SARA 

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

10

Connection Issues

Unable to connect to any of the computers

Todd Hillwig

None

ARC camera

0

10

Humidity

Humidity and clouds.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

11

Humidity

The humidity is 96%, I can't observe at all. Clemson University blazar study.

Xianming Han

Josh Wanninger

CCD

10

0

Other

The dome stopped rotating again near the end of the night.

Roi Alonso

none

CCD

0

11

Humidity

Humidity and ice.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

11

Humidity

humidity over 90% and temps around freezing. Never opened

Xianming Han

none

CCD

10

0

Equipment Failure

Dome stopped tracking the telescope near sunrise, so not sure if data is effected or not.

Xianming Han

none

CCD

0

10

Connection Issues

Connection to SARA RM was not possible from anywhere, and was not fixed by evening.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

11

Wind

Was able to focus the telescope, then the wind increased and I had to close. Now 100% humidity. BE CAREFUL, THE ING WEATHER PAGE IS FROZEN.

Kurtis Williams

Olive (feline)

Andor

11

1

Software/Control PC Issues

White dwarf time series. Lost hour to telescope computer thinking telescope HA was out of limits. ACE/Brian quickly responded and found problem was an incorrect setting on control card. Some additional time lost as various things needed homing (dome, guider stage). Autoguider worked well but guider focus was at about 250.

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

0

13

Connection Issues

Telescope continues to not pick up my calls and is not returning my messages either.

Steve Gillam

Divyeshwari Vansadia, Stephen Barnier

None

0

12

Connection Issues

Micro-variables.

Todd Hillwig

None

Andor CCD

0

10

Connection Issues

Could not connect to computers.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

11

Connection Issues

Unable to connect o any SARA RM computers

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

0

10

Equipment Failure

Asteroid photometry. Problems with Az limites. I did the full restart five times and not fix it.

Gary Henson

Rutherford

Andor CCD

0

6

Wind

Had connection issue in that both Radmin and VNC would connect, but no screen display under Radmin and frozen controls under VNC for all computers. Finally did remote computer restart through Radmin tools and connections back to normal. High winds for early evening with some very strong gusts so gave up early.

Priya Gokuldass

none

CCD

0

08

Humidity

Ultra long GRB host galaxy observation. Rain and high humidity.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Galaxies in narrowband ([O III] before moonrise, H-alpha after). Focus 96327, guider focus -100. Reset dome azimuth once. Had to enable SAOimage display for QSI CD to focus guider and couldn't figure out how to turn that off (since new interface does not have radio buttons for Connector Client perspective options), so each new image while guiding vanished after 5 second. (No luck getting response to email queries on this during the night).

Gary Henson

Rutherford

Andor CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Nova Monitoring in M31, Exoplanet Search in NGC1245

Gary Henson

Rutherford

Andor CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Nova monitoring in M31, Exoplanet Search in NGC 1245

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

8

0.5

Equipment Failure

Dome failed to track on two occasions-- resetting it seemed to fix it each time. M31, NGC 1245.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

M 31, NGC 1245.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

0

13

Humidity

If it wasn't the humidity (which is always was), it was the clouds, or the rain, or even the particulate levels.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

0

12

Clouds

Partly cloudy in afternoon. During the night, clouds, humidity, wind, and dust level passed conspired at least two at a time.

Dr. Todd Vaccaro

None

Andor CCD

10

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Eclipsing binaries. Had some tracking issues early on with a target at Az 229 and Alt 76 (deg) off and on; then an hour or so in the dome indicated vignetting, which got worse as the dome had stopped; resetting the dome Az fixed it. I noticed that the Tele PC time is set for UT+1 (Casablanca) while the CCD PC is on UT and time stamping headers. I was only able to control the camera from the CCD side. The focusing routine worked well. The tele was parked at the Z position when I started.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

M31. Standard stars.

Gary Henson

Rutherford

Andor CCD

7.5

0

No problems to report

H-alpha monitoring of M31 and Variable Search in Open Cluster NGC1245 One instance of dome azimuth motion failure during slew but Azimuth power recycle restored control for rest of the night.

Ken Rumstay

None

Andor CCD camera

3

9

Equipment Failure

I observed for about three hours without problem. I then had to briefly leave to attend to some family business, so stowed the telescope and closed the dome. When I returned and tried to open the dome, the shutter would only open about 15-20% of the way. It looks as though something might be obstructing the shutters, though I don’t see anything obvious in the dome camera image. Right now the telescope is safely stowed with the dome closed. The wind speed is currently averaging 30-35 km/hr, with gusts up to 50 km/hr.

