MDM Trouble Report for 2006 May 4

Telescope: 1.3m
Observer(s): Jules Halpern (Columbia University)
Instrument: Templeton Direct

Problem(s) Encountered:
When I went to a new target at H.A -03:15, Dec +52:35, the
tracking failed.  This was at 12:35 pm, and I was determined
not to lose the rest of the night.  It seemed to me that a
whirling motion and noise meant that a clutch was slipping,
and I started to poke at it.  I found that if I set the telescope
to approximately where I wanted it, and gave the offending part a
sharp twist to the left, then the telescope would continue to 
track as long as I didn't do any further set motions.  That was
okay for the next 2 hours.  Fortunately, when I moved to the
last target of the night, I found that the telescope would track
without any further disciplinary action.  In the end only 20
minutes was lost, but clearly some professional adjustment is
really necessary.

By the way, I find that there is still some backlash/delay in
the N-S guide motion when observing at extreme zenith angles.

Last thing: there were still a couple of asynchronous read
errors.  Adding one 10 minute exposure lost to the other
problem brings the total to 30 minutes, not bad.

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Submitted on 2006 May 4 [5:03:43]