SARA 

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CCD

9

0.5

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry for light curve and M31. Conditions were great, no storms as hinted by KPNO. Used JPL Horizons and SkyView Virtual Observatory to spot the asteroid. Pointing still west and south of center. Left the telescope in zenith park. Are the other stow positions still recommended? Thanks.

Zach Savery

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Photometric time series observations of G29-38 taken throughout the night. The dark frame counts are very similar to the bias frame ones.

Zach Savery

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Please ignore the previous 9/3 report, I messed up the date for the 9/2 observing. Photometric time series observations of G29-38 taken throughout the night. The dark frame counts seem to be at the same level as those for the bias frames.

Zach Savery

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

CCD

9

1

Clouds

Cloudy during the first hour that target was observable. Telescope computer display was weirdly zoomed in. Photometric time series observations taken of G29-38 throughout the whole night. Kaylee fixed the telescope computer display issue.

Zach Savery

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

CCD

9

1

Clouds

Cloudy during the first hour that object was observable. Telescope computer was displaying weird, very zoomed in. Photometric time series observations of G29-38 taken throughout the whole night. Kaylee fixed the display issue with the telescope computer.

William Keel

University of Alabama

DragonCon Live Astronomy

ARC CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Outreach targets. Focus 506400, guide focus 3800. Dark current closer to std value. Guider disconnected when turned off after first target and would not reconnect later (didn't much want to do a ground-up system restart in front of an audience). 5m exposure tracked OK over most of sky. VNC, RAdmin both show only part of telescope computer display.

William Keel

University of Alabama

DragonCon Space Track

AFC CCD

0

5

Clouds

Clouds never quite broke up enough during our half-night.

William

University of Alabama

DragonCon Space Track

ARC CCD

0.5

3

Clouds

Outreach. Clouds allowed a quick set of flats but that was all. The dark current is about 80 ADU/hour rather than the usual ~2, while the Leach CCD connector client panel says -2 C and the ACE control panel says -89. That looks more like the higher temperature, or at least not what's usual around -90.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Easton Honaker, Tali Natan, Millie Dill

N/A

0

8

Clouds

Cloudy with a chance of rain. Not surprising since it was the last scheduled night before shutdown!

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

6

1

No problems to report

No problems although clouds rolled in about an hour before morning twilight.

Kurtis Williams

TAMU-C

none

ARC camera

0

7

Clouds

Clouds shut mountain for entire night.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

7

Clouds

Never opened due to clouds.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

7

Clouds

Clouds and dust.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

7

Clouds

Dust and clouds-- did not open.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Easton Honaker, Millie Dill, Tali Natan, Ben Mayhew, Zach Savery

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Observed a hot Helium atmosphere WD. The filter wheel is quite dusty (at least the Bessel V that we used) and a cleaning of it the next time someone's at KP would be much appreciated. No issues other than that!

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CCD

8.3

0

No problems to report

Observed asteroid Heard and M57. Weather clear without smoke or dust. Noted pointing still to west slightly, but was able to find the subject in a busy field. According to WIYN data, seeing was 1 arc second, at least in second half. Used SkyView VIrtual Observatory and JPL Horizons Web to find and track asteroid.

William

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

7

0.5

Equipment Failure

AGN with extended emission clouds. Focus 507000, guide focus 0. Guide camera disconnected soon after local midnight and I never did get it to reconnect with MaxIm. (I did not try the power cycling that has sometimes been needed before, because that also warms up the CCD and takes ~1 hour out of the night)

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

None

CCD

6

2

Clouds

Hot Subdwarf photometry time series. No issue occurred.

Oswalt

ERAU

Boyer, Reynolds, Curtis, McGinley

Andor Camera

5

5

Clouds

Smoke or dust contributed to problems.

