MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observing Report for 2011 Jan 07

Observer(s): Sam Grunblatt, Laura Vican, Jules Halpern
Institution(s): Columbia University

Instrument: Templeton CCD

Worked for 12 hours (all night)
Conditions were Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Clear, Winds Calm
   Mid: Clear, Winds Calm
   End: Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

In the afternoon the CCD experienced repeated asynchronous read errors
that could not be resolved by the reset switch on the CCD electronics
box or by reloading the dsp code.  In addition the xmis window froze,
and could not be restarted.  Bob replaced the CCD electronics box with 
another one.  He also rebooted both tambora and mcgraw, and checked the
fiber optic controller box and connections.  Many old, extraneous processes
may have been slowing down the computers.  Finally, ccdcom and the
MIS could function normally.  By 5pm, we were ready to observe.

At around 1am we tracked into the west limit (HA=5).  As a result
the pointing was lost.  I'm not sure if this should necessarily
lose pointing, but it did.  We recovered pointing using the tilt meters,
followed by a bright star near zenith.  Less than 1 hr was lost.


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Submitted on 2011 Jan 8 [6:57:45]