SARA 

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

n/a

ARC

8

0

Other

EB program, T CrB monitor and ASASSN 24fw. I noticed that first half of night following things from E to W that the dome would lag tele by almost 40 degrees and there was a slight gradient across the field (no moon). I tried homing the dome and turning auto dome off/on and reset but it still stayed about 33 deg separate. This gradient seemed less or gone when I completely moved to a newly rising object far E for the rest of the night and was only 6 degrees separation of dome/tele, so is this gradient some vignetting???

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

8

1

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 504700, guider focus 32550. Weird event: started 60m exposure. Looked in later, noticed that the wrong filter was in place. On closer inspection, it had been running shorter exposures in the filter sequence in the sequence tab (though I clicked on the ACE Simple button). Restarted exposure - then countdown clock was running at something like 10x clock speed. I unchecked all lines in the sequence tab and things returned to normal.

Emily Cunningham

Texas A&M University - Commerce

None

-

11

0

No problems to report

NA

Aarran Shaw

Butler

N/A

CCD

7.5

0

No problems to report

Great night, my first good night at KP in a while. Observed an intermediate polar.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

10.5

0.3

Other

AGN variability program. Telescope pointing and tracking very good. When I started to take evening flat field frames I discovered that light was not reaching the CCD camera. Following Keefe Kamp's (email message of February 16th) I suspected that the spectrograph arm was blocking the beam. Recycling power to the spectrograph remedied the problem.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

0

10

Humidity

High humidity, rain and snow threat for night.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

0

10

Clouds

Heavy cloud cover all night.

Gary Henson

ETSU

none

CCD & Spectrograph

0

10

Clouds

Not scheduled for the night, but tracking weather for the week and night would be lost to clouds anyway.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

8

2

Clouds

No problems to report, some intermediate cirrus clouds with bright moon first couple hours then mostly clear skies.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

na

ARC

10

0

No problems to report

Lots of high thin clouds all night with an hour here and there mostly clear, but was still able to get a couple eclipses in.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

9.5

0

No problems to report

H II regions. Focus 500500, guider focus 32800. Seeing was good, so focus needed frequent tweaking to take advantage. Still see vignetting on W side; did an exI\posure sequence with dome tracking off as a test.

James

Agnes Scott

Roper

ARC Camera

0

8

Equipment Failure

ARC camera failure

Matt Wood

ETAMU

NA

CCD

13

0

Equipment Failure

Time series of CVs. Thank you to Kurtis Williams for reminding me the procedure for getting the auto guider working, and to Bill Keel for posting the starting focus value of ~31000 for focus for that. Problem: The x-stage does not seem to be moving at all. Every position gives the same field. I was fortunate to have a star in the position it is at, but pointed away from the galactic plane it could be an issue. Overall an excellent night.

Matt Wood

ETAMU

NA

CCD

13

0

No problems to report

Time series obs of CVs. Seeing 1" most of the night. Focus 488300-49100. CCD only cooling to -33C. Peter checked in early night and noted he'll pump it down again on Thursday.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

Norlund

Leach CCD

0

12

Connection Issues

Connection issues may have resulted from recent internet problems at VSU. Not expected as other computers nearby able to connect. Radmin messages noted TPI/IP errors or connectivity failure. No one responded to available telescope. Weather fine.

William Keel

University of Alabama

1 cat.

ARC CCD

8

3

Clouds

AGN emission clouds. Focus 489000 (but it slid around a lot, once messing up a 60m exposure). Had to re-initialize guider focus; afterward good value is 31250. Guider x-stage may not be moving. Tried short darks during night and short light exposures with mirror cover closed, trying to track down apparent stray light.

Jadia Ewing

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Stephen Gillam

0.9 meter

7

0

Other

No big problems to report. Just wanted to note that counts for bias level seemed to come from interference with shutters closed. Was not sure why. Other than that observing was good.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

na

ARC

0

11

Humidity

Never opened due to high humidity and threat of snow. Connected earlier to check after internet outage that was reported for firewall updates and it seemed fine to the telescope (didn't check cam pc).

