MDM Trouble Report for 2005 Mar 15

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): John Thorstensen (Dartmouth)
Instrument: Echelle direct + 2in FW

Problem(s) Encountered:
The RA drive acted up maybe half-a-dozen times.  The sympton
is the guide star starts to quiver E/W, then jumps 10 arcsec
out of the box, then sits there and jumps off to the E.  The
drive doesn't seem to stop altogether but the RA does change
on the TCS (so don't need starlight to see it).

My exposures were short so I lost little time, but it would
be a more serious issue if longer exposures were ruined.
The cure is to slew west a tiny bit to clear the jam and
then reacquire the target.  

I had three occurrences of this within +- 1 minute of 0h 10m
west, all not far from the zenith.  Toward the end of the
night I did track through this HA with the telescope in the
north; it hung at +0h 48m HA then.  Possibly these dead zones
might be reproducible ... ?

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Submitted on 2005 Mar 16 [6:51:39]