SARA-KP Report Archive

Date	Name	Affiliation	Other Observers	Instrument	Hours Observed	Hours Lost	Reason	Observing Program
12/09/2021	Nayra Rodriguez Eugenio	IAC	none	ARC CCD	0	5.5	Humidity	Student research projects. Cancelled due to 90-100% relative humidity and cloud cover throughout the night
12/08/2021	William Keel	University of Alabama	3 cats	ARC CD	11	1	Software/Control PC Issues	Dead quasar survey. Focus 401000, guider focus 0. Lost 60-minute exposure to ACE closing (possibly pilot error while checking on the run with different VNC client). Really nice to have the focus mechanism repaired, responsive, and repeatable.
11/27/2021	Stephen Gillam	ERAU	None	ARC Camera	9	0	No problems to report	rOAp stars. The weather was excellent, the sky very stable, and the equipment worked almost flawlessly. The RA tracking wobbles a little at hour angles greater than +3 hours and 45 mins. The CCD camera was operating at the unusually low temperature of -120C to -130C.
11/26/2021	Kyle Pellegrin	Clemson University	None	ARC CCD	7	0	No problems to report	Observed starburst galaxies.
11/23/2021	Kyle Pellegrin	Clemson University	None	ARC CCD & Spectrograph	0	7	Clouds	Took a set of spectrograph bias images. Couldn't observe due to clouds.
11/13/2021	Kurtis Williams	TAMU-C	none	Andor	0	12	Equipment Failure	Observatory closed for focus mechanism repair
11/12/2021	Kurtis Williams	TAMU-C	none	Andor	0	12	Equipment Failure	Entire top of telescope, including secondary mirror, missing, so little light was reaching the CCD. Focusing mechanism was also inoperative.
11/06/2021	Martha Leake	Valdosta State University	Kyle Kent, Sam Panzika, Val Carey	ARC camera	10.3	1	Other	Student projects in Obs. Techn., asteroid light curve continued. Filter wheel 1 stuck twice in I filter; able to return to normal by small changes, initializing. The usual -1000C readings for CCD Temp; returned to normal when Obser. window refreshed. Ghost streak on dark after bright star on previous frame. Have appts to keep this morning, so stopping early.
11/05/2021	Priya Gokuldass	Florida Tech	Kamp	CCD/Spectrograph	1.5	8	Clouds	Cyg X1 and Be spectroscopic observations planned but canceled due to high altitude clouds.
11/02/2021	Martha Leake	Valdosta State University	Observational Techniques class	ARC camera	12	0.3	Software/Control PC Issues	Filter Wheel 2 seemed stuck in the filter changes; tried restarting Ace, later Peter helped with the problem. I kept expecting the filter message to read "At filter X" but it read "Moving to filter X". Main clue is that all filters visible and the one needed has a dot. Otherwise, no problems. One "jerk" in morning, but it steadied shortly after. Looked at many objects including Comet 67P. Too many students to give all a chance.
11/01/2021	Ken Rumstay	VSU (Emeritus)	None	CCD camera	9	0	No problems to report	AGN monitoring program. A fairly productive night, despite the variable cloud cover. Note: 300-second dark frames show two vertical streaks; I'll post an example.
10/29/2021	Kyle Pellegrin	Clemson University	Samalka Anandagoda	ARC CCD & Spectrograph	9	0	No problems to report	Continued monitoring of M31N 2008-12a field. Additional images of nebulas and NGC 6946. First night getting spectra.