SARA 

Ted von Hippel

ERAU

Leila Alamos, Yaneicy Jimenez, Kathryn Closius

imaging

9

0

No problems to report

Student programs on variable white dwarf and reflection nebula.

Martha Leake

Valdosta State University

Logan Spooner

ARC camera

9

1

Other

No problems to report. Much time spent finding best focus (several times). No slips in focus noted. Needed to close up for 7:30 am commitment. Will transmit data shortly. Also, will stow telescope in 0 HA and -30 degree Dec position.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

None.

ARC camera

9.5

0.5

Other

PN central stars. A few times during the night the tracking could not keep up with the object, creating E-W elongation/trails. This happened mostly in the west, but at intermediate altitudes in the NW. But also happened in the NE with one target.

Ted von Hippel

ERAU

Leila Alamos, Yaneicy Jimenez

imaging

6

0

No problems to report

One filter reinit required. Some pedagogically useful operator errors from the students. Needed to move the spectrograph out of the way.

Nayra Rodriguez Eugenio

IAC

none

ARC CCD

4.5

0

No problems to report

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

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

Nicolette Terracciano, Jonathon Smith

ARC CCD

2

9

Wind

EB time of minimum, missed b/c we had to close due to high winds (lost 5 hrs and no flats at the end of the night), lost 3 hours at the beginning of night due to threatening clouds (no early flats), lost 1 hr b/c we thought clouds an issue, but the dome was not aligned with the scope (had to home dome, park scope, restart auto dome). Would be nice to have web cams work, but they don't appear to be working. We also had to login to each machine to start and nothing was up and running, which was confusing and couldn't get the telescope machine to initiate ACE at first, so that machine was rebooted. The night will be a complete loss if we don't have someone offer some Bessel R and I flats for us to use.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

11

0

No problems to report

Dead quasar survey. Spent an hour chasing focus, discovered it had changed by 110,000 units since my last KP night, then had a couple of hours of the worst seeing I've ever experienced at Kitt Peak. Focus eventually settled to 39250, slid to 385200 later in the night (kind of like airport gates in Airplane). Guide stage still seems stuck at edge of field; focus was -17600. With fixed guider position, trick of binning guide exposures 2x2 in Setup panel (I think I heard that from Kurtis Williams) really helped for faint guide tars.

Ken Rumstay

VSU

None

CCD camera

0

11

Humidity

AGN's

Gary Henson

ETSU

None

Spectrograph

0

9

Wind

High humidity off and on but winds at 4m up to 60 mph

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD and Spectrograph

0

9

Clouds

Threatening clouds early, clear for a couple hours but more clouds moving in soon after that. Not enough good weather to open.

Dr. Alexandra Yep

Agnes Scott College

none

Spectrograph

4

0

Software/Control PC Issues

I was trying to do spectroscopy and could not figure out how to get a decent spectrum. I don't know what focus to use or what I'm doing wrong. Besides that though, I think I maybe needed the StellaCam3? Every time I clicked that tab, the whole Ace program crashed. That might be a problem?

Ted von Hippel

ERAU

Elvis Santana

imaging

6.5

0

No problems to report

Observation (Seyfert type 2 galaxies and quasars) went well. SARA-KP was responsive, imaging went off without a kink, and weather conditions were good.