SARA 

Billy Quarles

None

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Observed TESS binaries. No problems. Dome at azimuth 235, left open as per Peter.

Todd Vaccaro

na

Andor

0

12

Clouds

EB program. Too cloudy, no data.

Walter Van Hamme

Samec

CCD

0

10

Humidity

Observations of close binaries.

Walter Van Hamme

Samec

CCD

0

10

Humidity

Observations of close binaries

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet. No problems. Dome closed and at azimuth 235.

William Keel

Shadow the Terrorist Cat

Andor CCD

12.5

0

No problems to report

Ionized AGN clouds. Guider focus 0. Finally able to open after Peter checked the dome and gave the all-clear. I did have to restart node service and connector clients to get DS9 image to update, turn off night light when sky-flat counts looked weird, then cycle camera power and ACE cabinet power to get control of the guide camera (which is working very well now, acquiring guide stars quickly). Focus 96680. Dome parked at 235.

William Keel

no vats

Andor CCD

0

12

Snow

The dome remains locked between fire and ice, desperately awaiting some means of escape as the winter-borne hordes approach.

Ken Watanabe

Jacob Kinney, Max Smuda

RM

0

11

Equipment Failure

Dome still closed due to ice

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

12

Snow

The snow covers the dome, can't open the dome.

Ken Watanabe

Jacob Kinney, Max Smuda

RM

0

6

Humidity

Humidity close to warning levels, neighboring Liverpool Telescope showed "high risk of ice," did not open dome.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

11

Humidity

Raining all night, never opened.

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Raining and humid. Never opened.

Todd Vaccaro

na

Andor

5

8.5

Humidity

EB program. Eclipse missed as 3 HA stopped tracking, which required a full refresh of both machines. When humidity hit 80%+ as noticed in the SiteView of RM web pages (SARA tele pc always said 79% and the mini map no longer shows JKT info) I closed down losing the rest of the night. The dome refused to close upon first command, it said Ajar. I parked the dome at 235 and closed dome again, watched it close, checked with light on, and then turned light off.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Zach Savery

Andor CCD

9

0

Clouds

A little cloudy, but stars still visible! Cut the night a bit short as we were about to hit +2 HA and have KP tonight. No hard resets needed tonight.

Millie Dill

Kaylee Grace and Zachary Savery

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Target: KUV 05134+2605. Studying for pulsations. No problems to report. Only issue was Windows pop-up saying the system (?) will no longer be supported. Clicked out of it, but I figured it should be mentioned here.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Zach Savery, Raymond Fine, Jarrod Beiber, Ben Mayhew

Andor CCD

9

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Telescope hit the +2 HA limit. No issues other than that! Had to do a reset at the beginning of the night to get started but it was all good after that! Observed a pulsating white dwarf.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Zach Savery

Andor CCD

10

0

Clouds

Quite cloudy but observed regardless. Could see through the clouds most of the night, so we'll see how the data comes out!

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Clouds passing over for the entire night, the sky (on the allsky camera) looked "milky" between the clouds passing over so never opened.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

11

Humidity

High humidity and clouds all night long— never opened.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

11

Humidity

High humidity-- never opened.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

11

Humidity

High humidity all night— never opened.

Todd Vaccaro

na

Andor

0

11

Humidity

EBs

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

11

Other

At the beginning of the night I ran into issues with the ACE Node service on the telescope computer bein stuck in 'stoppig' mode. Thanks to everybody who had suggestions, rebooting both the camera and the telescope PC seemed to do the trick. All the all-sky cams showed clear skies, and the weather parameters at JKT seemed to be great, too. But all the images I took looked there was heavy cloud cover at our scope, so Idecided to close up.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Initially, the dome would not respond but I eventually got it working. All for naught though as high cirrus clouds persisted for the entire night. Dome was closed and parked at 235 degrees as has been requested.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

06

3

Clouds

Asteroid photometry, not sure how successfull with partly cloudy skies.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Zach Savery

CCD

10

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Issue with the computers when closing - the telescope hit its limit of HA around 3 hrs 45 minutes. It wouldn't slew, so I went through the long reset process and was able to slew to 00 HA, -30 Dec. Ace then crashed, I tried to reopen it to no response. Restarted the long reset steps, and upon getting to "restart ACE node services on telescope computer" it was unable to and appears to have logged out of ACE? I have tried just pressing the log in button for all the saved log in information but that isn't doing anything. I was able to close the dome and set it to the right position, and rotate the dome to 235 degrees before all of this happened, but I seem to be unable to do anything further. We likely won't be able to use our night tomorrow because of the weather, so no one will be on tomorrow day or night if you need to investigate.

Millie D.

Kaylee G., Zachary S.

Andor

0

9

Clouds

Observing pulsating white dwarf HL Tau 76. Thick cloud coverage -- reported to last the rest of the night.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

4

7

Clouds

Clemson University blazar study. A lot of clouds. I can only observe a few sources. Parked telescope at HA/Dec (0 deg, -30 deg), parked dome at 235 deg, telescope mirror closed, dome closed.

