MDM Trouble Report for 2009 Nov 18

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): Ondrej Pejcha (OSU)
Instrument: CCDS

Problem(s) Encountered:
In the beginning of the night I found that the telescope pointing
seems to be lost. However, after some time I figured that the offset 
is only marginal, probably due to telescope being setup with coordinates 
for equinox 2009, but entered equinox value of 2000. The immediate solution 
was to input J2000 coordinates as J1991 and later in the night I 
found how to correct the telescope pointing. 1 hour lost.

After midnight, when I was focusing, the telescope stopped 
tracking (no error message, TCS showed tracking still on). I slewed 
to my target coordinates again, thinking that it will move couple 
arcminutes and restores tracking. Instead, the telescope started to 
slew north. I hit stop in xtcs, which stopped the telescope, 
and issued another slew to the same coordinates. The telescope 
continued north and reached West and North hard limits before 
I was able to react again. I freed the telescope from hard limits, 
the pointing was preserved and tracking was working, 
so I continued without further problems until morning. I did not 
attempt to focus again, however. 0.5 hour lost.


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Submitted on 2009 Nov 19 [6:53:36]