Andor griz | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | Clemson University blazar study. |
01/24/2024 | Ken Rumstay | None | CCD camera | 9 | 0 | No problems to report | Telescope tracking very good; telescope points north of target after slewing. Had to re-establish VPN connection several times. A Full Moon made for a bright sky. |
01/15/2024 | Kaylee Grace | Millie Dill, Zach Savery | CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | we looked at pulsating helium atmosphere white dwarf EGGR 63. realized our problem the last two nights was trying to slew from the H.A. tab instead of the R.A. tab. we are always learning! VNC had some connection issues again but it is hard to say if that's due to our less-than-ideal internet, the VPN connection, or something else. |
01/14/2024 | Kaylee Grace | Zach Savery | CCD | 3 | 0 | No problems to report | Looked at a pulsating helium atmosphere white dwarf for an hour before running into the telescope limits. Bad time of year for the targets we could think up. Much better VNC connection tonight than last! |
01/13/2024 | Kaylee Grace | Zach Savery | CCD | 3 | 0 | Connection Issues | Issues with VNC viewer being very slow and having to reconnect often on the telescope computer. Other than that fine night! We just did a bad job finding targets within CTIO limits. |
01/08/2024 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann | Andor griz | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | Clemson Blazar Study |
01/04/2024 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann | Andor griz | 8 | 0 | Software/Control PC Issues | Sometimes, the fits files won't show up in the folder. This is not regular. For example, if I set up 10 exposures, I will end up with only 9 fits files in the CAM folder. |
12/31/2023 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann | Andor griz | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | Clemson Blazar study |
12/29/2023 | Walter Van Hamme | Han, Samec | CCD | 5 | 5 | Clouds | Observations of ASASSN-V J070219.93-331254.1, short period Algol. |
12/27/2023 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann | Andor griz | 8 | 8 | No problems to report | Clemson blazar study. |
12/21/2023 | Van Hamme | Samec, Han | CCD | 8.5 | 0 | No problems to report | Observations of ASAS J070220-3312, a short period Algol. |
12/20/2023 | Van Hamme, Walter | Samec, Han | CCD | 8.5 | 1 | No problems to report | Observations of ASAS J070220-3312, short period algol. |
12/14/2023 | Ken Rumstay | None | ARC CCD | 5.5 | 4 | Clouds | AGN photometry. No technical problems. Telescope points 1-2 arcminutes north of target after slewing. Increasing clouds curtailed observations. |
12/13/2023 | Isaiah Cox | Dieter Hartmann | CCD | 7 | 0 | No problems to report | blazars |
12/08/2023 | Scott Joffre | yong Sheng, Dieter Hartmann | ccd | 7.5 | 0 | No problems to report | Went fine. Accidentally exposed to bright light because CT webcam image is not updating (some date in late November) |
12/06/2023 | Kaylee Grace | Easton Honaker, Millie Dill, Zach Savery | CCD | 5 | 0 | No problems to report | Observed a pulsating helium atmosphere white dwarf until the W limit was reached. Did some imaging of NGC 362. |
12/04/2023 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 6 | 0 | No problems to report | Pointing was off-- one target was missed by over three degrees, but other than that, everything worked well. |
11/29/2023 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 3 | 0 | No problems to report | Everything worked, but the pointing was a little off. |
11/23/2023 | Stephen Levine | None | Imager | 0 | 8 | Other | Did not observe. Observer got the date wrong. |
11/19/2023 | Stephen Levine | none | Imaging camera | 2 | 0 | No problems to report | No problems connecting. The desktop notes about how to reset the camera connection worked as advertised; had to reset at the start, and then once mid-way after an accidental double click sent an Abort. Image quality looked decent. |
11/17/2023 | Kurtis Williams | none | Andor | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | White dwarf time series photometry. Everything appears to be in good working order except web browsers are unable to reach any site, including internal CTIO pages. Are computer clocks able to sync with time servers? This is important to our observations. |
08/17/2023 | William Keel | 1 cat | Andor CCD #2 | 0 | 10 | Connection Issues | Still disconnected due to cybersecurity response |
08/12/2023 | Scott Joffre | Dieter Hartmann, Yong Sheng | CCD | 0 | 10 | Other | Still cannot connect to VPN due to security concerns |
08/11/2023 | F Zhu | K awilliams | Andor | 0 | 13 | Connection Issues | |
08/09/2023 | Fangyi Zhu | K Williams | Andor | 0 | 13 | Connection Issues | |
08/08/2023 | Stephen Gillam | Kaelyn Weddle & Jessica Nicholson | Andor Camera | 0 | 12 | Connection Issues | Micro variables. CTIO connection is severed due to cyber intrusion. |
08/06/2023 | Todd Hillwig | None | Andor CCD | 0 | 10 | Clouds | Clouds |
08/07/2023 | Scott Joffre | Dieter Hartmann, Yong Sheng | CCD | 0 | 10 | Connection Issues | Still cannot connect due to the internet shutdown in response to the recent cyber attacks. |
08/05/2023 | Isaiah Cox | Dieter Hartmann | Andor CCD | 0 | 11 | Connection Issues | No connection |
07/25/2023 | S Zari | S Johns, L Dietrich | Andor | 3 | 1 | Clouds | Asteroid observing. |
07/22/2023 | Lena Dietrich | S Johns | Andor | 0 | 3 | Clouds | White Dwarf Photometry |
07/21/2023 | Michael Fauerbach | NA | CCD | 2.5 | 8 | Clouds | asteroid photometry, not a clear night, not sure if any of the data will be useful |
07/20/2023 | Ken Rumstay | None | CCD camera | 0 | 10 | Clouds | Hoped to observe active galaxies. Did not open dome, due to cloudy skies. The clouds are predicted to continue through tomorrow night. |
07/19/2023 | Michael Fauerbach | NA | CCD | 0 | 11 | Clouds | Clouds, never opened |
07/15/2023 | Tomomi Otani | Julia Clark | CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | Hot subdwarf photometry time series.