Kurtis Williams

none

andor

0

12

Other

No update from Peter on whether it was safe to open after the weather event, so I stayed closed. Other telescopes are open with good weather.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Heavy clouds, never even logged in

Ken Rumstay

None

CCD

0

12

Humidity

At the start of the night the skies were completely cloudy and the humidity 96%, after having rained during the day. The skies gradually cleared (mostly) and the humidity dropped. But, fearing "dripping domes" after the rain, and with more bad weather in the near-term forecast, I decided not to open the dome. The sky didn't appear clear enough for galaxy photometry anyway.

Martha A. Leake

Romeo Montague

Andor CCD

2.5

8

Clouds

Asteroid light curves, for 4824 (Stradonice). Cloudy for about 4-5 hours (until about 6 pm), then starting to clear. Weather expected to turn wetter in early morning hours. Conducted some calibrations early (but no flats), and selected object near the Pleiades, intending to close prior to HA 2. No problems (but weather). Able to gather 2.5 hours of data, to about HA 1 h. RH reached 83% and I began shutdown. Closed mirror covers, dome, adjusted azimuth, then slewed to -25 in Dec and HA 0. Transferring data now. Did not see Maxim DL. Darks gathered last showed no light (although Light type was used for first 3 darks for comparison to Type = dark later. On leaving between 8=9 pm, RH neared 95%. Aerosols only slightly high at sunset and nearer 0 later. Storms expected this morning.

Salman Nejad

NA

SARA-RM

6

2

Other

I was observing and was planning to observe an extra 2 hours but an anonymous user logged in I lost my connection. When I logged in, I was not able to use Andor camera. So, I closed the mirror covers and the dome and logged out.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

11

Equipment Failure

Unable to get the mirror cover to open. Also unable to log into the power rack to reset everything-- that apparently was a password issue. G. Henson did get logged in and reset everything and all seems to be working now although target was too far past the meridian to image by the time everything started working again.

Samuel Quinutolo

Jadia Ewing, Thomas Matney, Stephen Gillam, Divyeshwari Vansadia

1.0 Meter

1

8

Wind

Wind and Humidity was too high in the red zone, could not observe

Divyeshwari Vansadia

Salman Abarghouei Nejad

Andor Camera

0.5

5

Humidity

The humidity had been high and fluctuating wildly at RM, so we called the observation off at 8 p.m. SARA Time. The other observers, including me, plan to use it again at midnight if conditions improve and will submit the night report if we use the telescope. The mirror cover and dome were closed, and the telescope was parked.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

2

9

Humidity

M31. Humidity was low enough to open at sunset but began creeping up and required closing up after about two hours. Autofocuser control seemed to be missing. As instructed on the notepad, I'm verifying that the dome was closed and was parked at an azimuth of 235 degrees.

Billy Quarles

None

CCD

0

13

Humidity

Did not open due to high humidity.

Robert Berrington

none

arc

0

10

Clouds

Did not open due to poor weather, and high humidity.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

M31, Exoplanet. Mirror cover stays on "closing," but no other issues.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

6

3

Clouds

asteroid photometry. Plenty of clouds with some holes in between.

William Keel

cats

Andor CCD

0

11

Clouds

Clouds. I would have known this earlier had I managed to copy the right telescope for the night into my paper planner. (Apologies again to the confused ASC observers at KP).

Aarran Shaw

N/A

Andor Camera

8

2

Equipment Failure

Mostly a good night. However, hit the tracking issue at around HA=03:30 for both of my targets, and only recovered after 2 ACE reboots. With only 2 hours left in the night I decided to close up for the night.

XIANMING HAN

Basra, Erickson, Nixon, McDonough

ccd

2

9

Clouds

eclipsing binaries problems: clouds, humidity

XIANMING HAN

Basra, Erickson, Nixon, McDonough

ccd

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries (there is no problem other than the tracking stops about about hour angle = 2.5 hrs)

XIANMING HAN

Basra, Erickson, Nixon, McDonough

ccd

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Matt Wood

None

CCD

0

All

Clouds

N/A

Ken Watanabe

Jacob Kinney, Max Smuda

RM

4

0

No problems to report

AGN and Nebula observations, clear weather, no issues

William Keel

Sam Grunblatt, AY203 class

Andor CCD

11.5

0.4

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN-ionized clouds, class projects. Focus 97074, guider focus 0. Two drive shutdowns (HA 2:42 west when I got a value), fixed this time by cycling the HA and dec resets.

William Keel

Sam Grunblatt, AY203 class

Andor CCD

10

1

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN clouds, class targets. Focus 96900, guider focus 0. Tracking shut off at 2h58 W once (in middle of a comet filter sequence), and after that to regain telescope slew control and communication with the QSI guide camera I wound up cycling ACE cabinet 3x, camera power 2x, and rebooting telescope and camera computers, plus waiting for Andor CCD to cool back down. After that everything was well behaved.

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

0

11

Clouds

Clouds+humidity.

