MDM Trouble Report for 2004 Nov 28

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): Glikman McGreer (Columbia Univeristy)
Instrument: TIFKAM

Problem(s) Encountered:
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 [5:06:58]