It was a great night. |
07/14/2023 | Tomomi Otani | Julia Clark | CCD | 8 | 0 | No problems to report | Hot subdwarf photometry time series.
It was a good night. |
07/12/2023 | Martha Leake | none | Arc CCD | 0 | 12 | Snow | Humidity at or near 100% most of night. At 6:33 snow (1-2 inches) on the ground. Wind recorded at SOAR 40+ m/s. Sky clearing at 5:30 am to present (6:34). Did not open, but took biases and darks earlier. Camera connections good. Will not open this morning (July 12). Date recording on this form is not correct. This observation run began July 11; a second report filed on July 12 at 6:38 am. Weather should be better later today. |
07/11/2023 | Martha Leake | none | ARC CCD | 0 | 12 | Clouds | Clouds, rain, snow, fog at least until 12 midnight, then projected high humidity and clouds until 3-4 am; possible clearing forecast between 6-8. If snow, then dripping domes likely. Will file amendment in 4-5 hours. Intended to observe asteroids for light curve determination. |
07/10/2023 | Judi Provencal | none | CCD | 0 | 0 | Clouds | CCD imaging |
07/09/2023 | Terry Oswalt | Steve Gillam, Eden Kope, Ahnika Gee, Ryan Reynolds, Melinda Walls, Luca Guida, Krys Confeiteiro | Andor Camera | 11 | null | Clouds | Gyrochronology. It was very cloudy the entire time. We still observed though - this was mostly a training exercise for the students. |
07/07/2023 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann, Kourse Imam, Antonio Circiello | Andor CCD griz | 12 | 2.5 | Equipment Failure | The focus was good but went bad during the night. I am not sure if it's a gradually continuous change in the focus or it's a sudden change, causing many scientific images to be useless. This has happened multiple times to me. |
06/26/2023 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 3 | 7 | Clouds | Exoplanet. Clouds rolled in around midnight-- tried to out wait them, but eventually gave up and closed up. |
06/23/2023 | Michael Fauerbach | NA | CCD | 8 | 3 | Clouds | asteroid photometry
clouds and very poor seeing at the beginning of the night. |
06/22/2023 | Michael Fauerbach | NA | CCD | 0 | 11 | Clouds | clouds never opened |
06/20/2023 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann | Andor CCD griz | 0 | 11 | Clouds | Closed the telescope due to the clouds to avoid possible rains. |
06/21/2023 | Fangyi Zhu | None | CTIO | 9.5 | 4.5 | Clouds | White Dwarf photometry |
06/19/2023 | Tomomi Otani | Julia Clark | CCD | 10 | 0 | No problems to report | Variable sdbs |
06/17/2023 | Shayaan Zari | Lena Dietrich, S Johns, Dr Kurtis WIlliams | Andor | 10.5 | 0 | No problems to report | Asteroid photometry. |
06/16/2023 | S Johns | Lena Dietrich, Dr Kurtis Williams | Andor | 10.5 | 0 | No problems to report | Observing program was asteroid photometry |
06/14/2023 | Xianming Han | Spencer Decker | CCD | 8 | 1 | Clouds | eclipsing binary |
06/13/2023 | Xianming Han | Spencer Decker | CCD | 10 | 0 | No problems to report | eclipsing binary |
06/12/2023 | Xianming Han | Spencer Decker | CCD | 10 | 0 | No problems to report | eclipsing binaries |
06/10/2023 | Martha Leake | none | Andor CCD | 9 | 2 | Clouds | No problems but clouds near 3 am; I closed and finished up, but other scopes are still in use, observing through partly cloudy skies and moonlight. All equipment worked well. Time now 4:20 am. |
06/08/2023 | William Keel | 2 cats | Andor CCD #2 | 12 | 0 | No problems to report | AGN hosts, H II regions. Focus 128000. Once while tweaking focus, a message box popped up about initializing a controller (I didn't get its number, but the spectrograph was not selected before or after). Clicking on that, the auxiliary instruments, focus, and observations panels were whited out for a few minutes, then the drive and auto dome had turned off .Tracking does get more irregular in both axes west of about 1h45m west. A few exposures looked as if they had crosstalk during readout only for part of the chip roughly y<750. |
06/05/2023 | Berrington | none | arc | 10 | 0 | Connection Issues | Telescope control computer was unresponsive upon first connection. Todd was able to revive the computer, but it prevented getting evening flats. Fortunately i was able to get morning flats instead. |
06/03/2023 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 0 | 10 | Clouds | Exoplanet. |
05/31/2023 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hartmann | Andor griz | 1 | 10 | Equipment Failure | The tracking issue showed up again. It went bad without any indication. The images taken are just all useless for analysis. |
05/29/2023 | Yong Sheng | Dieter Hatrmann | Andor CCD | 11 | 0 | No problems to report | Clemson blazar study |
05/30/2023 | Tom Rutherford | None | CCD | 3 | 9 | Clouds | Exoplanet. When I logged in to the telescope, it was far over in the west at the pointing limit and would not move away from that. Eventually that was taken care of and I could use it but cirrus and bright moon made observations difficult so I closed up around midnight. |
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
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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
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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. |
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