SARA 

William Keel

Dean Townsley, AY203 class

Andor CCD #2

8.5

0

No problems to report

Class projects. Focus 127200. There are still low-airmass regions of the sky where 5-minute exposures trail in changing directions.

William Keel

Sam Grunblatt, AY203 class

Andor CCD #2

8.5

0

No problems to report

Class objects, AGN hosts. Focus 128500.

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Clemson blazars

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartamann

Andor CCD griz

9

0

No problems to report

Clemson blazar study

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

6

1

Connection Issues

Exoplanet. Had trouble connecting to the camera computer at first-- G. Henson was able to get that sorted out and all worked well from then on out.

William Keel

Sam Grunblatt, AY203 class

Andor CCD #2

8.5

0

No problems to report

Class project images - planets, stars, nebulae, clusters, galaxies. Focus 128500. Tracking accuracy varies wildly around the sky - longest exposures with round images range from 2-10 minutes depending on location.

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor CCD

9.5

0

No problems to report

I didn't have any takers for Nov. 8, so I used it for imaging galaxies, nearby stars, hoping to use those in class.. Weather great. Typical offset to south and west.

Berrington

none

arc

7.5

0

No problems to report

Telescope functioned properly except for one issue that did not stop observations. That is the connection issue with the guider.

Walter Van Hamme

Samec

ARC Camera

9

0

No problems to report

Observations of WW Phe Light curve.

Antonio Circiello

Dieter Hartmann

SARA CT

9

0

No problems to report

observed the following sources: 220100-300000, RBS 0097, 4FGL J0250.3-2422, BZQ J0324-2918, 4FGL J0501.0-2423.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

11

Other

Observer was traveling to ETSU and forgot to put the night up for general use.

Walter Van Hamme

Samec

ANDOR Camera

10

0

No problems to report

Observations of WW Phe.

Walter VanHamme

SWamec

ANDOR Camers

9

null

No problems to report

Light curve Observations of WW Phe.

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor

11

0

No problems to report

Asteroid light curve and southern objects. Wonderful night. Noted objects 4-5 arcminutes south of center of frame.

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

-

CCD

7

null

No problems to report

Transit observed from 04:00 to 09:00 UT. Focus: 129551, and exposure time of 180s. No problems to report.

Stephen Gillam

Jadia Ewing

Nador

7

0

Other

Pointing was off about 8 arcminutes in the west direction

Stephen Gillam

Jadia Ewing

Nador

7

0

Other

Pointing was off about 8 arcminutes in the west direction

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet. No problems at all-- everything worked well.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8

1

Clouds

focus on Trojan asteroid 317. Full Moon and clouds were not ideal and clouds got thick for a while in the middle of the night. Camera computer is 17seconds fast and I was unable to correct this. Pointing was off in both RA and DEC -object outside the FOV of telescope.

William Keel

Sam Grunblatt, Astro 203 class

Andor CD #2

6

0

No problems to report

Class targets and operations demo. Focus 128100. Typical offset to center target after telescope slew was (-740",-300"). Pleased to find that HA limit for LMC is greater than 6 hours.

Stephen Gillam

None

CCD Camera

0

9

Clouds

Microvariables.

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

-

CCD

2

8

Humidity

The cloud level decreased during the night, however the humidity remained high during the night, reaching 80% > humidity. On the other hand, the temperature with the dew point had a difference of less than 5 units during the night. Therefore, only calibration images were taken.

Billy Quarles

Matt Wood

CCD

0

12

Humidity

Closed due to humidity; increasing cloud cover for next 12 hours

Catalina

-

CCD

null

null

Clouds

No observation due to the dense clouds in the sky.

William Keel

4 cats

Andor CD #2

10

0

No problems to report

AGN hosts, nebulae. Focus 126800. Only issue was that tracking became very poor near 3 hours east, -10 degrees.

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

-

CCD

6

1

No problems to report

Observation started at 22:30 UT and ended at 7:30 UT. During the night transit of TOI-4282 was observed with filter i' (00:57-05:41 UT) and focus 127201. Good weather conditions.

Easton Honaker

Kaylee Grace, Zach Savery, Millie Dill

Andor

0

10

Clouds

Did not observe due to cloud coverage. Tried offloading older data following instructions from Discord. Could not because no internet on any computers. Radmin file transfer requires a windows computer but CTIO VPN is nearly impossible to install on windows. VNC file transfer requires a paid subscription.