Sherman Losey

TAMUC

Fardowsa Abdulle, Kurtis Williams

ARC Camera

6

0

No problems to report

White Dwarf photometry Good weather and no problems.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC CCD

8

0

No problems to report

No real problems, but lost focus at end and never seemed to recover as good as it was. Best focus was around 2", seeing should've been at least that good. Eclipse timing in B and V with some early data on recurring nova T CrB pre outburst.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Leah Shafer, Hunter Wood

ARC CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Finished a little early...morning drive down to Tucson for our flight out.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Hunter Wood, Leah Shafer

ARC CCD

8

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Focus was still at non-physically high values. Ran to zero and reset. No focus problems after that.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Leah Shafer, Hunter Wood

ARC CCD

8

0

Software/Control PC Issues

The focus values ran away positive, eventually stopping at an encoder reading of 1269999. However, the actual telescope focus did not appear to change at all. Since the focus was good and we did not know what would happen if we attempted to change it, we did not do so.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Hunter Wood, Leah Shafer

ARC CCD

10

0

No problems to report

On site observing. No issues.

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

8.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary. The network for Kitt Peak is perfect today.

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

8

0.5

Connection Issues

eclipsing binary. The Internet connection to both telescope and CCD computers are slow and keeps disconnecting. This did not happen on the previous day.

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

8.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Kent Montgomery

A&M-Commerce

Caitlin Bell, Eloise Bradicich

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

No problems

Kent Montgomery

A&M-Commerce

Caitlin Bell, Eloise Bradicich

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Some thin clouds early but cleared up nicely

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Everything worked well-- a few high cirrus clouds passed by this morning, but didn't cause any issues.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

Robert Berrington

ARC CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Tested the spectrograph, noted that the instructions show a figure of the FLI CCD at 10 deg C and large dark current obscurred long exposures of faint spectra, so set to -40 and seemed to fix. Initially moving the telescope required it to be sent to the target twice before it would move. EB program for eclipse timings and light curves with spectra for velocities and detecting certain elements.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Another excellent night with all equipment working well.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan, Zach Savery

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Observed a pulsating white dwarf. Stunning night!

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

8

0

No problems to report

All working fine tonight, weather cleared just after sunset.

Kurtis Williams

TAMU-C

none

ARC

2.5

5

Clouds

White dwarf time series photometry. Nice start to night until clouds rolled in (forecast was for mostly clear skies, but storms formed over the mountains)

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD imager

9.5

0

No problems to report

AGN variability program. The telescope tracking was very good. When slewing to a new object, the telescope points slightly northwest of target. Optimum focus (V filter) = 787000 at an ambient temperature of 55 Fahrenheit.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan, Zach Savery

CCD

8

1

Clouds

Observed a pulsating WD. Too cloudy at the beginning of the night, but once it cleared up about an hour or two in we were good for the rest of the night!

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Zach Savery

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

We observed a pulsating WD for the night.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Zach Savery

CCD0

10

0

Software/Control PC Issues

We observed a pulsating WD for the night. The filter wheel could use a cleaning. At one point the camera computer said it was restarting and then turned off. It had to be cycled to come back on but after that, we had no issues.

Jim Webb

FIU

none

CCD

2

5

Connection Issues

Blazar microvariablity local network a little flakey, worried about losing connection before closing dome.

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

none

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Photometry time series. It was a great night.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Giant ionized clouds around AGN. Focus 783000, guider focus 25000.

Aarran Shaw

Butler University

None

Leach Camera

5

3

Other

Delayed opening due to WIYN weather report saying there was dust/smoke. Managed to open at 0630 UT, observed one known intermediate polar and another suspected intermediate polar. Once open, conditions were good!

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

ccd

8

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

ccd

8

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

ccd

7.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Matt Wood

A&M Commerce

NA

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Time series AM CVn and DQ Her. No problems. Great night.

Matt Wood

A&M Commerce

NA

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Good night. Sub arc sec seeing with IR Block filter. Focus 781316 with outside temp 15 C

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Another excellent night for weather and equipment all working fine.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Excellent clear night, telescope and all instruments working fine.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Siriah Eaglin, Sally Kingan

ARC Camere

7

3

Software/Control PC Issues

Microvariables. Two hours from sunrise the camera client failed. The camera did not download. I closed and restarted the camera client. I was able to take a series of images without incident. Then the temperature readout flipped to -1000. The camera was still reading out and the background appeared normal so the camera had not warmed up. Then the filter wheel #1 started moving on its own. I reinitialized #1 wheel and it worked for a few minutes. Then the ACE client failed and the dome control failed. I closed and restarted the ACE telescope control and everything worked again. I also closed and restarted the Leach Camera client on the camera computer. The dome interface reported that it was ajar though I had not tried to close it. I then closed the dome and it appeared to work correctly. All the clients are functioning again.