Kurtis A. Williams

none

Andor

6

6

Humidity

White dwarf time series photometry. Humidity was borderline until about 1am and then spiked well over the limit, so I closed. Seeing was lousy but good enough. Could not run autoguider - QSI camera hung on readout and would only reset with Client Connector restart.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

12

Connection Issues

Unable to connect to any computers nor the webcam webpage. I can reach webpages of other mountain observatories. Brian Murphy was also unable to reach the computers. Please check connections. (Weather was borderline anyway)

Priya Gokuldass

None

CCD

0

10

Humidity

ULGRB host galaxy observation. High humidity.

Roi Alonso

none

Andor

0

11

Humidity

Rain

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

3

7

Humidity

Asteroid photometry

Alex McDaniel

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD

11

0

No problems to report

Clemson Blazar Photo-z measurement program.

Priya Gokuldass

None

CCD

9

0

Connection Issues

Ultra long GRB host galaxy observation. Connection got cut twice mid observation but was able to connect again within few seconds.

Roi Alonso

None

Andor

11

0.1

Equipment Failure

WDs photometry. Autoguiding working the whole night (had to cycle camera power before the beginning of night). A few minutes lost due to loss of tracking at high airmass (close to 2) in the NW direction. Other than that, perfect night.

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

0

10

Other

Asteroid photometry. The lights of the dome were ON.

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

10

0

No problems to report

Asteroid Photometry

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

13

0

No problems to report

Dead quasar survey, Galaxy Zoo followup. Focus 98600. Had to restart everything to get dome rotation and guider connected; guider worked fine afterward. Telescope PC is stuck in caps lock, did not take time to reboot to fix that. Autofocus fails from camera computer. not from telescope PC.

Tom Rutherford

Gary Henson

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

M31, NGC 1245

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

0

11

Clouds

Nearer clouds than I had in mind.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

10

0

No problems to report

Clemson blazar study

Priya Gokuldass

None

CCD

5

5

Equipment Failure

GRB host galaxy observation. Had to cycle power to computers at the beginning of the night. Then there was issue with the dome. If dome open or close was clicked, ACE kept crashing every time as well. Had to home it and recycle power to azimuth couple of times to fix the issue. Also had to do full restart once. Then again during the middle of the observation, the dome crashed and dome vignetting message was displayed. Tried the full restart but this time had no luck. Dome vignetting message was still displayed and there was issues with azimuth as well. Closed the telescope after couple of hours. Mirror covers are still non-functional.

Ross Silver

Dieter, Yong

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Photometric redshifts of blazars.

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

8

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Asteroid photometry. No big problems to report. The dome stopped rotating at az 313. Dome az reset and homing dome to solve it.

Roi Alonso

none

Andor CCD

9

1

Other

WDs photometry. Had to re-start both computers at the beginning of night (dome ajar, and clocks frozen), and camera power to get the autoguider working. After that, the usual stuff: dome stopped rotating (tracking) at az 313. Dome az reset and homing dome to solve it.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

M31, NGC 1245

Matt A Wood

NA

Andor

12

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Time series photometry of cataclysmic variables. Thanks Kurtis for getting the night started. Kurtis reported he rebooted but still autoguider not working. Autofocus not working. Otherwise the night was beautiful - great data. Dropbox keeps crashing - one option is to remove and reinstall. Let me know if you'd like me to do that.

Jim Webb

none

CCD

0

8

Other

Blazars

Matt Wood

NA

Andor

12

0

Other

Time series photometry of cataclysmic variables. Thanks Kurtis for helping me get autoguider going. AG would not start on 3rd target for the night. It would take single images but 'start' button had no apparent effect. Free guiding was good enough for 30-s exposures. Camera computer warning that disk is nearly full.

William Keel

Class, cats

Andor CCD

11.5

0

No problems to report

Class demo plus galaxy imaging. Had to restart including cycling camera power to get autoguider working, but after that it worked reliably. <1" seeing much of night. Focus 98630, guider focus 1000.

Todd Hillwig

Introductory Astronomy students

Andor CCD

8

3

Humidity

Clouds cleared and humidity dropped around sunset. Humidity rose again in the second half of the night and had to close for the final 3 hours.

Todd Hillwig

None

Andor CCD

0

10

Clouds

Clouds all night.

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

8

0

No problems to report

Astroid photometry

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

0

8

Humidity

Asteroid photometry.

Ken Rumstay

None

Andor CCD camera

9

2

Humidity

AGN monitoring program. Also observed GRB 221009A for Kyle Pellegrin at Clemson University. I had to restart the system at the beginning of the night, but experienced no technical problems after that. The tracking was excellent; the telescope pointed slightly east of target after slewing. Clouds rolled in around midnight EDT (about two hours before morning twilight), and the humidity increased past 8-%; at that point I closed the dome and called it a night.

Roi Alonso

none

CCD

0

9

Humidity

Humidity.