Stephen Gillam

Samuel Quinutolo, Jadia Ewing, TJ Matney

ARC Camera

9

0

Other

ROAp stars. At around 11:40 pm, we found the dome azimuth was very different to the telescope azimuth. i.e. Done: 317 deg vs. tele: 61 deg. Our images were not occluded or vignetted so we surmised that the dome encoder was reading incorrectly. An hour later the azimuths agreed again within a few degrees.

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

-

CCD

7

2

No problems to report

The photometric quality of the night improved during the night. Transit of TOI-181 observed using SDSS i' filter. Good weather conditions. The camera PC is still not connected to the Internet.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

8

Clouds

Clouds-- never opened.

Robert Berrington

none

arc

10

0

Connection Issues

Telescope and new Cisco AnyConnect VPN connection worked as expected for most of the night. At the beginning, before flat time the VPN connection was very unstable and quit several times. But once flats started the connection did not disconnect. I will note that it appears that the Dropbox connection does not appear to work under the new VPN connection. Therefore, must be downloaded via the Radmin file transfer protocol, and is considerably slower than transfer via Dropbox method

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Asteroid rotation rate and objects in southern sky. Some pointing issues, to south and west, but easy to work around. Weather good. Took flats in morning.

Aarran Shaw

None

ARC Camera

2.5

7

Clouds

Gave it a good old college try but the clouds were too thick and variable. Showed no sign of getting better in the forecast. Gave up 2220 EDT

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

10

Clouds

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

-

CCD

null

null

Clouds

High clouds, the observation could not be carried out.

William Keel

DragonCon Live Astronomy

Andor CCD #2

3

0

No problems to report

Outreach objects. Focus 127200. Still no joy connecting to, for example, Dropbox to retrieve data.

William Keel

DragonCon Space Track

Andor CCD #2

4

0

No problems to report

Outreach - galaxies, nebulae, JWST. Focus126200.

William Keel

DragonCon Space Track

Andor CCD #2

3

0

No problems to report

Outreach - galaxies, nebulae. Focus 124800.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

3

7

Clouds

Clouds came in after about three hours so closed up. Exoplanet.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

2

9

Clouds

Asteroid photometry. Cloudy early one then there was a 2-3h gap in the clouds before it got cloudy again.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

11

0

No problems to report

Asteroid phptpmetry Camear PC is ~47 seconds fast.

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

-

CCD

7

1

No problems to report

Transit of exoplanets. Clouds present in the observation. Telescope closed due to increasing clouds at 07:00 (UT).

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

7

3

Clouds

Exoplanet. Clouds for the first few hours, but clear afterwards.

Robert Berrington

none

arc

null

10

Clouds

clouds, did not open.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

0

10

Clouds

Many clouds all night, I can't observe at all.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

10

Clouds

Cloudy all night-- never opened.

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

-

CCD

12

null

Software/Control PC Issues

Observation night: [22:02 - 10:00 UT]. Objects observed: Satellites trails, NGC 5236 and TOI-307 transit. The ACE interface clock is advanced by about 2 seconds. This had an impact on the predictions of satellite positions at night. On the other hand, the camera computer still does not have Internet access.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

11

0

No problems to report

asteroid photometry. As was mentioned before the lack of internet connectivity on the Camera computer is an issue -cannot check pointing accuracy). Time on the camera computer is off, too. I did not find a way to reset it to the actual time. This is a huge problem when sharing data with other observers or comparing data collected over several nigths.

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

-

-

12

30

Software/Control PC Issues

The observation started at 22:00 UT and ended at 10:30 UT. Throughout the night, I had a small problem with the ACE software, at the moment of stopping the acquisition of images the program did not let me take more exposures for about 30 min. Another problem encountered was that the camera PC did not have internet access, this is a problem at the moment of saving the data. During the night, the weather conditions were favorable, no clouds and low humidity (19-25%).