Gillam

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Universty

Barnier, Eaglin

ARC Camera

9

0

Clouds

Microvariables. Scattered clouds from 11-12 MST. Poor RA tracking in last half of observation. focus = 765382.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CD

12

0

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry and Eagle Nebula. All worked well and weather was good, too. Pointing was very good.

William Keel

University of Alabama

4 cats

ARC CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Ionized clouds around AGN. Focus 765000. Guide focus 0; found bad values in guider speed/angle; reset to xspeed +1, yspeed +1, angle=0.

Gary D Henson

Clouds

Poor Weather all night, never opened.

Gary D Henson

Clouds

Poor Weather all night, never opened

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD

0

9

Clouds

Poor Weather all night, never opened.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Early morning-- no real issues, but the telescope drifts N/S a little when pointing around an elevation of 45 degrees (or lower) toward the west.

Nayra Rodriguez

IAC

Alejandra Goded (IAC)

ARC CCD

4.5

0

No problems to report

Student research projects on exoplanet transit and SN follow-up, 2nd half night. Focus 720464.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC

0

12

Other

Schedule conflicts on my end, and no responses from others to observe. Humidity may have been too high, according to present KPNO weather report; cloudy at present (1:45 pm Sunday, Mar. 17). Did not observe night of Mar. 16, 2024.

Millie Dill

University of Delaware

Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker, Zach Savery

Andor CCD

7.5

0

Other

V filter on wheel one needs to be cleaned. It's splotchy and dusty, so flats aren't great.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

10

1

Clouds

AGN-ionized clouds around galaxies. Focus 721000, guider focus 27250.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

10

0

No problems to report

EB's.

William Keel

University of Alabama

No time for any cats

ARC CCD

0

11

Humidity

KPNO weather status continues to list humidity, threatening clouds, and snow. I can take a hint.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

3

0.5

Humidity

No issues-- humidity shot up rapidly just before twilight began so closed up.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

11

0

No problems to report

Observations of near contact binaries. ASASSN-V J070545.44+834129.8 and second binary to round out the night. All went well.

Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

0

10

Other

I am not sure if it was from the Texas Fires but I could not get images. I observe tomorrow also.

Millie Dill

University of Delaware

Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker

Andor CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Observed white dwarf EC14012-1446.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

0

12

Clouds

EB's. Threatening clouds, never opened.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

8

Clouds

Clouds-- never opened.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

Gary Henson

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Variable stars, open cluster

Maddy Buisch

Agnes Scott College

Elliot Arp, Linda Ho, Isabelle Adams, Isabel Masawi, Hodari James

CCD

2

0

No problems to report

Observed Orion nebula and Oyster nebula. First time taking images of sky objects for most of our observers. Note: the dome shutter takes a long time to open and close.

Terry Oswalt

ERAU

n/a

CCD

0

12

Clouds

Never opened dome, due to clouds, wind, humidity, snow and rain on mountain.

Alejandra Goded

Instituto Astrofísico de Canarias

Nayra Rodríguez

ARC CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Student research projects on exoplanet transit, 2nd half night.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CCD

0

0

Other

Submitted KP report with the current date that morning, 2/18. After Ken's email, I realized that I should have changed the date to enter the starting date, 2/17/2024. Other comments filed are OK.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

10.5

0

No problems to report

AGN photometric observations. No equipment problems; bright sky (gibbous Moon) and thin cirrus all night.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry and NGC 4216. No problems with any system. A joy to observe again.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

1

0.5

Equipment Failure

Logged on this morning to check the status of the telescope-- no one was using it so I logged on for a couple of morning targets-- first set of images were fine, but when I moved to the second target they came out looking like biases. Changed filters and changed pointing to verify, but they came out the same way.

Robert Berrington

Ball State Univeristy

none

arc

0

10

Connection Issues

Upon first attempt to connect to the machines, none were responding. It was later determined that the observatory had seen a significant power outage. The machines were subsequently turned on, and the CCD cooling was reinstated. It took the remainder of the evening for the CCD to cool to the point where it would be useful so I did not open.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

0

12

Snow

Snowed in, never opened.