Kyle Pellegrin

Todd Vaccarro

CCD

0

10

Clouds

Dr. Vaccaro logged in and found the telescope parked off of position (at approx. 1hr and altitude of 60 degrees). Observations were unsuccessful due to clouds. Dr. Vaccaro then offered remaining time to Kyle and he was unable to observe due to clouds as well.

Ken Watanabe

Nicolas Rimbert

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Blazars.

Matt Wood

NA

Andor CCD

12

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Time series photometry of intermediate polars. System crashed during skyflats, so had to do the full reset. Otherwise, excellent night. Thanks to Kurtis and Brian for availability to answer questions.

Matt Wood

Kurtis Williams

Andor

12

0.5

Equipment Failure

Time series observations of a couple intermediate polars. Dome stopped tracking at some point. Restarted ACE and it appeared to close and park at home (237 deg?). "P" is straight North - is that what I should have parked? Tried to close mirror cover and got Mirror Cover: Fault. I hope I didn't break something with this. Are we still not closing the mirror cover? It would be very helpful to those of us that observe somewhat rarely to have a checklist of startup and shutdown sequence. It would be useful if we could have these mailed to sara-tech on submission. Looking at html source it appears this may be possible. Judi if you want to give me login privileges I can have a look. Brian can you (or someone) please check that I got everything shut down correctly. Tracking is off and parked at HA=0 and dec -25 with dome closed.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann, Nikita, Dhruv, Madeline

Andor CCD griz

10

1

Humidity

The humidity was very high (96%) at the beginning. But it dropped down quiet quickly. Clemson blazar study and student experiencing observation with SARA RM telescope.

Priya Gokuldass

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Ultra long GRB host galaxy observation.

Robert Berrington

none

Arc imager

10

0.5

Equipment Failure

Dome stopped rotating once through out the night. it took about 15-30 mins to 1) figure that out, and 2) to reset the dome. Otherwise, it was a smooth night with clear skies.

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

8.5

0

No problems to report

Supernovae, blazars, H II regions. Seeing highly variable. Focus 98620. At start of night, CCD computer showed message "closing 2 apps and restarting" then did so. Autoguider works great (after cycling camera power before sunset just to be sure).

Martha A Leake

none although more were planned

Andor

0

10

Humidity

Humidity from 75 to 96% most of the night; aerosols were 50 microg/m3 to 38 or so all night; did not open. Cirrus clouds (and bright moon) present until early morning hours. No problems in connections or equipment.

Todd Hillwig

None

Andor CCD

0

10

Clouds

Clouds all night

Roi Alonso

none

ccd

10

1

Other

WD photometry. QSI camera not responding (T=1000C, dimensions 0x0px), so no autoguiding possible. Dome stucked at typical AZ=315º position, solved with az reset and rotating in the other sense.

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

11

0

No problems to report

Galaxies, When first connecting, both computers showed black screens; at Brian Brondel's suggestion, rebooted both computers to fix this. Focus 98300.

Todd Hillwig

None

Andor CCD

0

10

Humidity

Clouds and high humidity all night.

2 cats

Andor CCD

0

9

Clouds

Galaxies. Weather wipeout.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

10

Clouds

outer bands of TS Hermine....

Van Hamme

Samec

CCD

4

5

Humidity

Observing interacting eclipsing binaries. I was able to catch 0.2 d period eclipsing binary last night for nearly a full cycle.

Ross Silver

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

1

9

Humidity

Calculating photometric redshift of blazars

Martha Leake

none

Andor

0

9

Humidity

Asteroid photometry. Did not open because of clouds, high wind, high humidity, rain, high aerosols (which decreased). Will download darks, biases later today. Left near morning twilight.

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

0

8

Wind

Asteroid photometry

Todd Vaccaro

Morgan Moore, Mel Isenbarger

Andor CCD

9

0

Software/Control PC Issues

EB program. Found the telescope and dome not parked correctly and were pointing NW (Dec +58). Zenith parking kept saying vignetting, reset tele ACE, then full reset, but never changed, though the Mirror cover stopped blinking that it was trying to open and simply said open. Camera not controllable from tele computer, so ran from Cam computer, but it wasn't filling in the headers with observer or object until the end of the night when I typed new information in. AIJ missing and C drive is full (D image drive not a problem) and had trouble getting MaximDL to open images till later on. The Focus routine on tele side would do its thing, but then plot nothing for bright star field or faint, so left as is for focus, but feel it could have been much better as mnt reporting 0.6" or less most the night; I was getting 1.4 down to 1.1". Cam computer also started up with an error saying that it failed to update Windows. I couldn't get the dome cam to work, which would've been nice since at one point I thought the dome/tele weren't lined up (Az were off by 70 degrees and I saw a lot of moonlight for an hour and a dark shadow of something bottom left on images).

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann, Isaiah Cox

Andor CCD

1

8

Other

I have to stop observing due to my health issue after finishing the calibration frames. But I did notice a tracking issue. The images show strips instead of point sources.

