MDM Trouble Report for 2012 Dec 16

Telescope: 1.3m
Observer(s): C. Black, J. Thorstensen (Dartmouth)
Instrument: modspec + templeton

Problem(s) Encountered:
We're having some trouble with the telescope.  Our first target
was equatorial and far west, and when we realized we were 
observing through dewar fog we went to the zenith to flush.
However, the telescope hung partway with an error message about
 where ha not initialized  (NOT exact phrase). It wouldn't 
move, even though we tried rebooting hill and mcgraw, and
multiple attempts at pointing it  I finally got it out of
its torpor by 

home force ha=0  

or some such, which made the telescope think it was at the
meridian even though it was 4h west; I then walked it back to
the zenith, reset the pointing on the tiltmeters, found a
bright star, and we were back in business.

However, there's still a problem -- in most slews, the telescope
stalls partway there, and about half the time the tracking
stops too.  With patience one can hop the telescope over
to the target, but this obviously isn't normal.  This doesn't
happen every time.  Also, sometimes the telescope will stall 
repeatedly, and then on the last attempt execute a long
slew flawlessly.  This is, of course, pretty strange.

Of course, computer rack A/C is not working.
Kept the computer room door open; over the course of the 
night the rack temperature climbed to about 75 F.  We left the
door to the dome open so the observing room and computer
room should cool off pretty well during the day.

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Submitted on 2012 Dec 17 [7:18:46]