Kaylee Grace

UDel/MCAO

Tali Natan, Easton Honaker, Millie Dill

Spectrograph

0

12

Equipment Failure

Too humid to open and bad weather. Spectrograph wouldn't work, ThAr lamp wouldn't produce images well and the buttons to manually move it around were greyed out, pointing to a likely issue.

William Keel

University of Alabama

None

ARC CCD

0

12

Clouds

KPNO status lists high humidity, dripping domes, threatening clouds, rain, snow, ice on domes, fog, and dangerous conditions.

Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

0

12

Clouds

Heavy clouds tonight. Observations were to continue from last night.

Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Observations of 2 eclipsing binaries. ASASSN-V J051407.35+010227.4 a short period Algol and GSC 4968 0751, WUma System.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Tali Natan, Easton Honaker

Spectrograph

10

0

No problems to report

Took spectra of two massive stars. We had to reset the Spectrograph at the beginning of the night because it wasn't connecting correctly but we had no issues after that.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

0

12

Clouds

Eb's, but high clouds all night with bright moon, so never opened.

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

Erin Abraham, Adrian Moraga

CCD

1

7

Humidity

Public Outreach Focus was off. We only spent one hour before we closed the dome due to high humidity so we could not find the right focus.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

8

Humidity

High humidity-- never opened.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

0

9

Humidity

High Humidity, threatening clouds/rain, Never Opened.

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

0

11

Humidity

Very cloudy and humidity was too high to open the dome.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

0

9

Humidity

High Humidity, threatening clouds/rain, Never Opened.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC

0

12

Clouds

Asteroid photometry. Cloudy, with showers likely later. 100% cloud cover falling to 90, from 10-11, and 70-60% from 1-3. Never opened. Operations and set up had no problems.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Tali Natan, Patrick Stanley, Millie Dill, Zach Savery

Spectrograph

8

0

No problems to report

First time attempting the use the spectrograph. Couldn't line up our objects on the fiber, likely due to our own inexperience. Clear night, but no data taken other than some calibration frames.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

0

12

Clouds

Too cloudy to open.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

11

0

No problems to report

AGN-ionized clouds. At start, focus readout was 1194394 and drifting upward (out of range so could not do focus jogs). Rezeroed focus position and encoder, and focus was 463000. Guider focus close to 0.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

n/a

ARC

12.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries in BVR. Some high thin clouds during the middle of the night for couple hours, but not too bad.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Divyeshwari Vansadia

ARC Camere

12

0

No problems to report

Micro-variables in open clusters. The weather stations available (WIYN 2.1-m etc.) don't work reliably. The SARA 0.9-m weather station doesn't work at all.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Divyeshwari Vansadia

ARC Camera

4

6

Snow

Micro-variables in open clusters. Blowing snow, fog, high humidity. The weather stations available (WIYN 2.1-m etc.) don't work reliably. The SARA 0.9-m weather station doesn't work at all.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

n/a

ARC

4

7

Clouds

Eclipsing binary program. Radmin crashed several times on me and at one point I couldn't reach either the tele or the ccd machines and at the same time the KP weather pages and all sky camera pages were unreachable as well for about 15 minutes. Clouds were the primary loss of time.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

10

2

Clouds

Eclipsing binaries. clouds shut mnt down for about an hour late in the evening, but opened back up for the last couple hours. First bias was odd looking with dark vertical band in middle of frame (posted image on Discord), but the rest looked fine. On a previous night I took long/short flats and attempted to make a bad pixel map since there are a couple columns that appear bad, but they didn't come out in my maps, so maybe someone else could try and share? I have stellar comps that run into them over the course of the night as things meander.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

9

0

No problems to report

Massive Star Spectroscopy and M31 H-a monitoring

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

M31, variable stars

Gary D Henson

ETSU

none

spectrograph

0

9

Clouds

Thick cirrus clouds moved in around twilight, expected to stay most of night.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

No Problems. M31, variable stars.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

7

4

Humidity

Spectroscopy of Massive Stars - ACE didn't need night for engineering, checked out all systems after recent ccd glitch and overall observatory operation - Good

Terry Oswalt

ERAU

n/a

Leach CCD

0

14

Clouds

Gyrochronology project. Did not open dome due to threatening clouds. No other telescopes on the mountain opened either.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

