Problem(s) Encountered:

The guider was very out of focus and the focus setting would not change. We approximately focused the telescope on the slit viewer, but the guider was extremely out of focus. Pressing the In/Our buttons on the Guider Focus GUI had no apparent effect, even when holding the buttons down for >10 seconds. I changed the track box size to maximum, but the donut was too large to guide on. Took two spectra without guiding, pretty ratty. The weather was poor so this issue had minimal impact on data.

Solution:

Same issue as the previous time this occurred—a failed USB (3.0) port on the TCS PC.  I’ve switched to a different USB port and all is well again.  I fear this may be a sign that we have a flaky USB board in the PC.  Recall that we previously had issues with our Emerson remote hub that supplied power and signal to the keyboard, mouse and monitors in the control room.  Issues with that device seemed to clear coincident to swapping USB ports.  And now this… .