SARA 

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.

Matt A Wood

Texas A&M University-Commerce

NA

Andor

10

0

No problems to report

Time series observations of cataclysmic variables. Focus 444000

Matt A Wood

Texas A&M University-Commerce

NA

Andor

10

0

No problems to report

Time series observations of cataclysmic variables. Focus 443500. No problems.

james webb

Florida International Universigy

none

Leach CCD

4

0

No problems to report

wasn't able to find guide star, guide stage wouldn't go to east positions, only west. Wasn't able to save images from Telescope CCD control menu, had to use the camera menu on the ccd computer. Not sure what the issue was. But got the images I needed.

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

CCD

8

1.5

Equipment Failure

filter wheel keeps getting stuck when moving from Bessel I to Bessel B - emailed ACE about it.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Public demonstration

ARC camera

3

0.5

Other

Filter wheel did not seem to set properly a few times. Not a real problem since I was just doing a public demo. Quit early since Board meeting in the morning.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Galaxies with extended AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 399500, guider focus -16500. Focus shifted by 4000 units when moving telescope by 2 hours RA near midnight. Had to change guider setting X Speed from -1 to +1.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

8

0

No problems to report

AGN observations. Everything worked find until the end, when I tried to observe 3C-390.3, which was near the NCP (HA ~ -4 hours, Dec. = +79 degrees). No stars appeared in the image. I suspect the dome may not have been aligned with the telescope, but it was pretty cloudy towards the north at that time.

Kurtis Williams

TAMUC

Fangyi Zhu

ARC camera

5

0

No problems to report

White dwarf time series photometry; First training night for Zhu. No problems.

Matt A Wood

Texas A&M University-Commerce

NA

CCD

11

0

Other

Time series observations of cataclysmic variables. A good night and nice to be "back in the saddle". The only issue was that getting a focus was tedious. I eventually ran to zero and reset the encoder, so my best focus at end of night at 50F/10C was 395000 through the "IR Blocking" filter.

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

CCD

10

0.2

Equipment Failure

eclipsing binary filter wheel stuck

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

CCD

10

0.2

Equipment Failure

eclipsing binary filter wheel stuck

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

CCD

9

1

Equipment Failure

eclipsing binary filter wheel stuck

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Jacob Romero, Rhiannon Hicks, Stephen Barnier, Avery Reynolds.

ARC Camera

5

7

Clouds

Micro-variables. At one point, the focus position changed on its own. I had command it to the saved position and stop this command in order to get the spurious motion to stop.

Michael Fauerbach

FGCU

NA

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

if you change the filters make sure the wheel goes to the correct position. Had it twice go to a different position in the wheel. Else no issues to report.

Amy Lovell

Agnes Scott College

Oralyn, Yazmin, Daniela, AST200L

ccd

6

0

No problems to report

cluster and eclipsing binary imaging for student projects, a few clouds early on...

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet Transit

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

None

CCD

6

3

Software/Control PC Issues

Hot subdwarf photometry time series. Both ACE and ACE connect suddenly closed 5 times (both closed simultaneously). They closed when I was not touching anything at least 2 times, but I noticed that they also close when I clicked the "StellaCam 3" tab on "Auxiliary Instruments". The filter wheel did not work well and the camera position moved between two filters at one point. It was fixed when I initialized the filters.

Amy Lovell

Agnes Scott

AST200L

CCD

.4

8

Clouds

student projects, clouds rolled in early

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

7.5

0

No problems to report

Ionized clouds around galaxies. Focus 460000, guider focus 0. Large focus jump to 456400 when moving to 3 hours east.

Nayra Rodríguez

IAC

none

ARC CCD

4.5

0

No problems to report

Student research projects on exoplanet transits, 2nd half night

William Keel

University of Alabama

none

ARC CCD

4.5

0

No problems to report

Emission regions around galaxies. Did some cloud-hopping at start of night. Condensation on CCD window, evaporated over 2 hours with shutter open. Dome azimuth was about 30 degrees off until setting to home. Focus 458000, guider focus 0.

Martha Leake

Valdosta.State University

Tools class

ARC

0

10,3

Humidity

Corrections to this morning's report. I was able to do biases and darks (without opening the dome, of course). Domes remained closed past sunrise.

Martha Leake

Valdosta State University

Ten students in Tools class for 1.3 hours

ARC camera

0

10.3

Humidity

Domes closed due to high humidity fog. RH began to fall at 5 am EDT but not enough to open domes before 3 MST. Need to return by 10 am. Never opened; did biases and flats with no problems.

Robert Berrington

Ball State University

none

arc

0

8

Clouds

mountain closed due to clouds. Did not open.

