MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2004 Nov 28

Observer(s): Glikman McGreer
Institution(s): Columbia University

Instrument: TIFKAM

Worked for 1 hours (off and on through the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from 5:30 until 12:00.
   Beg: Seeing 1.4 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing 0.8 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Moderate
   End: Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

Cloudy and cold atthe beginning of the night.  Clouds cleared 
for brief periods around 8pm.  After midnight clouds cleared completely.  
Main problems involved the telescope's tracking  slipping 
      severely and regularly.  This was independent of pointing 
      direction (North South East West AND straight up).  The telescope 
       bounced  about its position (east-west)and sometimes just took 
      off to the east.  At these times the telescope did not respond to 
      any  set  commands from the hand-paddle.  Only the slew command 
      seemed to get a result (but this was unhelpful because it gave too large an offset!).

      Repeatedly saw  DEC encoder not responding  on TCS monitor.

      We tried slewing to zenith many times and gave the telescope a  rest .
      This did not fix the problem (it may have been alleviated for up to 15 
      minutes - no more).  When we turned tracking off at zenith, on one occassion,
      the telescope moved to the east on its own. 

      Lower right quadrant of TIFKAM chip became striped and completely 
      unusable at the very beginning of the night.  
       

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Submitted on 2004 Nov 29 [5:07:11]