0

10

Clouds

There were clouds but since the camera was just reopened, the focus could have been very far off.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

7

0

No problems to report

Spectroscopy of Massive Stars, used night to verify Spectrograph still fully functioning as ARC ccd offline.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Shaw / Butler

CCD

1

9

Equipment Failure

ARC ccd lost communication after flat fields obtained. Continued to be unresponsive after several system restart/recycle tries. ACE notified.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC CCD

11

0

No problems to report

Eclipsing binary stars, B and V used. Tele pc logged onto logon screen, so machine may have rebooted, so I had to start ACE and various browser pages on Chrome, but camera on scope worked fine, but found it Z parked instead of Stowed.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

10.5

0

No problems to report

AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 489600, guider focus 0. Focus jumped -4000 when moving from dec -20 to +50.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

6.5

5

Clouds

AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 48950, guider focus 0.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

Apollo the cat

CCD imaging

10

0

No problems to report

AGN photometry. Also obtained images of M78, inspired by am article in the current issue of Sky & Telescope.

Millie Dill

University of Delaware

Kaylee Grace, Zach Savery, Easton Honaker

CCD

3h 45m

0

No problems to report

We looked at M31 and M45. No problems to report. Great night for observing!

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Did have Maxim DL hang a couple of times with fast readout of guide camera. Might also have been a Radmin dropout for ccd computer as well. Only a minute or two to get software back.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

11

0

No problems to report

All worked Fine except for weather station not downloading data.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

0

10

Humidity

Mountain fogged in all night.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

0

10

Clouds

Thin and thick cirrus passing through all night with bright moon so conditions too poor for any observing.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

ARC ccd & Spectrograph

1.5

9

Humidity

M31 H-alpha monitoring _ Massive Star Spectroscopy 100% humidity after initially clear early evening.

Nayra Rodriguez

IAC

Alejandra Goded

ARC Camera

4.5

0

No problems to report

Student research projects on exoplanet transit and SN, 2nd half night

Myles Curtis

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Dr. Terry Oswalt, Aldir Moreira, Anika Gee, Kylie Boyer

Leash Camara

13.5 hours

n/a

No problems to report

No issues to report, successful observation

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Jacob Romeo and Kaelyn Weddle

ARC

14

2

Software/Control PC Issues

1. We think the relative humidity indicator is about 10%-15% higher than the actual value. The website from the National Weather Service, linked below, gave a humidity that reflected off what was seen through the all-sky cam and the data being collected. Being able to clearly see the Milky Way through the cam. 2. The current dew point/wind data display has not been functional since 2020. 3. The 2.1 meter dew point/wind data display stopped functioning the 17th of November, this month. 4. The Dropbox directories are nearly full, needing to be emptied. The limited the space we had available. Other than this, the observations went great! -> Weather Forecast linked here: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=31.942839972853083&lon=-111.610107421875&site=twc&unit=0&lg=en&FcstType=text

Laina Tallman Bogusta

ERAU

Leila Almos

CCD

0

0

Humidity

The humidity was at a steady 85%-95% for about 5 hours, then decided to call it.

Soren Barnier

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Steve Gillam

-

3

3

Humidity

Instruments all worked, but humidity remained above 98%. Dome remained closed.

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

ccd

0

11

Clouds

did not open due to weather

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

6

6

Clouds

AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 488000, guider focus 0. Some long exposures messed up by 3" jumps in the middle, even with guider running. I saw this happen once, and it began as a rapid oscillation between positions (faster than 5-sec guide exposure). near 3h43 W +50.

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD Camera

10

0

No problems to report

A good night! When pointing east of the meridian, the telescope tends to point 1-2 arcminutes north of target after slewing. I love the new PTZ dome camera!