William Keel

1 cat

Andor CCD #2

8

0

No problems to report

Galaxies. Focus 125000. Guider camera still unreachable. No joy in connecting to Dropbox (or anything else) even with incognito window form Chrome or Edge.. Leaving data for retrieval someday. Took two tries closing dome for lower dropout shutter to register as closed.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

ccd

0

11

Clouds

clouds, never opened

Martha A. Leake

none

ARC camera

0

10.5

Clouds

Asteroid observations. Able to connect and collect several biases, but never opened. Latest weather report (YR) had no clearing ahead. So, I am filing this at midnight. I was able to transfer my bias data.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

11

Clouds

clouds, never opened

Steve Gillam

None

Andor camera

0

11

Connection Issues

This report supplements my report of last night. There is no internet connection on the SARA-CT camera computer. The computer is connected to SARA_DOME_2.4G network which does not have internet access. Please connect it to a network that does have internet access. I tried to connect to the SARA_DOME_5G network but I do not have the security key.

Stephen Gillam

Jadia Ewing and Samuel Quintonolo

Andor Camera

2

9

Clouds

Micro variables. Unable to download data. Could not connect to the internet to send files from local Dropbox.

Tomomi Otani

N/A

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Photometry time series. All were good.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

8

Connection Issues

Unable connect -- no problems with the VPN, but the telescope and CCD computers failed to connect. Made numerous attempts throughout the night.

Keefe Kamp

NA

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Nothing to Report. Normal Night observing fields around Be stars

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet. No issues-- everything worked well (once I got a connection issue figured out-- faulty setting on my computer.)

Robert Berrington

none

arc

3.5

6.5

Equipment Failure

Short period variable stars. Noticed a darkening on the CCDimage. I will post an example of an image on the Discord server, but I tried homing the dome, as well as initializing the filter wheel to see if that would fix the problem. It did not.

Keefe Kamp

Caballero

CCD

7

0

Connection Issues

Observing Fields around Be stars went well. Could not connect to SOAR site conditions until the morning.

Patrick Stanley

Tali Natan, Easton Honaker, Kaylee Grace, Olivia Grace

Andor Camera

10

0

No problems to report

Photometry of lam pav

Patrick Stanley

Tali Natan, Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker

Camera

8

3

Clouds

Photometry of lam Pav

Xianming Han

none

ccd

10.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

none

ccd

5.5

4.5

Clouds

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

none

ccd

10

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

none

ccd

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

none

ccd

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

12

Connection Issues

local -on my side- connection issues

Catalina Ávalos-Vega

Penélope Longa-Peña

-

7

1

Connection Issues

The observation started around 21:00 (UT). At the beginning of the observation a problem was encountered with the telescope computer connection, in this case the vnc connection took a long time to connect to the computer. To solve this problem the telescope computer was rebooted. This solved this problem for most of the night. The calibration images were obtained during 10-11 (UT). The shots were taken from the g and u filters of the SDSS. During the night, some standard stars were observed to know the response, limits and characteristics of the telescope. The target for the night was TOI-181, which experienced a transit starting at 03:51 (UT) and ending at 09:22 (UT). The star was visible starting at 3 am (UT), field identification took 20 minutes. Telescope pointing was correct by a few arc minutes of the target star. Imaging of the target was started from 7:00 (UT), but there were a couple of connection errors during this process so imaging was resumed regularly from 7:31 (UT). The transit was observed using the defocusing technique, which consists of defocusing the telescope to improve the reading noise of the measurements. For this purpose, the focus was changed from 127000 to 120502 defocused. Windowing was also performed to optimize the CCD readout time, with Left=0; Bottom=0; Right=1400; Top=2048. The end of the measurements occurred at 09:45 (UT). Additional calibration images were obtained from up to 7:30 a.m. (Chilean time). The telescope closed at 7:25 am (Chilean time). The nighttime characteristics were: Night temperature: -2.8 to 2.8 °C. Humidity: 45-50%. Wind speed: 1 mph during most of the night. Cloudiness: ranged from 40-66%. Summary of errors: - The calibration image type does not appear in the name preview, but the name is correctly saved in the directory afterwards. - Time was off by a few minutes from local time. - Constant vcn connection failures on the Telescope computer.

Patrick Stanley

Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan

CT telescope

3

7

Clouds

Photometry of lam pav

Patrick Stanley

Kaylee Grace, Tali Natan, Easton Honaker, Millie Dill

CT-telescope

10

0

No problems to report

Photometry of lam Pav

Patrick Stanley

Kaylee Grace, Tali Natan, Easton Honaker

CT Telescope

11

0

No problems to report

Photometry of lam Pav

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

12

0

No problems to report

Clemson blazar study.