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

0

8

Clouds

Asteroid photometry

William Keel

DragonCon Live Astronomy

Andor CCD

3

0

No problems to report

End of night outreach session. Focus 10400. Guider again very reliable.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

6

1

Clouds

WD photometry, closed for about 1h due to clouds. Autoguiding and almost everything working nicely. Mirror covers stay in "closing" status forever.

Clouds

End of night for outreach event - Crab, NGC 157, NGC 7469... Focus 100500. Guider is more trouble-free and routine than I've ever found it before.

james Webb

Jonathon Barata

CCD

0

8

Connection Issues

My home computer failed to connect and couldn't log in. My issues, not RM issues.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

9

1

Software/Control PC Issues

For the ssecond time in a row, both the camera and telescope computer were unresponsive when I logged in and the dome said 'Doors Ajar' Autofocus failed tried restart, but that did not change anything. Seeing was poor at the beginning of the night, but got better towards morning.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8

2

Clouds

Both the camera and telescope computer were unresponsive when I logged in and the dome said 'Doors Ajar' Plenty of intermittent clouds and poor seeing wtih wind at the threshold most of the night.

Roi Alonso

none

ccd

0

9

Clouds

High dense clouds and dust increasing. Did not open.

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

8

0

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry

Ron Kaitchuck

None

CCD

3

3

Equipment Failure

Exoplanet transits. The dome rotation failed. Peter Mack fixed that but the camera only produced “bias” frames after that. My guess is the dome was not properly synced to the telescope. My targets were then low in the west, so I alerted Peter, closed the dome and went to bed.

Nuria Torres-Alba

Dieter Hartman

SARA RM

9

0

No problems to report

Clemson University observations of high-z blazars. No problems to report.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

8

Clouds

M31

Ron Kaitchuck

none

CCD

6

3

Equipment Failure

Dome stopped turning at 320 deg AZ I was not able to recover, but clouds came in antway.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

7

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Asteroid, M31. Autofocuser did not finish routine.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

7

0

Equipment Failure

Asteroid, M31. Autofocuser would not operate.

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

9

0

No problems to report

H II regions, radio galaxies. Focus in BVR 100300. Mirror cover remains open after close command.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Clemson University Blazar study The observation is pretty smooth.

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

9

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

H II regions, radio galaxies. Focus 102300; software lost control of focus early on, cycled power on ACE cabinet at Brian Brondel's suggestion. (This also seems to have fixed the mirror covers not reaching their open limit switches when first opening). Never did get QSI camera to finish a readout to try guiding even after the restart. Note: mirror covers did not close at end of night (no response at all to clicking the CLOSE button).

Javier Licandro

Hissa Medeiros

Andor camera (JKT)

6

2

Other

Asteroid photometry. The dust was over the limit for couple of hours.

Roi Alonso

none

Andor CCD

8.5

0.1

Equipment Failure

WDs photometry. Autoguider working, all good. Dome stuck at AZ=315 (coming from higher values). Solved with dome AZ reset, and manually turning the dome in the other direction (steps of 90 degs) until AZ 300, and then linking the dome again. Mirror petals not closing.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Had to restart several times, MaximDL crashed not sure what happened, maybe the CCD computer needs to be rebooted? Else No issues, good night.

Stephen Gillam

Jacob Romeo

Andor Camera

8

2

Clouds

rOAp stars. One technical problem occurred. The dome rotation failed when the dome reached an azimuth of 313 degrees. We did an azimuth recycle and homed the dome. Note that the "home" did not work until we had moved the dome a small angle with the "GO" button.

Stephen Gillam

None

Andor Camera

8

2

Clouds

ROAps. The dome stopped tracking late in the night. The dome azimuth was 314 degrees. An azimuth recycle got it going. Again, I had to move the dome manually before it would home, after the recycle. There is a bug in the RA, Dec offset GUI. When an RA offset is commanded of >60 arc seconds, or perhaps >59", the scope tracking is turned off. "IDLE" is indicated. No errors are reported. The scope can be slewed. But, it will not track when it reaches the target coordinates. This was fixed by closing down the telescope ACE node service, power-cycling the ACE control cabinet, and re-starting the ACE nodes service.

Stephen Gillam

None

Andor Camera

10

0

Equipment Failure

ROAps. The dome stopped tracking late in the night. It was also not tracking when I started up at 4;15 EDT. In both cases, the dome azimuth was 314 degrees. An azimuth recycle got it going in both cases. Oddly, I had to move the dome manually before it would home, after the recycle.

Stephen D. Gillam

Leila Alamos, Jacob Romeo

Andor

10

1

Equipment Failure

rOAp stars. Telescope tracked to just over 4 hours west and stopped tracking. Attempts to move the 'scope to the zenith failed with the following error. "Unable to complete slew due to equipment error."

