MDM Trouble Report for 2011 Jun 16

Telescope: 1.3m
Observer(s): S.Lepine (AMNH)
Instrument: CCDS

Problem(s) Encountered:
The 1.3m telescope exhibited shaking and ocsillations
with amplitudes 5-15 arcseconds, sometimes more. This 
seemed to occur especially in higher wind conditions, but 
not exclusively. The oscillations would present themselves 
as jumps from one position in Decl to another, and would 
repeat every 10-20 seconds of so. These would often yield 
double-peaked profiles of the target along the columns on 
the CCD.

The oscillations seemed to be worse with the guider on. So
much so that I decided to guide manually for the rest
of the night.

Overall this did not affect my observations too much 
because of the work being in longslit spectro mode with
the slit oriented North-South. Although the flux is spread
along the columns in many frames. This would however
make imaging extremely difficult.

In addition, I noticed it is very difficult to move the
telescope in Decl using the paddle or the virtual paddle
on the TCS. The telescope often seemed stuck in Decl, and
would only move with large offsets entered on the virtual
paddle.


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Submitted on 2011 Jun 17 [5:27:32]