Stephen Gillam

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

TJ Matney

SARA South 0.9m

9.75

0

No problems to report

N/A

Stephen Gillam

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach

TJ Matney, Jadia Ewing

SARA North 0.9m

7

.5

Wind

MaxIm DL stopped responding at 2030 local time. Restarted program. Closed dome at 220 local time due to sustained high wind.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

None

Leach camera

1

9

Clouds

Microvariables.

Hodari James

Agnes Scott

AST 200L Students

ARC Camera

5

0

No problems to report

AST 200L Training

William Keel

University of Alabama

4 cats

ARC CCD

5

6

Clouds

AGN-ionized clouds; did extra flats and targets at a wide dec range to check recent possible dome issues. Focus 481600, guider focus 0. I saw a recurrence of the weird QSI multi-image readout problem (where the same star would show up multiple times on the same column, usually cured by repeating the exposure).

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

No problems, although I could never get a good focus. M31, variable star.

Robert Berrington

Ball State University

none

arc

10.5

0

No problems to report

Connection was slow at the beginning of the night, and terminated my connection a few times, but did not affect the observations.

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

Leach BVRI

12

0

No problems to report

Clemson University transients study.

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

CCD BVRI

0

12

Equipment Failure

The dome is not communicating, can't open the dome.

Berrington

Ball State University

none

arc

0

12

Other

Mountain was closed due to dust and smoke warning.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

0

11

Clouds

Very dusty atmosphere reported by WIYN and 4M LTO's for entire night. Closed right after getting brief flats.

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

CCD BVRI

12

0

No problems to report

Clemson transients study.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

9

0

No problems to report

No Problems, H-alpha monitoring M31 and Massive Star Spectra

William Keel

University of Alabama

not even time for cats

ARC CCD

1

11

Clouds

Clouds thickened fast. Focus 533000, guider focus 32250.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

na

ARC

12

0

No problems to report

EB program BVR filters.

Billy Quarles

East Texas A&M University

None

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Observed TESS eclipsing binaries

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Clemson blazar and transient study.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Millie Dill, Zach Savery

Andor CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Observed a pulsating white dwarf. No problems to report.

Millie Dill

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace and Zachary Savery

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Millie Dill, Zach Savery

Andor CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Observed a pulsating white dwarf! No problems to report.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

na

ARC

2.5

8

Clouds

EB program. No probs, though focus seemed really high from last month.

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

ccd

9

2

Software/Control PC Issues

eclipsing binaries. The CCD computer rebooted itself for no apparent reasons.

James Webb

Florida International University

none

CCD

0

8

Connection Issues

Blazars variability Logged into camera and telescope computer early to take bias images. Then the ACE program on the telescope control computer failed to respond to commands. I could use other programs, but ACE refused to respond to any commands. Worked for a hour or so before giving up. I am using an old computer so it could have been communication issues with my PC and RADMIN. Tried to log into the SARA North computer with my office computer this morning and it will not respond. Jim

Martha Leake

Valdosta State University

Marissa Norlund and Romeo Montague

ARC CCD

12

0.5

Other

Students observed various objects; I observed asteroids and comets. East of the pier, we noted a trailing, probably not the same issue as the west (no problems there, and I reached 2.5 HA without problem; the short streak was similar to the old bounce that was observed after slewing and beginning too soon after. It was noticeable when beginning observations at the new location. Weather great, no information suggesting wind gusts.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

12

1

Clouds

AGN variability program. The KPNO 4-m operator reported domes closed at start of night, due to threatening clouds. Got the OK to open after about an hour. The telescope tracking and pointing were good, but had some trouble identifying an optimum focus. At one point, advancing the focus setting by a few thousand didn't seem to result in any change in the image quality (FWHM).

Michael Fauerbach

FGCU

NA

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry it was a good night.

Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

ARC Camera

11

1

No problems to report

Photometric observations of contact binaries, ASASSN-V J011224.78+324555.3 and ASASSN-V J070545.44+834129.8.

Millie D.

University of Delaware and MCAO

Kaylee G., Zachary S.

CCD

0

9

Clouds

Observing pulsating white dwarf HL Tau 76. Thick cloud coverage -- reported to last the rest of the night. Did not attempt to open dome due to this.

