Dome failure. This time it would not start to rotate.

Thursday, February 3, 2022 6:15 AM

Problem(s) Encountered:

After opening the dome, noticed that the dome wasn't tracking and the azimuth remained at 320. Tried cycling the auto dome switch in the computer room and moving the dome with the hand paddle but the dome did not respond. Went into the dome and tried using the hand paddle there. Briefly pressing the hand paddle resulted in a continuous motor sound without any dome movement. TCS says that dome was moving at this time ('Dome Right'). Could only stop the motor running by turning off the dome in the GUI. 

Were not able to move dome from contacts and could not observe other than some sky background data at zenith. 


Solution:

Gear reduction box on the north motor assembly had seized.  Also lost a tooth on the main drive cog on the north side assembly.  Had exactly one spare gearbox so Tony installed that and replaced the cog while we both hoped there wasn’t an equivalent problem on the south side.  Once installed tested and verified the dome moves as demanded.