MDM Trouble Report for 2011 Jan 1

Telescope: 1.3m
Observer(s): Bord (UofM)
Instrument: CCDS

Problem(s) Encountered:
Dropout:  During the day, checked that dome was free to rotate and that
both the main shutter and dropout opened and closed smoothly and completely.
At evening opening, the main shutter functioned perfectly; dropout opened fine
at first but upon nearing full open, I heard a loud clunk and immediately stopped
further motion.  Went out to visually inspect dropout, but saw
nothing obviously wrong.  To be safe, closed dropout a bit (but not completely) and it returned
seemingly OK.  When I went to re-open the dropout, however, it failed to move
and the motor squealed as it usually does at the end of its travel.
Was able to fully close the dropout, but it will not open at this
point in time, the motor continuing to squeal.

XMIS: XMIS window 'blanked out' during Prospero start up, but I
was able to reactivate it following the advice of B. Barr.  MIS power
was cycled, and I was able to complete the evening calibrations. 
However, in the course of the night, the same problem recurred
no less than 4 more times.  Although no data was lost, and the
problem was corrected in each case following the same procedure used earlier, 
much time was spend rebooting the TCS and the data acquisition
programs each time.  I could not correlate XMIS failure with
any other activities or processes that were ongoing at the
time of the 'blank outs.'

Slewing Errors:  After slewing successfully to the first two
program objects, the telescope began to increasingly hang up when
slewing from one object to the next.  Slewing errors were
encountered whether slew commands were issued from the
jskycalc window or the TCS window ('point' command). 
Repeated application of the slew command in the jskycalc
window or the point command (after refresh) in the TCS command
line would eventually cause the telescope to reach its destination,
but the number of stoppages along the way seemed to be 
getting larger with each move.  I managed to get the telescope
back to the zenith and quit, being concerned that something
was seriously wrong and to push the system any further was to
risk total failure.  The telescope never lost pointing accuracy,
and always arrived successfully at its target, but at various
times it would simply stop along the way.  I could see no clear
evidence that the slewing halted when moving in one coordinate
direction as opposed to the other.  Sorry I didn't pay more
careful attention to this detail.  

I guess that's all for now.  It appears I've done enough
damage for one night.

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Submitted on 2011 Jan 1 [3:05:10]