MDM Trouble Report for 2014 Jan 25

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): John Thorstensen (Dartmouth)
Instrument: modspec + echelle CCD

Problem(s) Encountered:

Condensation on dewar window to start - my own fault, cured
by dry N2 flush.  Should have anticipated this.

Shutter failed.  It became intermittent early in the evening -
removing it from the spectrograph and watching it showed it
opening, then flopping back closed prematurely.  Called Eric
and after a long troubleshooting session we decided it was
probably the Uniblitz controller not delivering the correct 
voltage.  I removed the shutter and operated shutterless for
the rest of the night, which actually had minimal impact.

But there are other troubles, too.  On closing I noticed that one
of the airbag valves was operating almost continuously.
It's been doing this for some time now, with occasional
time-outs, but the hardpoint readings are 50, 34, and 39 
pounds, and they're not going down noticeably.  So there's 
something wrong.

On closing the dropout it seemed even more cockeyed than 
it had been.  The motors driving the hydraulics were audibly
laboring.  If I can operate tomorrow I think I won't open 
it quite all the way ... 





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Submitted on 2014 Jan 26 [7:02:31]