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Spectroscopy of Massive Stars, M31-Halpha monitoring, Comet photometry

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

0

11

Equipment Failure

Camera shutter broken

Xianming Han

Butler University

Amandeep Basra, Caroline Erickson

CCD

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Zach Savery

University of Delaware

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

Photometry

10

0

No problems to report

Zach Savery

University of Delaware

Kaylee Grace and Millie Dill

ARC Camera

2

10

Software/Control PC Issues

Had an issue with the VNC connection on the Camera computer. Worked initially, but after observing for a few hours, it through a connection related error seemingly. Closed VNC viewer on our end and restarted our computer several times too, but neither fixed the issue. Seems that the Camera computer is somehow still connected or at least trying to connect to that initial VNC instance, which is preventing the ability to reconnect to it. Also ended up having to restart the ACE window on the telescope computer, but we were able to get that back and working. Had no trouble parking the telescope and closing the dome.

Cara Ebers

Agnes Scott College

N/A

KPNO

8:30pm - 4:00 am (ET)

none

Equipment Failure

Had an issue trying to take flats with Wheel 1– they did not turn out the way they should. Wheel 2 works.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Spectroscopy of Massive Stars, Photometry of M31 and Periodic Comet Filter Wheel and Autoguider for CCD with issues reported on Discord.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

None

ARC Camera

0

10

Software/Control PC Issues

Micro-variables. The ACE connector client on the camera control computer was not available. So, I was unable to run the ARC camera.

Terry Oswalt

ERAU

open house visitors

Leach camera

0

0

Software/Control PC Issues

We did not open the dome; only displayed ACE control system and camera system to visitors during our general open house. For some reason, the ACE control system and the camera window could not be put on separate screens. We had to toggle between them. Likely this is a local IT issue, but worth noting in case other observers experience the same inconvenience. The night was handed over to ASC observers around 11pm EDT.

Kurtis Williams

TAMU-C

Fangyi Zhu

ARC Camera

0

11

Equipment Failure

Tried to do photometry with the repaired shutter. ACE.exe kept reporting being unable to connect to cameras. Tried multiple attempts of restarting node services, telescope and camera computers, and ace control cabinet. No luck. Gave up quickly because moon was probably too bright anyway.

Kurtis Williams

TAMUC

none

ARC

0

11

Equipment Failure

Wanted to do photometry, but ARC camera shutter still down. Inconsiderate observer forgot to offer the night up to someone who wanted to do spectroscopy - sorry.

Kurtis Williams

TAMU-C

none

ARC

0

11

Equipment Failure

Wanted to do photometry, but ARC camera shutter still down. Idiot observer forgot to offer the night up to someone who wanted to do spectroscopy - sorry.

Walter Van hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

6

0

Other

Chip showed large gradient of response across chip during flats 6000-32000. Observations of eclipsing binaries, V752 Cep.

Nayra Rodríguez

IAC

IES Las Maretas (Fuerteventura)

ARC camera

4.5

0.5

Clouds

Student research projects on exoplanet transits and galaxies, 2nd half night. ARC camera shutter still out

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

ARC CCD

6

0

Other

Flats show large gradient across field. I am not sure if they are useful/ Ron

William Keel

University of Alabama

1 cat

ARC CCD

6

2

Equipment Failure

Giant AGN-ionized clouds (probably observed mostly out of sheer obstinacy). ARC camera shutter still out, so I used a sequence of bias-obect-3 biases (i.e. zero exposure) to cleanse the chip and subtract the pattern from light reaching the chip during exposure. Furthermore, unless the guide star was really bright, the guider would only work for short periods before the star jumped away, and had "star faded" roughly every other exposure. The guider x-stage is not moving (and even after it thought it was running off to initialize was still in the same place). Images on the guider are pretty poor; it may be way off the edge of the field. Telescope focus jumped from 8500 to 62500 while I watched the readout change.

Martha Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC or Leach

10

0

Other

Early ds9 observations of the early evening sky showed a nice gradient from top (high) to bottom, low, which equalized with time. The orientation of the ds9 images was upside down and backwards. Cloudy at the start and finish, with episodes of clearer weather. Observed Comet C/2022 A2, and two asteroids, and Saturn (not successful).

Martha Leake

Valdosta State University

8 students in Observational Technniques

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

Varied objects for 4101 class. Shutter problems required work in Peters Lab so the camera was brought down and the system powered down. We had clear skies in Valdosta!

Robert Berrington

Ball State University

A486/586 Observing class

arc

5

3

Equipment Failure

Night was nice, but there appears to be a stuck shutter with the replacement camera. The shutter does open, but not all the way. The corners are frequently blocked by the camera shutter. We attempted to exercise the shutter, and tried different pointings, but the shutter continued to block the edges of the CCD image.

