MDM Trouble Report for 2005 Sep 12

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

Problem(s) Encountered:
At one point the dome abruptly decided to start rotating at its
slow rate - I call it a  fugue state .  Usually it fixes itself
in a minute or so, but after two complete rotations at the slow
rate I got frustrated and started trying to fix it myself.  And
thus began my saga of woe.  

Neither the hardware  Stop  button nor the software button on 
xtcs has any effect; hitting the yellow dome enable button stops 
the dome, but it starts right back up.  

Finally I shut down the TCS PC, but when I tried to exit from 
the program the recommended way (by selecting close) the 
TCS window wouldn't go away like it usually does - it just 
froze.  So I cycled the power on the TCS and the TCS power
supply (in proper order).  The dome stopped rotating, finally.
Problem solved.

Well, not really.  In my preoccupation with the dome I'd 
neglected to write down the telescope coords, figuring that 
the software would take care of it on shutdown (as it's 
supposed to), but the shutdown was botched, so I was lost.

No problem!  Go to the zenith with the tilt meters, right?  
But, the tilt meters are way off -- they read -0.08 and +0.01 
at the true zenith, I later determined -- so I couldn't find 
a thing.

I compounded this by forgetting to reset the UT on the TCS,
which as luck would have it added to the error.  But eventually
I figured that out, and this brought a bright star within the
8-arcminute field of the CCD, and I was back in business.

But it took a whole hour.

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Submitted on 2005 Sep 13 [6:30:34]