MDM Trouble Report for 2007 Dec 18

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): Fesen, Gerardy, Milisavljevic, & Zastrow (Dartmouth and FSU)
Instrument: TIFKAM

Problem(s) Encountered:
All TIFKAM images exhibit considerable debris which contaminates
the images. This debris appears as tiny translucent shards
of  stuff  plus numerous thin 
curved arcs of a shiny nature which
can also scatter light. 
We believe this debris lies on or very near the detector.
Both types of debris can move slightly 
across the field of view during single 15 minute exposure 
preventing their flat field removal or subtraction 
in a node imaging mode.

This problem appears quite similar to that reported by Leighy
and Dietrich (OSU/OU) in a trouble report on 
2 April 2007 using TIFKAM on the 2.4m.

Unfortunately, this problem render the instrument virtually
useless for taking useable data at this time. 

We hope to switch over to the CCDS tonight using the 
158 grating centered at 7500 Angstroms...if possible.



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Submitted on 2007 Dec 19 [5:52:47]