William C Keel

University of Alabama

None

ARC CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

ACE took camera components to Tucson for vacuum pumping and in hopes of repairing the connection issue. (Likewise dome circuit breaker for replacement).

Julia Clark

ERAU/Otani/Pearson

N/A

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

CCD would “hang” on readout for all exposures despite multiple resets of ACE Node Service and reseting the rack a couple of times.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

0

10

Equipment Failure

Did not observe because of (a) poor weather (increasing clouds) and (b) connection issues with the Leach camera.

Gary Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

1

6

Clouds

Spectrograph controls all working normally now. Clouds from partly to threatening status most of night. Dome Controls not working-ACE notified. Leach CCD now exposing and reading out, but No DS9 display-ACE again notified.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

0

10

Software/Control PC Issues

Could not get camera to work for needed run. It worked earlier in the afternoon for biases and darks and failed when it was time to observe. Support could not get it up. Attention needed.

Van Hamme

FIU

samec

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Observed NSVS01363941 algol eclipsing binary. Covered Primary eclipse. Need several more nights to cover LC.

William C Keel

University of Alabama

DragonCon Space Track

ARC CCD

1

5

Clouds

Reopened! Clear spot early in the night just long enough to verify pointing and find the BVRI focus is 58000.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

5

4

Clouds

Observing the short period Algol, NSVS01126493.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

7

2

Clouds

Observing the short period Algol, NSVS01126493.

Walter VanHamme

FIU

Samec

ccd

8

1

Clouds

Observing the short period Algol, NSVS01126493.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Observing the short period Algol, NSVS01126493.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

5.5

3

Software/Control PC Issues

Doing twilight flats, V exposure showed blank at level 140, aborted. Then "exposure start failed", so I cycled the telescope-outlet power and rebooted both computers. Still managed to set on main target by the end of twilight. During 60m exposure, the QSI guider silently disconnected (while leaving the display looking plausible) so I got 30" diagonal trails. (No screaming so as not to disturb the cats.) The second 60m exposure was successful with a disconnection event just after its end. ARC camera froze again around 0030 MST. I was unable to get it to complete an exposure and read out after that, even after the restarts that worked before.

Gary Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

7.5

0

No problems to report

Spectroscopy of WR stars, another excellent night for July.

Gary Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

7

0

No problems to report

Spectra of WR stars, a very good night, warm but clear and autoguider working well.

Gary Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

3

5

Clouds

Spectroscopy of WR stars, instruments working fine, but cloudy patches forming and moving in from Northeast middle of night.

Robert Berrington

Ball State University

none

arc

7

0

No problems to report

Short Period Variable stars.

Lindsay Spence

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Tomomi Otani

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Clear night

Lindsay Spence

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Tomomi Otani

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Clear night

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Windy, best results looking downwind to N. Guider x-stage labels are opposite the EW directions of buttons for motion; also, had to change X and Y guider speeds from 1,1 to -1, -1. RAdmin from telescope computer disconnected with annoying frequency. Focus 454000, guider focus 3000.

S Johns

Texas A&M Commerce

Lena D, Shayaan Z, Dr. Williams

Andor

7

0

No problems to report

White dwarf relative photometry.

Lindsay Spence

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Julia Clark

CCD

6

2

Clouds

Lots of Clouds

Lindsay Spence

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Julia Clark

0.9 m

8

0

No problems to report

None

Xianming Han

Butler University

Spencer Decker

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

Butler University

Spencer Decker

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

Butler University

Spencer Decker

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Ken Rumstay

VSU (emeritus)

None

Leach CCD camera

5

5

Clouds

Tried to observe AGNs, despite increasing cloud cover. Gave up around 5:00 am EDT. The telescope appears to systematically point north of target after slewing, by about two arcminutes.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

None

Spectrograph - 2nd Half

4.5

0

No problems to report

Spectra of Massive Stars - Poor seeing and Cirrus Clouds but FLI ccd now cool and spectrograph working nominally!

Kaylee Grace

MCAO/UD

none

Leach

8

0

No problems to report

Observed pulsating white dwarf GD358.