Tom Rutherford

Gary Henson

CCD

0.5

10.5

Humidity

Humidity and wind came up just after opening so had to close up for the night. Received a "doors ajar" message while trying to close up-- Gary was able to reset things through the observatory computer and all seemed to work after that.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

M31, Exoplanet. No problems

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

No problems.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

M31, Exoplanet. No issues.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill

N/A

0

10

Humidity

Too humid to open + chance of rain

William Keel

Not nobody, not nohow

Andor CCD

0

10

Clouds

Planned class observing session.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

11

Humidity

Moved telescope and dome to proper stow positions, otherwise I watched the dew form on webcams. GCT all sky camera caught a nice view of Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS.

Billy Quarles

None

Andor CCD

2

10

Equipment Failure

When crossing +2HA lost tracking. "Unable to complete slew due to equipment error". Tech was helpful in resolving error and slewing back to park. Most of the time lost was due to rain + humidity .

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor CCD

4

5

Equipment Failure

Fault in tracking. Lost tracking at HA = 2h ("Unable to complete slew due to equipment error"), after a short (1 hour) observation following a restart from clouds (closed 1 hour for that). Tracking not reestablished. Tried the short and full restart instructions, but did not achieve full restoration of the Telescope computer. The Camera computer is not as neat as it was, but seems to be complete. The Telescope computer is missing ACE. Although some clearing, forecasts of high winds (gale strength) and morning drizzle were cause to stop. Did not get to try a restart. Did close the mirror covers and Dome after tracking lost. Have not stowed the telescope at -20 degrees declination. Is dome azimuth at acceptable position? Managed to send data back home. Attempted asteroid photometry this evening..

Matt Wood

None

CCD

11

1

Software/Control PC Issues

TIme series photometry of cataclysmic variables. Beautiful night, and aurora visible in GTC all sky camers. Problems: Tracking stops at hour angle +2:50 or so. It would be good to get this fixed ASAP if it is an easy fix. Camera computer did a windows update which cost about 1/2 hour of observing time by the time I caught it.

Matt Wood

None

CCD

11

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Telescope stops tracking at HA~2:50. I had to do the restart process to regain control to move telescope to the East. It would be good to be able to observe out to HA~4 or 5 if it's an easy fix.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Mainly photometry of TRojan asteroid 617 Patroclus. Stay safe everybody!!

Todd Vaccaro

N/A

Andor CCD

5

6

Equipment Failure

EB with an eclipse interrupted for failed tracking second half of night when HA 2+, Peter was on and noticed it and tried trouble shooting and resetting things, but it would continue to fail in the west. Moved to object in east and a focus routine failed and then the filter wheel stuck, which took several full resets before I could get the tele ACE back up and then I had the last couple hours of the night. Lost first 3 or 4 hours to clouds.

Divyeshwari Vansadia

Salman Abarghouei

Andor Camera

0

8

Equipment Failure

We started out without issue, the telescope pointing seems to be stuck and cannot be slewed by sending to a new position, sending to zenith, or offsetting. We have tried both the quick restart and the more involved restart and there is no change in telescope position. The Telescope Position window shows RA=16:38:44.3, Dec=+25:54:52.1, HA=+4:06:40, altitude=36 Oddly, at one point, after sending a zenith slew command in the Slew Telescope Window, which in turn claimed the telescope was slewing, the Telescope position window indicating that HA was increasing, and doing so at 1sec per sec. Generally, however, after sending a slew command the Slew Telescope window immediately gives an error message. In addition to that, we noted that the mirror cover started closing or opening without us giving any command to do so.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

10

1

Equipment Failure

AGN ionized clouds. Focus 99750, guider focus 60. 4 tracking shutdowns, all near 2.5 hours west (wiped out >1 hour of exposures). At start, DS9 display was off; restarted connector client, reenabled SAOimage display for Andor, and restarting SAOimage got it back. Note Peter's note on desktop to stow dome at PA 235 degrees.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

1

10

Wind

Time series photometry. No problems opening, taking flats, and setting up on target. Focus for guide camera was +60. After 1 hour the wind rose above limits, as did particulates. Wind stayed high for hours until not enough time was left in the night for my needed time series length.

Todd Vaccaro

n/a

Andor

10

1

Equipment Failure

T CrB monitor, ASASSN-24fw ,and EB. ACE full resets a couple times to start the night b/c dome didn't seem to be moving nor would tele even Z park. Missed getting twilight flats early. Tele refused to move from first target in west after short while and more resets to get it to east where I sat most the night fine till it was +3:15 HA but only 1.4 airmass and it kept losing tracking by going idle (several more resets then gave up), moved east to sit last hour or so with no problems there. Texted Peter as the note on tele pc said if issues, but they bounced back to me as undelivered.

