MDM Trouble Report for 2006 Nov 23

Telescope: 1.3m
Observer(s): Harris, Piscionere (Columbia)
Instrument: Templeton

Problem(s) Encountered:
This is an adendum to previous trouble report submitted on 
2006 Nov 23 [2:52:13].
A little before midnight, images of the star HS2331 started 
becoming poorly resolved, as if clouds were passing across 
the field. However, the guider monitor revealed none. We 
figured they were the thin wispy clouds that we noticed at dusk. 
At about 1AM we switched to star 1rxs0704 and exposed for 15 
seconds in the bg38 filter. The resulting image looked as if the 
the shutter had not opened, ie a uniform grey field.
After reinitializing xtcs & xmis and checking the dome azimuth 
to no avail, we called Eve from up at the 2.4.
Eve ran df templeton and ut init and we noticed that the ccd 
temp was very high (~8 degrees). We quickly refilled the dewar, 
concerned that the warmth might damage it, and waited for it to
cool down. (At the time of refill we noticed a low psi (~3) on 
the dewar filler and it took an extreemly long time to fill. 
This caused us to believe that the dewar filler was near empty,
but after further inspection we realized that there is plenty 
of LN remaining in both dewars.) After about 2 hours it reached 
its normal temp of -95 degrees and we tried taking another 
exposure. This image was completely flushed out. We continued
taking exposures thinking that the ccd was just taking its time 
cooling down but the images remained unresoulved. We became 
concerned that something more significant was wrong and decided 
to shut down for the remainder of the night. That is when we 
realized that we had never reopened the dark hatch after the 
LN refill. Feeling like complete idiots we took another 
exposure with the hatch open and saw a typical star filled 
image. At this point, dawn was quicly approaching so we had 
to call it a night...
So there is plenty of LN in the dewars, the ccd is aquireing 
images properly, and we will continue to monitor the ccd temp 
using the  ut  command. 
Sorry for the troubles. Happy thanksgiving!

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Submitted on 2006 Nov 23 [8:45:06]
NOTE: This trouble report replaces the previous report for 2006 Nov 23