Stephen Gillam

Leila Alamos, Laina Talman-Bogusta, Jacob Romeo

Andor Camera

10

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Rapidly Oscillating Ap Stars. The Dropbox share service is not available.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

6

2

Other

Dust was intermittent above the threshold value. Closed the dome a couple of times during the night.

Martha Leake

none

Andor

4.5

3

Other

Dusty conditions (over 20 mcg/m3) to start, plus camera computer needed rebooting via APC rack, which was not easy to find; Brian helped. I was able early on to close the mirror covers, then waited for less dusty conditions. Opened dome 22:56 UT, closed it at 3:26 UT. Accidentally using another observer's camera control menu led to long darks that were not mine. Observed Comet and asteroid. Conditions clear, light wind, 0.6-1.5 " seeing; but dust at 23. Closed up; within 15 minutes dust reached 118.8. No problems with dome, mirror covers or pointing.

Priya Gokuldass

None

CCD

0

9

Equipment Failure

Couldn't observe due to the Dome shutter failure

Gary Henson

Rutherford

Andor CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Asteroid light curve Dome shutter still under repair but left open by ACE for night observing as weather clear and dry. Telescope and CCD working normally.

Alex McDaniel

Dieter

Andor CCD

0

9

Equipment Failure

Dome still not functional

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

8

Other

Dome still not functional

Ro

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

0

9

Equipment Failure

Could not observe due to the dome shelter failure.

Yong Sheng

No

RM-griz

0

9

Equipment Failure

A text file on the RM computer says that RM will not be operational until Jun. 01 due to dome shelter failure.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

0

8

Equipment Failure

Message in the "telescope computer" from Peter: THE SWITCHED POWER DISTRIBUTION UNIT (PDU) NEED TO BE POWER CYCLED. UNFORTUNATELY, IT WAS NOT CYCLED LAST NIGHT AND SO THE SYSTEM IS NOT USEABLE.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

Andor

8

0

No problems to report

WDs photometry, with autoguiding working smoothly. First night in a long time with 0 issues (not even restarts of the ace connector client!).

William Keel

2 cats

Andor CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Radio galaxies, dust in galaxies. Focus 97100, guider focus -50. QSI guide camera twice got stuck refusing to take exposures, even after one full restart.

Kent Montgomery

none

CCD

0

8

Wind

Wind over 70 kph for first two hours of night so we gave up and never opened.

Ken Watanabe

Nicolas Rimbert

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Blazars

Kent Montgomery

none

CCD

0

8

Humidity

Asteroid Photometry, 100% humidity, mountain was in a cloud, never opened

Martha Leake

none

Andor

2.4

6.1

Humidity

Other issues: Clouds, high winds, Ace-client-gui not working, dome rotation needed homing. Waited for humidity to drop (long wait, and some telescopes never reached less than 100%). JKT was best, but neighboring telescopes' RH spikes usually indicated another wave of high humidity. Waited for high winds to calm. Followed quick restart when ace-gui fault occurred; no reoccurrence. Dome rotation activated when needed. Interesting night and an interesting object (P = 0.132 h) to track.

james webb

none

CCD

0

10

Connection Issues

Blazar microvariability. My home situation prevented me from observing:(.\

Alex

Dieter

Andor CCD

8.5

1.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Clemson Blazar Photo-z measurement program. during the night I needed to do a full reset and azimuth recycle. Other than that no major issues.

Tomomi Otani

Julia Clark, Adrian Moraga

CCD

9.5

0

No problems to report

Hot subdwarf photometry time series. Everything was good tonight.

Tomomi Otani

Julia Clark, Adrian Moraga

CCD

9.5

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Hot subdwarf photometry time series. ACE client stopped working a few times. The regular procedure worked to fix them.

Roi Alonso

none

CCD

7.5

0.5

Equipment Failure

WDs photometry. QSI camera not responding to commands. Dome stopped rotating, AZ reset did not work, but a full reset did.

Ron Kaitchuck

none

CCD

5

0

Software/Control PC Issues

The auto-focus routine was unable to change the focus. Fortunately the telescope was already at an acceptable focus.

Todd Vaccaro

N/A

Andor CCD

7

.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Eclipsing binaries. Lost time with the crashing of ACE on tele computer just about every hour during sequences. Dome stuck beginning of night that an Az reset, home fixed.

Todd Vaccaro

N/A

Andor ccd

6

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Eclipsing binaries. ACE crashed on the telescope computer almost every hour, which was rectified by simply closing it and restarting it. The telescope got stuck in the west near airmass 2.3, resetting HA and moving with the hand paddle eventually worked to free it, but lost 20 minutes. Catching the failing ACE during sequences lost me blocks of 5 minutes or so each hour. I noticed on the dome cam that the dome slit has a strip of insulation or something about a foot or two long dangling from near the top, which may fall into the scope. I have an image of it I can share if needed.