Ken Rumstay

Npne

CCD camera

10

1.5

Other

I closed the dome for about 1.5 hours while a thunderstorm passed through Valdosta. I feared losing power. The telescope tracked very well, but consistently points north and west of target after slewing. As noted by previous observer, I could not link to NOIRLab weather sites from the Observatory computer. I could from my local computer.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

12

Connection Issues

Internet to the mountain seems to be down - I can connect to the VPN, but none of the vnc connections are working, and mountain webcams and environmental information is not loading. The weather looks to be bad anyway.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Cloudy all night-- did not open.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Exoplanet-- cloudy though so no observations made.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

12

0

No problems to report

Clemson blazar study. The night was good, no issues.

Xianming Han

none

CCD

9

1

Connection Issues

It appears the CCD computer turned itself off at some point in the last few days.

Xianming Han

none

CCD

0

10

Clouds

never opened

Xianming Han

none

CCD

0

10

Clouds

none

Xianming Han

none

CCD

0

10

Clouds

clouds and possibly rain

Xianming

none

CCD

0

10

Clouds

clouds

Xianming Han

none

CCD

3

7

Clouds

eclipsing binaries

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

2

10

Humidity

The humidity was good for the first 2 hours. Later, it went up >80% and I have to close the telescope.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

0

12

Clouds

Thick clouds are present and predicted to be around all night.

Tomomi Otani

N/A

CCD

0

8

Clouds

It was cloudy whole night.

Tomomi Otani

N/A

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

subdwarf B star time series

Martha Leake

none

Andor CCD

13

0

Connection Issues

See earlier report. On returning today, the file in question had been "flagged" and noted. I was able to disconnect and exit. The Sara Observatory page did work earlier with various weather information. I accessed some of that info through through another computer. As the night progressed, more of that SARA information ceased to be connected, for unknown reason. Thank you for any help today. It was a pleasure to have a mostly positive observing run at CTIO.

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor CCD

13

0

Connection Issues

Asteroid photometry plus globular clusters and Baade's window. Some clouds. Major pointing issue; given the object's coordinates, you must move westward and southward nearly a half field to find or see the object you expected. No access problems, however, in the file transfer, the program is stuck on one file that isn't transferring. It would be OK to cancel that one file, and use the others. How does this affect the next viewer? I will return later today to check on any progress.

Easton Honaker

Kaylee Grace, Tali Natan

CCD

14

0

No problems to report

No issues. Observed CoRoT-3b transit

Saida Caballero

Keefe Kamp

CCD

0

10

Clouds

N/A

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

11

0

No problems to report

Variable stars. A few passing clouds just after dark but they didn't interfere.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

10

Clouds

Clouds-- never opened.

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

0

12

Clouds

Cloudy.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

5

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Walter Van Hamme

Samec

CCD

9

3

Clouds

Observations of Close Binaries. ASASSN-V J134702.89-572523.8. Observing tonight also.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker

CCD

0

12

Clouds

Too cloudy to open :(

James Webb

none

CCD

0

0

Other

Couldn't use it so gave it to colleague Not sure if they observed or not.

Van Hamme

samec

ccd

1

9

Clouds

observations of near to over contact binaries

William Keel

3 cats

Andor CCD

0

12

Clouds

Scattered clouds dropped onto the mountaintop in late afternoon and hung around.

Rutherford

None

CCD

1

9

Clouds

Clouds moved in after about an hour and stayed the rest of the night.

Rutherford

None

CCD

3

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Tali Natan, Easton Honaker

Andor CCD

0

12

Clouds

too cloudy to open

Robert Berrington

none

arc

0

10

Clouds

cloudy, did not open.

Robert Berrington

none

arc

0

10

Clouds

cloudy did not open.

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor CCD

0

9

Connection Issues

Unable to connect to telescope (just camera and observatory). High clouds predicted (but looks better in latest picture). If other SARA observers can use it, please file a report for your session.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet, variable stars

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

9

Clouds

Cloudy for the entire night so never opened.

Millie Dill

Tali Natan, Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker

Andor CCD

11

0

No problems to report

The connection on VNC Viewer was great tonight! We got 10 hours of images of a pulsating hydrogen atmosphere white dwarf.