Kaylee Grace

Easton Honaker, Zach Savery

Andor CCD

8

1.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Good news - we got the mirror cover to closed status instead of being stuck on closing. Bad news - towards the end of the night we had a lot of issues with the "Unable to complete slew due to an equipment error" error. We had to restart ACE once about halfway through the night which was fine, but in the last hour and a half or so we had to restart ACE due to the same error five more times, each time getting fewer exposures between getting the error again. Had to restart one last time just to be able to slew the telescope to park. Not sure if we did something or if JKT was just upset tonight.

Tom Rutherford

Nne

Andor CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet, M31. Everything worked fine except that the response to mouse clicks was very sluggish (by many seconds) for the entire night on both the telescope and the CCD computers. All controls worked, it was just "laggy." The mirror cover also seems to hang on "closing" and never changes to "closed."

Xianming Han

none

ccd

0

10

Equipment Failure

none

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

6

1.5

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN emission clouds. Focus 99800, guider focus now 0. Dome did not ever register as fully open (sat on "opening" for many minutes, then "ajar)". Dome seemed to close spontaneously during a late move, and I didn't see stars after asking it to open so quit at that point. At the end of one exposure, CCD computer hung, then connector client crashed and computer reverted to password entry screen; cycled ACE cabinet power twice to restore everything.

William Keel

Sam Grunblatt

Andor CCD

8

1.5

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN extended clouds, nebulae, The JKT is back! Focus 98500, guider focus 1000 (guider is working). Had to restart ACE cabinet once after drive shutdown and twice in process of getting QSI camera to connect and guide. Note that Peter has mirror cover working again (takes about 1 minute to open or close). LATE BREAKING: mirror cover stopped in FAULT status when closing down.

Martha Leake

none

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

No news on repair of equipment other than other reports, thus I'm not planning to observe with RM today/tonight. Martha

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

RM is still down.

Ken Rumstay

None

CCD camera

0

10

Equipment Failure

Still waiting on dome repair; did not observe.

Martha Leake

none

Andor

0

9

Equipment Failure

Will not open.

Martha A. Leake

none

none

0

9

Equipment Failure

Dome still not operable; did not open up. Observed long lived streak in sky in various skycams; laser use or just a satellite? Weather to become cloudier later tonight. 1:24 UT there at present.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

RM still down.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

RM still down.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

RM still down.

Martha Leake

none

ORM web sites only

0

9

Equipment Failure

Planned asteroid observations but devoted most of early evening to using ING and GC all sky cams on web to see if any aurora could be seen there. (They had at least one observation the previous night in Teide.) No luck during my checking. Cloud bank over north edge of all sky cams. Here, in Valdosta, I observed for1.5 hours as well; no obvious aurora, but looked like northeast horizon was greenish (above the trees.)

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

RM still down.

Ken

None

CCD camera

0

10

Equipment Failure

Still awaiting dome repair.

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor

0

12

Equipment Failure

Did not open, but looks like a good night. Same problems as those reported here previously.

Martha Leake

none

JKT

0

11

Equipment Failure

The RM dome is still needing parts. I did not open.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

9

Equipment Failure

Dome controls were not showing up (their windows were yellow) so could not open.

Terry Oswalt

Ahnika Gee and Kyle Boyer

CCD

0

12

Equipment Failure

ACE confirmed that dome is still not operational. Awaiting parts for repairs to top end of shutter.

Scott Joffre

Dieter Hartmann, Yong Sheng

CCD

0

8

Equipment Failure

Have not had gear box fixed yet

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

9

Humidity

Martha Leake

possibly majors

CCD Cam

0

9

Equipment Failure

Was asteroid photometry. I will close my connection at present. Clouds are present as well as high aerosols (14.36 microgr/cubic meter). Just finished Open House at VSU, 8-12.

Scott Joffre

Dieter Hartmann, Yong Sheng

ccd

0

8

Equipment Failure

Still waiting on gearbox part

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

11

Equipment Failure

RM still down.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

0

11

Equipment Failure

The RM is still down

Ken Rumstay

None

CCD

0

12

Equipment Failure

Observatory still closed due to dome failure.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartamnn

Andor CCD griz

0

12

Equipment Failure

RM is still down due to the dome failure.

Martha Leake

none

none

0

12

Equipment Failure

No notification about repair of dome, so I am filing this report (and not observing).

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

12

0

No problems to report

Clemson Blazar study. Restarted to make DS9 work properly. No other problems to report.

Walter Van Hamme

Samec

ANDOR CCD

5

5

Clouds

Observations of solar type binaries. ATLASJ002.4330+54.8587.

Walter Van Hamme

Samec

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Observations of solar type eclipsing binaries. ATLASJ002.4330+54.8587.

William Keel

AY203 class

Andor CCD

11

0

No problems to report

AGN-ionized clouds, class projects. Focus 99000, guide focus 40.

Martha A. Leake

Jordan Hewins, Marissa Norlund

Andor Camera

1

9

Software/Control PC Issues

The above refers to missing information in the version of ACE that I selected for KPNO (no text in dropout, shutter, and azimuth boxes) and log in problems with VSU computers used). .Add to that a competing research project (DEB initiative) during the afternoon, dust persisting at ORM (24 -26.5) and clouds after one at ORM. At KPNO, I was confused by the azimuth reset procedure.