Tomomi Otani

Julia Clark, Adrian Moraga

CCD

8

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Photometry time series of Hot subdwarf stars. The focus stopped working, but it started working again after we did a full restart.

Tomomi Otani

Adrian Moraga, Julia Clark

Andor

8

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Photometry time series. Dome stopped rotating one time. We followed the procedures on the note on the telescope PC and the issue was fixed.

Núria Torres-Albà

Dieter Hartmann

SARA RM

7

0

No problems to report

Clemson University observations of high-z blazars No problems to report

Robert Berrington

none

camera

3

5

Clouds

short period variable stars.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

7

1

Wind

WDs photometry, around 1h closed due to wind. No success with the autoguider, the QSI camera seems unresponsive (reading takes forever, reported temperature at 1000C and reported size 0x0 pixels).

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

0

8

Wind

Wind gusts above 45km/h all night, we did not open the dome.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

WDs photometry with autoguiding. Perfect night. ACE client at telescope PC crashed twice, only needing to close and open the program.

Yong

Dieter Hartmann

RM griz

10

0

Software/Control PC Issues

On the telescope PC, a window popped up multiple times, saying that ace stopped working. Not a big ideal since reopen the ace client will fix it. Restart is not even needed.

B Murphy

Day, Grabarz, Pease

Andor

9

0

No problems to report

Globular Cluster photometry

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

9

0

No problems to report

AGN with emission-line clouds. Focus 97300, guider focus 800. Do not use the "save last image" button while another exposure is in progress - took me a half hour, two connector-client restarts and 2 dome azimuth resets to recover from that bit of genius. (I never did quite recover the setup on the CCD computer) Brian Brondel connected and tweaked the guider to remove E-W oscillations.

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

9.5

0

No problems to report

Finishing merger sample in Dead Quasar Survey. Unsure whether dome fully opened at start of night after talking to Brian Brondel. Doughnuts of dust and defocussed stars looked OK, as did camera view of dome slit at dawn. Focus 97400. Guider continues much more reliable with auto ROI and 2x2 binning.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

WDs photometry with autoguider (thanks for the new tips!). Everything running smoothly, except ACE connector client at telescope PC crashing twice.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8.5

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Had to do two full restarts during the night plus an azimuth dome recycle.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Telescope GUI crashed twice, else n issues.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

8

1

Clouds

WDs photometry. Tried to autoguide, with no success: the QSI focus does not move and seems unfocussed, the X-stage is locked between position 1 and 2, can move to 0 and 1, but stays in the middle when trying to go to 2. Usual problems: ACE restarts needed at telescope, and dom AZ resets.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8.5

0.5

Software/Control PC Issues

The camera computer suddenly rebooted without prior warning. When I logged back in a window poppoed up saying the the AVG anti-virus software has been updated. If something needs updating usually one gets a prompt, not this time. Evrything else went smooth.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

5

5

Other

Thanks to Saida for offering up the night. I got a late start, else the night was rather uneventful. Focus was unresponsive once and when I tried to restart the node service Windows was unhappy and couldn't stop it. Thanks to ACE the problem was solved quickly.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

1

9

Humidity

WDs. Brian and ACE prepared the telescope for the night (thanks!). No issues, apart from the humidity suddenly (minutes) going from 20% to 90%. Fortunately we noticed it and we closed the dome in time. It remained high the whole night.

Stephen Gillam

None

ARC Camera

0

12

Equipment Failure

rOAp stars. The dome got stuck at 182 degrees. I homed it and then the dome tracked the telescope azimuth without another hitch. The telescope got "stuck" on the west limit at +3 hours HA. This was odd as I had slewed to the same hour angle just a few mins earlier. I checked the DIO96 bord and found that it was not operating. (The board was not present in the Instacal GUI.) I shut down the Telescope computer from software. Then powered off the Telescope control computer and the ACE control cabinet from the remote APC. A test of the DIO board showed "FAIL" and red lights on all its channels. I repeated the DIO board recycle procedure three times, occasionally recycling the power to the computer and ACE controls, instead of powering off and then on again. All attempts left the DIO board in the failed state.

Ted von Hippel

none

none

0

0

No problems to report

Offered the telescope to SARA-Board yesterday but no takers.

Stephen Gillam

None

Andor Camera

10

10

Wind

ROAp stars.

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

8.5

0.5

Equipment Failure

WDs photometry. Clouds passing all night. Typical problems with typical solutions (dome not rotating, doors ajar, ace connector resets).

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

RM grizR HAlpha

11

0

Equipment Failure

Clemson Blazar study. The telescope reached the limit and couldn't slew. But it was fixed later.