Millie Dill

Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan, Zach Savery

Andor CCD

8

0

Connection Issues

Cycled both telescope and camera computers, significantly improved response time.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan

CCD

15

0

Connection Issues

Lindsay Spence

Tomomi Otani, Julia Clark, Ellesse Lynum-Lozano

CCD

0

12

Clouds

Too many clouds and rain

Lindsay Spence

Tomomi Otani, Julia Clark, Ellesse Lynum-Lozano

CCD

0

12

Clouds

Too many clouds and rain :(

Lindsay Spence

Tomomi Otani, Julia Clark Ellessee Lynum-Lozano

CCD

4

8

Clouds

Raining and Clouds

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

5

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Yong Sheng

Dieter, Kouser, Ava, Garima

Andor griz

10

null

No problems to report

Clemson University Blazar study.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Matt Wood

NA

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Great night. Sub-arcsec seeing.

Kurtis Williams

None

Andor

11

0

No problems to report

Night scheduled for Matt Wood. Lum5 filter. Focus started at 129000, ended night at 128000. Clear weather, no problems. Did not try autoguiding

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Exoplanet, variable stars.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Hodari James

Sasha Arbogast, Tuesday Muse, Isabel Masawi, Daniela Garcia-Lara

CTIO

4

0

No problems to report

AST 200L Class, variable star

Maddy Buisch

Viv Felso, Linda Ho, Hodari James

CCD

0

6

Clouds

Too many clouds to observe.

Hodari James

Isabelle Adams, Maddie Hoffman, Elliot Arp, Viv Felso,

ARC Camera

3

0

No problems to report

We observed clusters for AST 200L.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Variable Stars.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

asteroid photometry

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

asteroid photometry

Stephen Levine

None

Andor Camera

7

0

No problems to report

Solar system astrometry and photometry.

Kurtis Williams

Cheesecake (feline trainee)

Andor

10

0

No problems to report

White dwarf photometry. Excellent weather; no problems to report.

William Keel

1 cat

Andor CCD #2

7

3

Software/Control PC Issues

Galaxies with emission-line clouds. Focus 129000. Without the guider, telescope tracking in some innocent-looking parts of the sky is so poor that 5-minute exposures trail, in changing directions so changing track rates doesn't help. Gave up early after trying targets in various directions.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8

0.5

Connection Issues

VPN connection closed twice at the beginning. The computer clock was off by over 8 seconds at the beginning of the night. I set it to my best ability, but it started drifting quickly and stabilized just under 2 seconds. Reset it and It stayed semi stable around 0.5 seconds within NIST time

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

2

0

No problems to report

No issues. Variable stars.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

5

0

No problems to report

Variable stars.

Kurtis Williams

Various felines

Andor

11

0

No problems to report

White dwarf time series. Computer clock off by 5.4s. No other problems; very nice night. Focus study at 129000 all night

Hodari-Sadiki Hubbard-James

Maddy Buisch, Sasha Arbogast, Linda Ho, Maddie Hoffman, Olivia Joyner, Isabel Masawi, Namu Xiangze

ARC

6

4

Clouds

No Connection Issues. Clouds started to move in towards the middle of the night.

Scott Joffre

Dieter Hartmann, yong Sheng

ccd

7

0

No problems to report

No issues. Pointing still slightly off but consistently so

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Zach Savery, Tali Natan

CCD

9

1

Connection Issues

Imaged pulsating white dwarf EC14012. Had some issues with VNC Viewer towards the end of the night, kept freezing to the point where I had to restart my computer and re-log into the VPN for it to connect again. Called the night shortly after that as it started to make us nervous.

Antonio Circiello

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

8

0

No problems to report

Clemson blazar study

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

8

0

Software/Control PC Issues

The slewing was very slow at the beginning for around 10 minutes, but went back normal later.

Martha A. Leake

none

Andor

1.5

8.5

Equipment Failure

Several positive fixes for the telescope weren't enough. The same non-connection exists and may be the reason that sidereal time ran backward. Using the Andor camera from the Camera telescope does not afford the choices in saving your images or setting up a proper script. I was able to open and close dome, mirror covers, and use dome automation, but did not progress to tracking an object. Sara Observatory computer and its cameras were useful.

