MDM Trouble Report for 2018 Feb 28

Telescope: 2.4m
Observer(s): John Thorstensen (Dartmouth)
Instrument: Modspec + Echelle

Problem(s) Encountered:
When I set on a bright star in twilight I found I could not focus
the telescope with either the hand paddle or the gui - the focus
number would not move and the image would not change.

Damon Burke of DFM had been working on the program during the 
afternoon, so I figured it was something he did.  I called DFM
in hopes he'd be there, and got Frank Melsheimer himself on the 
phone, who passed the message on to Damon; Damon then logged
on remotely and tried to diagnose the problem.  He concluded that
the focus motor was spinning, but the encoder was not seeing 
any change, so we inferred that something in the mechanism has
failed (perhaps a drive belt).  I observed the rest of the 
night with the telescope out of focus, losing most of the light on
the slit jaws.  Fortunately I'm a steely-eyed telescope man and
came prepared with some bright backup targets which can stand
to lose this much. 

[Google  try SCE to aux  for an explanation of the phrase 
 steely-eyed missile man .  Tod Lauer made me aware of this great
story.]

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Submitted on 2018 Mar 1 [6:30:04]