Martha Leake

ASTR 4101 students (not all because of Fall Break)

Andor Camera

1

8.5

Other

Lost several hours (4) to competing astronomy project. When tonight's observations began, within about one hour, aerosol levels climbed above 20 mgm/m3 (to 24 to 26.5) and later the sky became partly cloudy. In addition, VSU computer problems occurred. .

Martha Leake

Students in ASTR 4101

Leach Camera

1

9

Software/Control PC Issues

ACE program lacking information in Dropout, Shutter, and Azimuth boxes. No information about completion of action.

Maddy Buisch

Hodari James

Andor

6

0

No problems to report

RM- Observed comets 2022 A2 and 158P.

Ken Rumstay

None

Andor CCD camera

0

10

Clouds

Cloud cover all night. I caught a few glimpses of Jupiter, and of the rising Moon after midnight (Eastern time) before giving up, but did not open the dome. When setting up, I noted the following: The telescope appears to properly slew to objects when “J2000” is selected on the “Slew Telescope” window. However, when the setting is “HA/Dec” is used any attempt to slew the telescope results in the message “Commanded position exceeds HA/Az negative limit”*. I’ve tried going through the full power recycling procedure three times with the same result. I left the telescope stowed at HA = 0h00m and Dec. = -20 degrees, assuming the telescope position window is correct. I think it is; before it became too dark to see the telescope in the webcam image it appeared to be in the correct position.

Hodari James

Nia Suitt & Oralyn Murchison

Andor

7

2

Equipment Failure

RM- Training and observations of stars in M13 and Sh2-284 nebula. Andor Camera was offline at the begining of the night and had to be restarted.

Hodari James

Maddy Buisch, Amy Lovell

Andor

7

1

Software/Control PC Issues

RM- Training and monitoring of comets. Dome issues and tracking issues early in the night. Both resolved by soft reset.

Zach Savery

Millie Dill, Jarrod Bieber, Kaylee Grace

Andor

9 hours

0

Other

Observed pulsating white dwarf G29-38. Potential issue with Dome finding home position, park works fine. Had trouble with ds9 showing current image while observing, fixed itself after restarting ds9 several times.

Zach Savery

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill, Paula Galvez Molina, Henry Sanford-Crane, Judi Provencal

Andor

7.5

2

Clouds

Observed pulsating DA white dwarf G29-38. Clouds rolled in around 2:30 am RM time.

Zach Savery

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill, Tali Natan, Henry Sanford-Crane, Jarrod Bieber

Andor

9

0

No problems to report

Observed pulsating DA white dwarf G29-38.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

M31, NGC 1245. No problems.

Eric Perlman

Methods & Instrumentation Class

Imager/Andor

6

2

Other

Various objects, connection problems at the beginning (resolved quickly), clouds began to move in during the last hour of the night

Martha Leake

9+1 student in Obs. Techniques class

Andor Camera

10.5

2

Equipment Failure

First time at telescope for many students. Biggest issue was the telescope limit problem (also see 9/18 RM report) and being unable to recover. Telescope approached the pole (not zenith) with HA 7h; needed expert help. Many objects briefly observed and items discussed. My thanks to all who offered advice.. Weather was great. Thanks to Brian Blondel, and other observers.

Terry Oswalt

K. Boyer, K. Confeiteiro, A. Gee, A. Lydick, A. Moreira, M. Newell

ARC CCD

9.5

1.5

Humidity

Gyrochronology program. Fairly good night, except for high humidity, mostly around 75-80%. Closed for 1.5 hours when it exceeded 85%

Scott Joffre

Dieter, Yong

CCD

4.5

4

Wind

Wind speed at 40 km/hr for the first half of the night. Died down to 25-30km/hr for the rest of the night

Xianming Han

none

ccd

9.3

0

No problems to report

M57, eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

none

ccd

8.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

11

0

No problems to report

AGN-ionized clods. Focus 99900, guider focus -40 to 70 depending on filter and time of night. Guider working.

Erin Abraham

Priya Gokul Dass

CCD

2

8

Software/Control PC Issues

Issue with dome tracking - getting error "Slew could not be completed due to telescope limits". We did a full reset several times but it would not fix. Eclipsing binary observation

Robert Berrington

A486/586 Observing class

arc

0.5

7.5

Humidity

initial setup was troubled by a dome light left on from prior user. Not long after opening the humidity went above 80% and did not drop for the rest of the evening.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

2

9

Humidity

White dwarf time series photometry. Humidity kept spiking; after hitting closure for the third time gave up for night.

Matt Wood

NA

CCD

10

1

Other

Time series of cataclysmic variables. 30s exposures. Dome was OPEN when I first connected! Dome stuck a couple times during normal tracking. Did the power cycle thing and it eventually worked. My final object of the night is +51 dec. I usually follow to airmas 2.0 for time series, but the system hit a soft limit before this, and I was not able to back the telescope out, so ACE will need to take care of that before the next observer.

