MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observing Report for 2017 Aug 21

Observer(s): Clarkson, Aufdemberge, Vowell
Institution(s): UM-Dearborn

Instrument: ANDOR

Worked for 7 hours (all night)
Conditions were Non-Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from 23:30 until 01:30.
   Beg: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

1. The bug-like obstruction found when pointing near Alt/Az = 50/285 on all our
previous nights, was not present in our images during the present night. Whatever 
actions were taken during the day Aug 21st may have solved this problem. 

2. Communication loss when attempting to slew to target. Telescope stop -->
telescope start --> TCS restart (& re-initialize) --> jskycalc restart resumed 
communication.

3. Pointing error discovered immediately after this problem; the telescope slew-to-target
missed the target, a miss later determined to be about (13.25, 0.5) arcmin in (RA, dec), 
or > 5 times the width of the field of view.

We were able to correct the pointing and resume science with a minor 
modification of the example  reset telescope coordinates  procedure in the 
jskycalc13m manual; instead of looking for a bright star, we used nova.astrometry.net 
to determine the current field center and then fed those coordinates into jskycalc in order
to  reset telescope co-ordinates.  Once this procedure was complete, the slew-to-target
was close enough to correct that the science target fell within the field of view and could
be centered using the paddle controls. At the end of the night, with the telescope at zenith, 
the encoders showed (-004, -009), which seems acceptably close to recommended rough 
values. This procedure requires the internet connection to work, but it does remove the need 
to hunt for a bright object and is reasonably quick.

The communication/pointing error probably led to about 45 minutes' lost time on the 
science target. At about the same time as this happened...

4. ... Bear sighting at about 8:30pm, between the garage and the dormitories. Closed the 
dome's ground-level doors as a precaution. 

5. Lost about two hours to cloud in the middle of the run.

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Submitted on 2017 Aug 22 [4:20:10]