Martha Leake

none

Andor

9

0

No problems to report

All worked well. I did a quick restart near midnight UT and a dome azimuth restart; otherwise the dome worked and observing went smoothly. Not much dust; in the "green" all night.

Brian

Students

Andor

8

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Globular cluster photometry. Problem encountered: Main Focus was not responding ... Solution: Reboot ACE cabinet. Problem encountered: Dome not moving ... Solution: Do an Azimuth reset per instructions on the desktop. (And waiting 2 minutes.) Dome opened and closed with no issue.

William Keel

not even time for cats to arrive

Andor CCD

0

9

Equipment Failure

Tried opening dome per Brian Murphy's note ,and it stuck slightly open. With Peter and Brian at ACE, decided to wrangle it closed and leave it there for safety.

Todd Hillwig

None.

Andor CCD

0

10

Clouds

None.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

9

Clouds

Never opened. Clouds, high humidity, temperature around freezing.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0.1

9

Clouds

Clouds and high humidity early on. Around 0100UT sky was clear and humidity had dropped to acceptable levels. I noticed other observatories had opened, so I opened up, too. Before I was able to focus the scope, humidity rose again and I had to close. Was open for about 5 minutes.

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor

0

12

Equipment Failure

Dome problems shutdown. Also today, high humidity and rain. Will not open.

Alex

Dieter

Andor CCD

0

12

Equipment Failure

JKT Shutdown due to dome issue

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

0

9

Humidity

High humidity and temperatures bellow 0 C, with risk of ice. We did not open.

Ted von Hippel

none

imaging

0

12

Other

The dome was iced over so no one would have been able to observe anyway. That having been said, because of the dome shutter problem I tried to give the night away.

Roi Alonso

none

CCD

0

9

Snow

Bad weather, ICE (whenever the weather improves, please confirm it is safe to open the dome!, e.g., checking if other telescopes at the observatory are opening their domes)

Yong Sheng

Yong Sheng, Dieter Hartmann

RM griz

8

2

Software/Control PC Issues

When beginning: dome stuck at "Dome is opening". Fixed it by doing full restart and cycling the Shutter Door Then the doom started vignetting. Tried all my troubleshooting methods, nothing worked, so i have to stop.

Todd Vaccaro

Robert Berrington

Andor

3

6.5

Software/Control PC Issues

Eclipsing binary program. Unable to get eve flats due to dome issues (AZ resets, ACE/CCD connection required pc reboots, and shutter was having problems opening all the way). Half way through the night, and unsure if shutter open all the way, I couldn't close following instructions on the Notepad, but Brian Murphy was able to after hitting the big red X button on Dome Control, which isn't mentioned in Notepad, so we closed for the rest of the night as I was able to get the eclipse I was looking for earlier than expected.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

0

Other

Addendum: Ace Connector Client GUI on telescope computer crashed twice during the night (Windows "gui stopped working" error). Did not affect observing - telescope stayed tracking and camera kept exposing. Simply re-opened gui and checked that dome was linked.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

9.0

0

No problems to report

White dwarf time series photometry. I followed Brian's safe dome handling instructions - dome opened fully despite saying "ajar" and closed fully. Dome camera not responding, so used target images to verify closure. Great weather, 0.9" seeing. Used guider; it worked well (focus 975). Toward end of run dome stopped rotating at an azimuth of ~255 degrees. Cycled azimuth power, homed dome, re-linked it, and all was well.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

10

Other

Did not open due to high stupidity (foggy brain, inability to focus on calendar)

Keefe Kamp

Gokuldass

CCD

0

11

Humidity

TFOP and Be star observations were planned however to do a high chance of rain and humidity no observing took place

Todd Hillwig

None

Andor CCD

0

10

Wind

High winds all night.

Todd Hillwig

None

Andor CCD

0

10

Wind

High winds all night combined with last minute on-campus observation projects with students (we've had very few clear nights so far this semester).

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

9

Humidity

Unable to open due to high humidity.

Ken Rumstay

None

CCD

0

11

Humidity

AGN's

Todd Vaccaro

Nicolette Terracciano

Andor CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

Eclipsing binary star. Controls for both the telescope and camera computers did not display when using Radmin. A reset of both computers was performed but still didn't display the controls. Did another reset for ACE (we thought maybe is was a connection issue, not a computer issue) and that displayed the controls. Once the controls were up, we couldn't open the dome. We tried following the dome door reset directions many times but the dome wouldn't open. Brian later logged on to help us. After his attempt, he informed us that the dome was stuck and could not be opened tonight for observing.

Ted von Hippel

none

imaging

0

6

No problems to report

Decided not to make this night available to my students because of dome slit issues. Put out a call to SARA-Board@lists.fit.edu to see if anyone else wanted the night and no takers.