Isaiah Cox

Yong Sheng, Kouser Imam, Dieter Hartmann

CCD

6

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Had some trouble with dome tracking. Did the azimuth recycle but connecter client would crash whenever I tried to send the dome home. A quick restart fixed this. Tried azimuth recycle and home again and everything worked after that.

Scott Joffre

Yong Sheng, Antonio, Dieter Hartmann

CCD

4

1.5

Software/Control PC Issues

{{filter}} command when saving file names with the Andor camera kept giving "unknown filter". Additionally, the headers for the fits files gave RA, DEC, and filter as "unknown" Had a glitch where clicking the home button would shut down the entire program. An entire restart fixed this. Additionally, some of the observations appeared as if we were just looking at a bias. We diagnosed this as not having calibrated the dome by having it go home first.

William C Keel

DragonCon Love Astronomy

Andor CCD

5

0

No problems to report

Outreach. Focus 98370. Guider still not moving telescope and showing x,y offsets of order 10^(-306).

William C Keel

DragonCon Space Track

Andor CCD

4

2

Clouds

Outreach events. Guider was weird - showed x,y offsets of order 10^-305 and was not obviously moving the telescope. Focus 99656, guider focus 40.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet, M31. All went well.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet, M31. No issues.

Stephen Gillam

Kaelyn Weddle, Avery Reynolds, Jessica Nicholson

Andor Camera

8

8

Humidity

Microvariables ACE node service failed around 11:30 PM local time, we followed the full procedure to fix it and it is now working.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

9

1

Other

AGN emission clouds. Telescope jumped by 30" near end of one 60m exposure (about 4h W +40), too fast for guider to follow. Focus 10900, guider focus +40.

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

10

0.25

Software/Control PC Issues

Ionized clouds around AGN. Focus 100230, guider focus 40. During evening twilight flats, camera PC got into a mode where it would not register numbers from the keyboard, even after cycling NUM LOCK multiple times. In desperation I connected from a Mac with VNC and pasted numbers from another field into the filename sequence field. This magically cured the issue. I am puzzled.

TODD R VACCARO

N/A

Andor

8

0

Other

Eclipsing binary; Dome needed to be linked, unlinked, homed, linked to get tele looking through slit, which stalled flats and had to get more in the morning. The tele pc kept popping up a notification that an anonymous user had connected and then would say left, periodically occurred all night. The vpn banner constantly said to update for improved security and the anti virus program popped up on both machines saying there were 4 potential issues and that it needed updating. Connecting to OneDrive from Chrome or Edge refused to let me upload things to my directory (there was no upload button to be found), so I used my Dropbox. Initial slewing to a target required several attempts before it would land. But once it got going it tracked all night with no issues.

Robert Berrington

none

arc

7

1

Other

The telescope lost tracking at +2 and +3 HA, and I was unsuccessful in getting the autofocuser to function correctly. I have used the auto focuser successfully numerous times in the past but this time, no matter the star field, and the exp time only returned that the focus routine failed with a click to restart. Fortunately I was able to watch the images go through focus, and I was able to find focus manually.

Xianming Han

none

ccd

6.5

1

Equipment Failure

eclipsing binary. Telescope stops moving and cannot slew after that.

Kaylee Grace

Zach Savery, Henry Sanford-Crane, Jarrod Bieber, Millie Dill, Judi Provencal

Andor

0

8

Other

Dusty! In addition, at one point we accidentally took an exposure with QSI and the image wouldn’t process nor could we abort. It became stuck with the progress bar at 100% but it seemed the camera wasn’t actually connected.

Matt Wood

None

CCD

0

8

Other

Dust 33 and cloudy so didn't open.

Ken Rumstay

None

Andor CCD camera

0

10

Other

AGN photometry. Did not open because of high aerosol content (24-35 micrograms per cubic meter). There appears to be some confusion as to what concentration should be cause for ceasing observation. Since the sky was not photometric (scattered clouds throughout the night) I decided not to risk opening the dome.

Walter Van Hamme

Samec

Andor ccd

9

0

No problems to report

Observations of short period algols.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

6

Clouds

Clouds all night-- did not open.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet, M31.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet, M31.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet, M31

Terry Oswalt

Steve Gillam, Eden Kope, Melinda Walls, Ryan Reynolds, Krys Confeiteirto

Andor Camera

7

3

Equipment Failure

Gyrochronology and roAp. At the beginning of the observation, the dome would not move past the home position, but would move elsewhere, and we had to do the azimuth restart several times. Towards the end, as we were doing a time series for a roAp target, the telescope stopped working/moving (preload would not turn on, oil pump did turn on) as we reached 1.86 airmass - we tried the quick restart and it did not help. We then tried the full restart and could not complete it due to connection issues. Peter Mack then took over trying to fix the telescope.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

8

0

No problems to report

Blazar study

Scott Joffre

Dieter, Yong

CCD

4

1

Wind

Gusts at 40km/hr. Issue with Dome vignetting, corrected with reset.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

8.7

0

No problems to report

Extended [O III] clouds around AGN hosts. Opened cautiously on local advice after wildfire. Focus 101500, guider focus 960. Had to do AZ recycle for dome once.