William Keel

University of Alabama

N/A

ARC CCD

0

10

Clouds

The overcast layer was late compared to the forecast, but still arrived before sunset.

Michael Fauerbach

FGCU

NA

CCD

0

10

Clouds

Domes are CLOSED due to: threatening clouds

Martha Leake

Valdosta State Unniversity

none

ARC camera

0

9.7

Clouds

Asteroid photometry. Cloudy, rain, expected showers and thunderstorm, more showers and 100 % RH rest of night. Did not access computers; did not open.

Stephen D. Gillam

ERAU

Stephen Barnier

ARC Camera

0

12

Equipment Failure

Micro-variables. The dome shutters would not open and the dome would not rotate. The upper and lower shutter status indicators, and the dome azimuth status were blank. We stopped and restarted the ACE node service and then power-cycled the telescope and camera computers, and power-cycled the ACE control cabinet. All to no avail. We took 120s exposures at the zenith and got images that contained just the bias level. This confirmed that the dome was closed.

Gary Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

0

6

Clouds

Cloud bands, variable humidity, sky conditions never consistent.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Variable star.

Gary Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

0

8

Clouds

Cloudy all night, some rain in the morning. Mountain closed to observing all night.

Amy Lovell

Agnes Scott College

AST200L students

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

student imaging projects, steady focus, great night

Priya Gokuldass

Florida Tech

None

CCD

3

6

Clouds

ULGRB host galaxies observation.

Vero Petit

University of Delaware

Judi Provencal, students

spectrograph

0

n/a

Humidity

Did not open, the humidity was high. We used the opportunity to show students how to use the spectrograph.

Martha Leake

Valdosta State University

Tools class til 10 pm

CCD

0

9

Wind

Not opening tonight. Winds up to 66 mph, humidity at 100%, blowing snow in weather predictions and domes now closed because of threatening clouds. We will not attempt to open or connect. Thursday looks similar on KPNO/Sells predictions (20% chance of more snow showers before 9 am). Leaving campus (9:15 MST).

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Andor CCD

0

8

Clouds

Exoplanet transit light curve. CCD cooler functioning, no equipment problems but clouds increasing at sunset and didn't clear until last few hours of night after transit ended.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

none

Arc CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

Wrote off the night when I never got a response about the cooler. The fix by Brian late that night did not get through in the thread of emails, so I was never aware in time that the cooler of the ccd had been turned back on. Only after Bob Berrington forwarded an email to my gmail account did I see that it was turned back on.

Robert Berrington

Ball State University

none

arc

0

12

Equipment Failure

The CCD camera appears to have warmed to 13 C despite the set point for the cooler being set to -110 C. All breakers on the switches are set as expected, but the camera was showing a strong gradient in the bias frames that ranged from ~2000 at low row numbers to 65535 (saturated) at 1500+ row numbers. This of course rendered the camera useless. I did not open because of the nonfunctional camera.

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

Erin Abraham

CCD

0

8

Equipment Failure

Public Outreach. We noticed that the camera cooler is not working. We reboot the systems but it did not help. Weather is not good anyway so we ended the observation.

Kurtis Williams

TAMUC

Fangyi Zhu

ARC

0

11

Snow

Didn't open dome due to ice

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

0

10

Clouds

I had in mind looking at clouds around distant AGN rather than quite so locally.

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

CCD

0

10

Clouds

did not open

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

Kaylee Tenbarge

CCD

1

9

Clouds

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

Eric Reed

CCD

0

10

Clouds

none. never opened

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

0

10

Other

Ice on dome.

Martha Leake

Valdosta State University

Tools class early

Arc camera

0

7

Snow

"Domes are closed because of Ice on Domes." Did not open. Left at 3 :15 am EST when message above did not change. Skies were clear, but temperatures still cold. Planned asteroid photometry.

Kurtis Williams

TAMUC

None

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Forecast for clouds and possible winters precip; never opened.

Kurtis Williams

TAMUC

none

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Weather forecast is for increasing clouds with chance of rain, so staying closed out of caution.

Martha Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC camera

11.5

0.5

Other

I had to leave for an appointment at 7:30 am Sunday. No problems tonight, seeing was good early on, but quite variable this morning. Observed asteroids for light curve determinations.G82 is the number for SARA KP telescope in the asteroid finder programs (from Lowell and other observatories and users). Thank you to Ken for leaving such a well organized site!

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

5.5

6

Clouds

AGN observations. No equipment problems; closed up when cloud cover became too thick.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

None

ARC camera

0

10

Connection Issues

Had local network issues that didn't get fixed until this morning, so was unable to connect and observe.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

Gary Henson

CCD

5

0

No problems to report

Comet, M 31, NGC 1245. No issues at all.