William Keel

None

Andor CCD #2

0

9

Software/Control PC Issues

CCD can be operated from the camera window on the connector-client pane from the CCD computer, but trying to connect the OBSERVATIONS panel from the ACE control system on the telescope computer always waits a bit and says "could not connect to the camera. Please check that the camera computer is powered on and the ACE Node Service is running". This persists across restarts of the node service, connector client and ACE control. I got as far as finding a focus, then figured out why I could not identify any fields. The indicated UT, LST and RA all jump backwards (by up to 2 hours) every minute or two while the telescope is either stationary or tracking. It insists that it's December 30, 2023. Dome is closed, drive off, telescope parked at what may or may not be the meridian at +20.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

8

Equipment Failure

A problem with the CCD camera at SARA-CT. It has not been fixed.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

0

9

Equipment Failure

CCD camera would not download images-- seemed to hang on "exposing," but I don't know if it was actually exposing at all since it wouldn't download or save anything.

William Keel

none

Andor #2

0

9

Equipment Failure

CCD temperature was cycling between -10 and -50 C, while telescope computer froze repeatedly. Brian Brondel checked in did some diagnostics and power cycling, with no joy. The last straw was the readout freezing while trying to do a series of darks to see whether the temperature was really doing that or it was a sensor issue.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

8

0

No problems to report

Clemson University blazar study.

Ken Rumstay

None

CCD camera

9

0

No problems to report

Telescope tracking very good; telescope points north of target after slewing. Had to re-establish VPN connection several times. A Full Moon made for a bright sky.

Kaylee Grace

Millie Dill, Zach Savery

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

we looked at pulsating helium atmosphere white dwarf EGGR 63. realized our problem the last two nights was trying to slew from the H.A. tab instead of the R.A. tab. we are always learning! VNC had some connection issues again but it is hard to say if that's due to our less-than-ideal internet, the VPN connection, or something else.

Kaylee Grace

Zach Savery

CCD

3

0

No problems to report

Looked at a pulsating helium atmosphere white dwarf for an hour before running into the telescope limits. Bad time of year for the targets we could think up. Much better VNC connection tonight than last!

Kaylee Grace

Zach Savery

CCD

3

0

Connection Issues

Issues with VNC viewer being very slow and having to reconnect often on the telescope computer. Other than that fine night! We just did a bad job finding targets within CTIO limits.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

8

0

No problems to report

Clemson Blazar Study

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

8

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Sometimes, the fits files won't show up in the folder. This is not regular. For example, if I set up 10 exposures, I will end up with only 9 fits files in the CAM folder.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

8

0

No problems to report

Clemson Blazar study

Walter Van Hamme

Han, Samec

CCD

5

5

Clouds

Observations of ASASSN-V J070219.93-331254.1, short period Algol.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

8

8

No problems to report

Clemson blazar study.

Van Hamme

Samec, Han

CCD

8.5

0

No problems to report

Observations of ASAS J070220-3312, a short period Algol.

Van Hamme, Walter

Samec, Han

CCD

8.5

1

No problems to report

Observations of ASAS J070220-3312, short period algol.

Ken Rumstay

None

ARC CCD

5.5

4

Clouds

AGN photometry. No technical problems. Telescope points 1-2 arcminutes north of target after slewing. Increasing clouds curtailed observations.

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

blazars

Scott Joffre

yong Sheng, Dieter Hartmann

ccd

7.5

0

No problems to report

Went fine. Accidentally exposed to bright light because CT webcam image is not updating (some date in late November)

Kaylee Grace

Easton Honaker, Millie Dill, Zach Savery

CCD

5

0

No problems to report

Observed a pulsating helium atmosphere white dwarf until the W limit was reached. Did some imaging of NGC 362.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Pointing was off-- one target was missed by over three degrees, but other than that, everything worked well.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

3

0

No problems to report

Everything worked, but the pointing was a little off.

Stephen Levine

None

Imager

0

8

Other

Did not observe. Observer got the date wrong.

Stephen Levine

none

Imaging camera

2

0

No problems to report

No problems connecting. The desktop notes about how to reset the camera connection worked as advertised; had to reset at the start, and then once mid-way after an accidental double click sent an Abort. Image quality looked decent.

