MDM Trouble Report for 2010 Oct 31

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): D. Milisavljevic (Dartmouth)
Instrument: MKIII + Templeton

Problem(s) Encountered:
I went out to the dome to rotate to an east-west slit. At around
75 degrees I suspected tension. Stopped, checked, saw nothing,
and moved forward slightly. A few degrees later there was
definite tension so I stopped; still, I could not see wires
under stress.

Figuring to play it safe (ha!) I decided to abandon the
east-west slit and rotated back to zero. Came inside and noticed
that the Andor guider cam was not responding. Tried obvious
solutions: restarted computer, cycled the power to the camera.
Neither worked.

Wanting to push on I decided to hand guide so as to not lose
time. This worked reasonably well.

With spare time afterwards I went back outside and noticed that
the USB extender box hooked up to the guider cam (which Bob had
just pointed out to me the other day because of the brand new
ones we just got!) had no led lights on. I followed its power
supply and found that the thin cord had been snapped in two.
Ouch! Sorry Bob! I guess the wire was too thin and hidden for
me to notice it while rotating.

There are definite ways to fix this (e.g., I know Bob has a
replacement) but I'm not sure what the best do-it-yourself
option will be (if there is one) to avoid Bob having to come
up. Will work on this when I wake up in the afternoon.

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Submitted on 2010 Oct 31 [5:17:21]