Stephen Gillam

Stephen Barnier, Avery Reynolds and Aakash Thiyagarajan.

CCD Camera

0

12

Other

Micro variables. Did not open due to forest fire that started west of the observatory.

Isaiah Cox

Kouser Imam, Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Blazars

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

8

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Ionized AGN clouds. Focus 100400, guide focus 1000. Lost contact between camera PC and focus/filter wheel/QSI camera, so did restart with ACE cabinet power cycle. Later, had to do dome AZ reset once. Connector client on camera PC crashed about 10 times while working on guider and not finding guide stars; thereafter it worked well.

Aakash Rathinam Thiyagarajan

Dr. Gillam

CCD

7

3

Equipment Failure

Telescope tracking failed frequently, the ACE connector Client had to be restarted to resume the observation run. The dome unlinked at azimuth=29, homing and relinking the dome to the telescope solved the problem.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

8

Clouds

Camera seems to be repaired, but clouds all night so no data.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

8

Equipment Failure

No CCD controls available when logged in-- I tried recycling everything, which had not effect. Next, I tried rebooting the computers but still nothing.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

2

7

Software/Control PC Issues

Emission in AGN hosts (actually made it just far enough to check on M101 SN). Focus 100400. Guider QSI camera was not talking to Connector Client. Previous restart including cycling both camera and ACE cabinet power and dual PC reboots did not fix the problem, even after multiple times. In fact it's worse - the connector client doesn't even see the Andor CCD, with no camera options existing on the connector client. This exceeds my expertise.

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Blazars

Scott Joffre

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

4

3

Humidity

Near 90% humidity for the first 3 hours. fell drastically and could observe later

Ken Rumstay

None

Andor CCD Camera

10

0

No problems to report

AGN observations, Supernova in M101. The dome stopped tracking early in the night; cycling the dome azimuth remedied that. The telescope systematically points slightly (1-2 arcminutes) east of target after slewing.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

8

1

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN host galaxies, M101 SN. Focus 99000, guider focus 0. Two issues: First, guider QSI CCD was not communicating with control software until after cycling camera power on PDU (and waiting for Andor CCD to cool back down) plus rebooting both computers. Also, images were strange in some parts of the sky and at some times, worst case making ENE-WSW lines 10 pixels long. A set of exposures stepping along the meridian every 15 degrees showed some poor location and some good ones, without a monotonic trend. The seeing was excellent (autofocus gave 0.8") so some of this mght not be obvious in more usual conditions.

Roi Alonso

none

ccd

0

7

Humidity

Humidity high all night.

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Blazars

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann, Kouser Imam

Andor CCD griz

0

8

Wind

The wind gust was around 40km/h through the whole night, so I didn't have the chance to open the telescope.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

7

Clouds

Clouds and humidity-- never opened.

Kaylee Grace

Henry Sanford-Crane

Andor

0

9

Humidity

Humid all night.

Kaylee Grace

Henry Sanford-Crane

Andor

0

9

Humidity

Humid all night

Kaylee Grace

Tali Natan, Zach Savery, Millie Dill, Judi Provencal

Andor

8

0.3

Equipment Failure

Observed GD358. Lost a bit of time at the beginning and middle of the night when the dome would not track. FIxed the issue by cycling the azimuth control. .

Kaylee Grace

Judi Provencal, Millie, Dill,

Andor

8

0.5

Equipment Failure

Observed pulsating white dwarf GD358. The dome would not track at the beginning of the night. This was fixed by parking the dome. The dome stopped tracking again near the end of the night. Recycled the azimuth control and parked the dome again.

Judi Provencal

Kaylee Grace, Zach Savery, Henry Sanford-Crane

Andor

0

8

Humidity

Humidity was high the entire night.

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD

6

1

Humidity

Humidity was too high at the beginning and end of the night.

William Keel

not even time for cats to arrive

Andor CCD

0

9

Humidity

Transient night. If it wasn't the humidity it was the clouds .I did a full software restart in the afternoon because images were not displaying to DS9.

William C. Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

5

4

Humidity

AGN clouds, M101. Focus 97020, guide focus 0. Humidity high at start and end of night.

Kaylee Grace

Judi Provencal, Zach Savery, Henry Sanford-Crane

Andor

7

0.5

Connection Issues

Imaged M101 supernova, observed pulsating star GD358. Had some issues with the dome losing alignment at the beginning of the night. The problem was resolved by parking the dome.

Priya Gokuldass

None

CCD

0

12

Software/Control PC Issues

Had issues with saving the images. It kept saying exposing and got stuck. Had to reboot the telescope and camera computer and stope the node service to resolve the issue. Then the dome state became unknown. Rebooted the computer and recycled the power, nothing worked. Tried to home the dome but the ACE crashed.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

9

0

No problems to report

[O III] clouds around AGN hosts. Dome stopped moving once - required 3 azimuth recycles plus setting first to park position before it responded normally. Focus 98620, guider focus 0-70 depending on filter. Pickup of stray line voltage during readout looks reduced, improving low-background performance.