Kurtis Williams

none

Andor

8

0

No problems to report

White dwarf time series photometry. Everything appears to be in good working order except web browsers are unable to reach any site, including internal CTIO pages. Are computer clocks able to sync with time servers? This is important to our observations.

William Keel

1 cat

Andor CCD #2

0

10

Connection Issues

Still disconnected due to cybersecurity response

Scott Joffre

Dieter Hartmann, Yong Sheng

CCD

0

10

Other

Still cannot connect to VPN due to security concerns

F Zhu

K awilliams

Andor

0

13

Connection Issues

Fangyi Zhu

K Williams

Andor

0

13

Connection Issues

Stephen Gillam

Kaelyn Weddle & Jessica Nicholson

Andor Camera

0

12

Connection Issues

Micro variables. CTIO connection is severed due to cyber intrusion.

Todd Hillwig

None

Andor CCD

0

10

Clouds

Clouds

Scott Joffre

Dieter Hartmann, Yong Sheng

CCD

0

10

Connection Issues

Still cannot connect due to the internet shutdown in response to the recent cyber attacks.

Isaiah Cox

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD

0

11

Connection Issues

No connection

S Zari

S Johns, L Dietrich

Andor

3

1

Clouds

Asteroid observing.

Lena Dietrich

S Johns

Andor

0

3

Clouds

White Dwarf Photometry

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

2.5

8

Clouds

asteroid photometry, not a clear night, not sure if any of the data will be useful

Ken Rumstay

None

CCD camera

0

10

Clouds

Hoped to observe active galaxies. Did not open dome, due to cloudy skies. The clouds are predicted to continue through tomorrow night.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

11

Clouds

Clouds, never opened

Tomomi Otani

Julia Clark

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Hot subdwarf photometry time series. It was a great night.

Tomomi Otani

Julia Clark

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Hot subdwarf photometry time series. It was a good night.

Martha Leake

none

Arc CCD

0

12

Snow

Humidity at or near 100% most of night. At 6:33 snow (1-2 inches) on the ground. Wind recorded at SOAR 40+ m/s. Sky clearing at 5:30 am to present (6:34). Did not open, but took biases and darks earlier. Camera connections good. Will not open this morning (July 12). Date recording on this form is not correct. This observation run began July 11; a second report filed on July 12 at 6:38 am. Weather should be better later today.

Martha Leake

none

ARC CCD

0

12

Clouds

Clouds, rain, snow, fog at least until 12 midnight, then projected high humidity and clouds until 3-4 am; possible clearing forecast between 6-8. If snow, then dripping domes likely. Will file amendment in 4-5 hours. Intended to observe asteroids for light curve determination.

Judi Provencal

none

CCD

0

0

Clouds

CCD imaging

Terry Oswalt

Steve Gillam, Eden Kope, Ahnika Gee, Ryan Reynolds, Melinda Walls, Luca Guida, Krys Confeiteiro

Andor Camera

11

null

Clouds

Gyrochronology. It was very cloudy the entire time. We still observed though - this was mostly a training exercise for the students.

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann, Kourse Imam, Antonio Circiello

Andor CCD griz

12

2.5

Equipment Failure

The focus was good but went bad during the night. I am not sure if it's a gradually continuous change in the focus or it's a sudden change, causing many scientific images to be useless. This has happened multiple times to me.

Tom Rutherford

None

CCD

3

7

Clouds

Exoplanet. Clouds rolled in around midnight-- tried to out wait them, but eventually gave up and closed up.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

8

3

Clouds

asteroid photometry clouds and very poor seeing at the beginning of the night.

Michael Fauerbach

NA

CCD

0

11

Clouds

clouds never opened

Yong Sheng

Dieter Hartmann

Andor CCD griz

0

11

Clouds

Closed the telescope due to the clouds to avoid possible rains.

Fangyi Zhu

None

CTIO

9.5

4.5

Clouds

White Dwarf photometry

Tomomi Otani

Julia Clark

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Variable sdbs

Shayaan Zari

Lena Dietrich, S Johns, Dr Kurtis WIlliams

Andor

10.5

0

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry.

S Johns

Lena Dietrich, Dr Kurtis Williams

Andor

10.5

0

No problems to report

Observing program was asteroid photometry

Xianming Han

Spencer Decker

CCD

8

1

Clouds

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

Spencer Decker

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

Spencer Decker

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries