MDM Trouble Report for 2006 Jul 12

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): DePoy & Marshall (OSU)
Instrument: TIFKAM

Problem(s) Encountered:
Pointing of telescope continues to be problematic. Tonight
the telescope would slew normally (unlike last night), but
the pointing reproducibility was very poor. For example, 
after zero-pointing on a bright star near the zenith, slewing
(with the hand paddle) 5 degrees east or west, re-pointing at
the initial bright star would be off by ~300 arcseconds (out of
the TIFKAM field of view). Larger moves were off by larger amounts.
The error was always to the east. Moves to the north or south
of any distance returned within to the initial star within
~10 arcseconds. 

Also, on nearly every move the telescope would stall when it
neared the target. At the end of moves of any distance the 
telescope would get to within ~2 arcminutes of the target and
then start to oscillate and take many minutes to complete the
move.

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Submitted on 2006 Jul 13 [0:02:51]