Stephen Gillam

Stephen Barnier, Jacob Romeo, Avery Reynolds, Kaelyn Weddle

Andor Camera

0

12

Humidity

Micro-variables.

Stephen Gillam

Stephen Barnier, Jacob Romeo, Avery Reynolds, Kaelyn Weddle

Andor Camera

12

0

Equipment Failure

Micro-variables. Dome stopped tracking the scope. This was remedied by recycling the ACE Node service.

Stephen Gillam

Jacob Romeo, Stephen Barnier, Avery Reynolds, Kaelyn Weddle,

Andor Camera

5

6

Clouds

Micro-variables. The dome would not home at the start of the night. It was tracking the telescope but offset from the corrected azimuth. This was remedied by stopping and starting the ACE Node service.

Roi Alonso

None

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

No problems, entire night with autoguider. Dome did not go through the 313 az, and tracked ok all night.

Ken Rumstay

Stefan Geier

Andor Camera

9.5

0.5

No problems to report

Stefan took the first four hours, as I had to attend a funereal event in the afternoon. He observed the asteroid 471 Papagena; I was delighted to learn that a second minor planet was named for a character from Die Zauberflöte (the first being 539 Pamina). He noted that when starting the dome was not properly aligned with the telescope, but that was quickly remedied thanks to advice from Bill Keel. I took over at about 1:30 UT, and observed AGNs until dawn with no difficulties.

Scott Joffre

Dieter Hartmann

RM Camera

0

all

Wind

Wind speeds starting around 8:30 UTC at 40 km/hr and then rose to ~55 km/hr and were sustained for much of the night.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

8

2

Wind

Asteroid. High winds prevented opening for the first couple of hours. Then, the dome would not track accurately but after three resets began to do so. Dome shutter also acted up a bit but a reset took care of that also. After that-- no problems.

Xianming Han

none

ccd

6

2

Equipment Failure

Dome stopped tracking and could not move. After fixing this problem following the instruction in the text file, the shutter could not open. After some time, the shutter opened, but now the dome did not move, and could not fixed following the instructions. At the end of the night and stowed the telescope, the dome mysteriously started moving.

Tom Rutherford

Gary Henson

CCD

8

1

Humidity

Exoplanets. Dome would not track at first but a reset took care of it. Everything else went well, although humidity started to climb toward morning so I closed up about an hour before twilight began.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

8

1

No problems to report

Exoplanets. Some passing clouds at first but then clear the remainder of the night.

William Keel

nobody

Andor CCD

8

1

Clouds

Galaxies in H-alpha. Focus 98842, guide focus +100.

Matt A Wood

NA

Andor

10

0

No problems to report

Time series observations of white dwarf and cataclysmic variable. Excellent night.

Matt A Wood

NA

Andor

9

1

Equipment Failure

REVISED for ORM: 1) Dome stuck beginning of night. Restarted system a couple times and eventually it worked rest of night. 2) Telescope got stuck in NW at just less than 2 airmasses. Tried to back out with handpaddle, but no joy. Brian Brondel (ACE) logged in and got it fixed (thanks, Brian!).

Matt A Wood

NA

Andor

10

0

No problems to report

Time Series observations of cataclysmic variables. Focus 444000

Priya Gokuldass

None

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

ulGRB host galaxies observation

Roi Alonso

none

andor

8

0

No problems to report

WDs photometry. Some issues with the dome at the beginning, needing to home it a couple of times. Autoguider camera not responding.

Amy Lovell

AST200L

CCD

0

8

Humidity

Student projects - started too humid and then as humidity decreased wind picked up...

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

8

1

Software/Control PC Issues

The dome suddenly stopped removing and blocked the view of the telescope. This happened three times and I have to restart the telescope and recycle the dome power multiple times to fix it. The trailing happened once but it was fixed when I pointed to another source.

Matt Wood

NA

Andor

0

11

Humidity

High humidity. Didn't open.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

11

Equipment Failure

The RM telescope is till out of service

Martha Leake

Ryan B.

CCD

0

9

Equipment Failure

Equipment not ready for observations. The night is also predicted to be cloudy for 8-9 hours.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

11

Equipment Failure

The RM is still not operational due to the primary mirror and focus issue

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

11

Equipment Failure

RM is still not operational (the mirror and focus issues)

Alex McDaniel

None

Andor CCD

0

8

Equipment Failure

Clemson blazar study. JKT still down

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

telescope still not working?

Martha Leake

none

ARC

0

9.5

Other

No announcement of repaired part has been made; it's there, but perhaps has not been delivered or installed yet.

Roi Alonso

none

ccd

0

11

Equipment Failure

Previous reports indicate "Observatory offline until further notice", due to focusing issues.