Todd Vaccaro

Nicolette Terracciano

Andor CCD

3

8

Humidity

Eclipsing binary; missed primary eclipse due to humidity/clouds. Lost an hour early and ability to get flats b/c dome was not behaving; followed directions for door and Az issues, but had to restart services and cycle things as well. Ace (Tele) crashed on us 2 or 3 times, like once per hour.

Ted von Hippel

Elvis Santana

imaging

0

6

Equipment Failure

The dome door opened but kept reporting it was in an opening status. We tried to close it and could not. I believe we followed the procedures to deal with the recent dome problems, but they failed for a number of attempts. After 3 or 4 hours, the same process (shut down power at the PDU, restart PDU power, hit the red octagon, then click on dome close) finally worked as seen on the camera within the dome.

Xianming Han

none

CCD

10

0.5

Equipment Failure

eclipsing binaries The telescope mysteriously crashed. Restarting the ACE services on both computers fixed the problem. The dome also stopped rotating while observing.

Xianming Han

none

CCD

10

0

Equipment Failure

eclipsing binaries the dome stopped rotating at the beginning of the night, and ACE helped . To fix dome not rotating problem, using the PDU to cycle the power to the Azimuth (be sure that its normal state is "OFF").

Xianming Han

none

CCD

5

5

Humidity

eclipsing binaries humidity and the dome stopped rotating.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

M31, open clusters, asteroid. No problems.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

RM griz

0

12

Equipment Failure

The dome can't be opened. Contacted Peter and he said that this issue hasn't been fixed yet

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Dead quasar survey, H II regions in galaxies. Focus 96700, guider focus 900. Brian Brondel gave hints that made guiding much more reliable: use 2x2 binning and auto ROI instead of manually selecting a guide stars. I rewrote the guiding instructions and sent to the SARA mailing lists.

Van Hamme

Samec

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Observation of interacting binaries. AH Gem.

Van Hamme

Samec

CCD

0

10

Other

Ice covering dome did not allow opening.

Todd Vaccaro

Nicolette Terracciano and Aaron Brown-O'Dell

Andor

0

10

Clouds

Eclipsing binaries

Roi Alonso

Lisa Altinier

CCD

9

2

Other

WD photometry, no autoguiding. Some problems to open the dome at the beginning: the "smart dome" switch at the Dome PDU had been set to "off". The focusser was not moving either, and required a full restart. After that, only the known issues (dome az reset was needed at some point). Last hour of the night the target had set.

James webb

none

CCD

0

8

Other

senior care prevented me from observing. Offered it up but no one took it to my knowledge,

Ken Watanabe

Nick Rimbert

N/A

0

10

Humidity

None.

CCD

0

10

Equipment Failure

Dome would not open. Made numerous attempts, reset multiple times using the power outlet-- to no avail. Displayed "opening" and "closing," messages which never went away. Looking at it using the interior camera showed that the dome shutter was not responding to commands.

Todd Vaccaro

Nicollette Terracciano

Andor

0

11

Humidity

eclipsing binaries. Never opened due to high humidity and threat of rain.

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

1.5

10

Humidity

Dead quasar survey. Had time to troubleshoot guiding a bit with Brian Brondel. BVR focus 95843, guider focus close to 0.

Nuria Torres-Alba

Dieter Hartmann

SARA ORM

0

11

Humidity

No observations due to 100% humidity all night long

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

3

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Took several restarts before things started working properly-- with each restart, another function would come back online. Eventually, all was working and had no further issues.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

4

Humidity

Unable to open due to high humidity the entire night

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

2

0

Other

M31. No real issues, except that the "dome closing" message still persists and never goes away. I did a couple of recycles of the shutter door power, but that did not seem to have any effect.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

4

Humidity

Had to close just after getting flats due to high humidity and low temperatures. Dome never did give a "closed" message, but kept indicating "closing."

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

3

10

Clouds

Dead quasar survey. Focus 99150. Guider focus -600. Guider did new weird thing - offsets always showed 0 (more exactly listed number was something E-301), even when star disappeared behind a loud after guiding started..

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

RM griz

0

13

Other

Observatory closed due to volcanic activity.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

5.5

6.5

Wind

Deep H-alpha imaging lost due to high winds at start of night. White dwarf time series photometry in second half of night. No major problems. Winds were high but below limits for 2nd half of night. Seeing was marginal (2 arcsec or so); other ORM observatory DIMMs reported bad seeing too. Suggestion: Have wind speed in same units on Clarity, within the ACE interface (which I really liked tonight), and on the Closing limits on the SARA website. It's tough to convert m/s and kph to mph at 2am. Nice to be observing with this instrument again.

Yong Sheng

None

RM

0

12

Other

Observatory closed due to volcanic activity.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

13

Other

Surtr is preparing for Ragnarok and the battle against Aesir. Allegedly.