MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2001 Jan 31

Observer(s): Lepine, De Marco
Institution(s): Columbia

Instrument: MkIII

Worked for 10.5 hours (all night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the summary for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Cirrus, Winds Calm
   Mid: Clear, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Clear, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

Wheather: high cirrus to star with. Sky completely cleared at 
about 4:30UT.
Initial problem with telescope control keyboard in that some keys 
seemed to get stuk. We later realized that the keyboard cable was not properly plugged in.
Plugging it in seemed to solve the problem.
Second problem (solved on the phone with Paul Hartman) was that
the dome did not move with the telescope when we went to our first object.
This was due to the fact that the yellow button on the dome controller was NOT on.
Once this was turned on the dome positioned itself correctly.
Third problem: on shutting down, the dome did not return to the sleep position at angle 320.
We therefore switched the yellow button off, used the dome control panel to
set the dome at position 320, and then switched the yellow button back back on.
All these operations were carried out after disabling traking and
all the other switched on the TCS control panel.
Furth problem: we tried to take a few flats in the morning after
shutting down the telescope/dome and did not obtain any counts.
We checked the manual and we are doing all correctly. Additionally
we can take comp calibrations exposures, but no flats. Might the 
flat lamp be broken?



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Submitted on 2001 Feb 1 [7:33:56]