Kaylee Grace

MCAO

Judi Provencal, Millie Dill, Zach Savery, Tali Natan

Leach

7

0

No problems to report

Observed pulsating white dwarf GD358

Kaylee Grace

MCAO

Judi, Henry, Jarrod, Millie

Leach

0

5.5

Clouds

N/A

Kaylee Grace

MCAO

Millie, Judi, Henry, Zach, Tali, Jarrod

Leach

9.5

0

No problems to report

Imaged pulsating white dwarf GD358

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Krusza, Blanton

ARC camera

6

2

Equipment Failure

Observing on-site. Mirror covers would not open (only one petal was operating). Notified ACE. Peter drove up and found it appeared to be a little bit of corrosion on one of the petal switches. Exercised the switch once and it started working again. Continued exercising to make sure it would keep working. No problems the rest of the night.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Lilly Blanton, Sami Krusza

ARC camera

8

0

No problems to report

M101 supernova and PN central stars.

Tomomi Otani

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Julia Clark, Lindsay Spence

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Hot subdwarf time series

Tomomi Otani & team

Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University

Julia Clark, Lindsay Spence

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

N/A

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

Julia Clark, Lindsay Spence

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Hot subdwarf time series

TOMOMI

ERAU

Julia Clark, Lindsay Spence

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Hot subdwarf time series

James Webb

Florida International University

none

Leach CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Observing Program - Monitoring Blazars: PKS 1156+295, and 3C 279. Problems: I couldn't figure out the syntax on how to automatically increment images number in the Leach software on the CCD computer. For the record the syntax is: imagename_{{seq:3}}.fts Turns out the .fts extension was the secret, thanks Brian and Bill. The images came down with 1.4 (lower right hand quadrant missing). I fixed it by going into "full frame" and changing the "readout mode" to amplifier A instead of "quad readout", They seemed to come down complete and normal. Brian said he would look at it this morning.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

0

9

Clouds

Apparently this year's monsoon is trying a beta test.

Gillam

Embry -Riddle Aeronotical University

Divyeshwari Vansadia, Aakasah Thiyagarajan

ARC Camera

0

11

Clouds

Microvaribales

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Aakash and Divyeshwari.

Andor Camera

0

12

Clouds

Micro-variable stars.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Divyeshwari and Aakash

Andor Camera

5.5

6.5

Clouds

Micro-variable stars.

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

ccd

7

1

Equipment Failure

filter wheel stuck once

Matt A Wood

Texas A&M University-Commerce

NA

Leach

2.0

8

Wind

Time series. Wind hit 40 mph so I closed. Checked a couple times later in night and still high so didn't reopen as it was strong and from the south - didn't want to risk the mirror cover petals getting damaged.

William C. Keel

University of Alabama

none

Andor CCD #2

8.5

0

No problems to report

NGC 4945. Focus 129000, Without guider, 3-5 minute exposures at dec -45 have about 50% success rate in delivering round images using custom track rates. DS9 and MaximDL may have quit updating toward end of last sequence.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

3

0

No problems to report

Asteroid.

Nayra Rodríguez

Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC)

N/A

ARC CCD

5

0

No problems to report

Student research projects on exoplanet transit, 2nd half night.

Matt Wood

Texas A&M University-Commerce

NA

Leach

4

0

No problems to report

Time series of white dwarf. This was a half night, so IAC observer took over at about 07:00 UT. Best focus early night was 448500

Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio

Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC)

NA

ARC CCD

0.5

4

Humidity

Exoplanet transit, 2nd half night. Only observed from 7:30 to 8:10 UT. Domes closed due to high humidity and variable conditions. Focus 445000.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

2

6

Connection Issues

About two hours after starting, the CCD computer disconnected. I made several attempts to reconnect over the next hour or so but was unable to do so. Tried again a couple of times this morning (the next day) but still am unable to connect. Everything was working fine until this happened.

William Keel

University of Alabama

N/A

ARC CCD

6

0

No problems to report

AGN with extended emission regions. Focus 445000, guide focus -18500. Filter wheel 1 needed INIT after almost every movement to put filters in position.

Matt A Wood

Texas A&M University-Commerce

NA

Andor

10

0

No problems to report

Time series observations of white dwarf and cataclysmic variable. Focus 450000 at beginning of night, 445000 end of night.