MDM Trouble Report for 2007 Apr 20

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): Werk, Putman (U Michigan)
Instrument: MkIII

Problem(s) Encountered:
I attempted to focus the guide camera off the slit on an offset guide star, and was unable to 
do so. Since we had dealt with similar focus issues on previous nights, I was not
surprised. It seemed the focus had reached its limit without the guide star being in focus
(it still looked like a donut). When I tried to refocus on the slit after deciding to move
on to an object with a nearby guide star, the focus was stuck, and wouldn't move in either direction. 
As with previous nights, I reinitialized the MIS, and then attempted to focus again. 
It was still stuck. After reinitializing a few times, with no luck, I decided to go out an 
manually adjust the guider focus as I had seen Bob do the previous night, and according to 
the instructions in the manual. I found the cylindrical motor very difficult to move along its axis, 
and had to try a number of times before I was able to get the slit in focus. Once I got the slit in focus, I tried
to adjust the coarse focus of the guide camera a bit more so I'd be able to see an offset guide star adequately. 
I was unable to do this for the reason that the focii are so badly offset, that if you'd like the slit in focus, there's
no way to also be able to focus on an offset guide star -- the focus reaches a hard limit, and 
it appeared there was no way around this. So, I decided to forgo offset guiding, even though
we'd done so all previous nights, and I had few remaining targets with adequate guide stars visible
on the slit jaws ... In all this problem is quite frustrating. Could it be the LENS of the guide camera is out of focus? 

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Submitted on 2007 Apr 20 [5:41:09]