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Student teaching, transient monitoring

Billy Quarles

East Texas A&M University

None

Leach Camera

12

0

No problems to report

Eclipsing binaries. Excellent night, no problems to report.

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

CCD

11

1

Other

The tracking went bad sometimes and it was unpredictable. The time lost due this issue.

Hodari James

Agnes Scott College

Students

Arc Camera

4-5 hours

4 hours

Software/Control PC Issues

Observing variability of active K Dwarfs. Issues with the telescope Focus. Could not get it focused after the first hour.

Todd R Vaccaro

Ball State University

Bob and Wyatt

ARC

12

.2

Software/Control PC Issues

Eclipsing binaries. Early on, within the first hour or so of tracking on a target tracking was lost and auto dome switched off, lost a few data points in eclipse egress. No other problems except focusing issues. Also, the first attempt to move the telescope continues to hang and needs to be told twice.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

11

0

No problems to report

Spectroscopy of Massive Stars & Photometry of Exoplanet Light Curves, excellent night all-around

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

9

ARC CCD BRIV

9

0

No problems to report

Teaching students for optical observing experience.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Thomas Matney

ARC Camera

6

0

Humidity

Micro Variables

Jadia Ewing

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Stephen Gillam

SARA North 0.9-m Telescope

9

0

Other

A bit of trailing issues. Tends to trail to the right and had to correct for trailing. Other than this, it was good.

Aarran Shaw

Butler University

N/A

Leach camera

10

0

No problems to report

CV candidates. Excellent night, no problems to report.

William Keel

Unievrsity of Alabama

3 cats

AFRC CCD

6

0

No problems to report

(2nd half of night after ASC observers, to whom I apologize for miscopying my own schedule entry) AGN ionized clouds. Focus 318000, guider focus 32050.

Oralyn

Agnes Scott College

Dr. James

Kitt Peak Telescope

4

0

No problems to report

Observing Program: ASC PHY420

Samuel Quinutolo

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Jadia Ewinf

2-1 Meter

9

2

Software/Control PC Issues

I am wrapping up and then started getting pop ups for anti virus software on the CCD Computer and the Telescope computer, I already wrote a report, but I have not seen this before and wanted to report this ASAP as I do not want to leave with potentially something harmful happening.

Samuel Quinutolo

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Jadia Ewing

2-1 Meter

9

2

No problems to report

Dome Shutter view camera is still down, we used low light exposures to ensure that the dome was closed after observation and stowed the telescope.

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

11.5

0

No problems to report

AGN-ionized clouds. Focus 325500, guider focus -600. (Lost one hour to feline exposure interference; I had forgotten that touching any key during an exposure will abort it, so stacking other windows on top may be wise). Guider focus was not changing with JOG buttons, even after re-initializing (which left it at focus 32050).

Jadia Ewing

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Samuel Quinutolo, Stephen Gillam

2.1 meter

9

0

Other

Camera not connecting/could not connect to the observatory. Focusing a bit off. The focus would jump at about a factor of 10. Other than that, smooth observing.

Matt Wood

A&M-Commerce

None

CCD

0

All

Clouds

Clouds expected until midnight, which was after my primary target would have set, so I offered up the night, but no takers.

Xianming Han

Butler University

Basra, Erickson, Nixon, McDonough

ccd

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Xianming Han

Butler University

Basra, Erickson, Nixon, McDonough

ccd

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Xianming Han

Butler University

Basra, Erickson, Nixon, McDonough

ccd

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Xianming Han

Butler University

Basra, Erickson, Nixon, McDonough

CCD

11

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

None

CCD

7.5

0

No problems to report

Hot subdwarf photometry time series

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

None

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Hot subdwarf photometry time series

Aarran Shaw

Butler

None

Leach Camera

10

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Perfect night! Observed CVs and CV candidates. Issue on telescope PC: Keyboard input wasn't working properly - I couldn't type numbers or capital letters. Very weird. Had to bring up the virtual keyboard on the PC. Could be issue with my Macbook (though everything worked fine on the camera PC) but I thought I'd report it.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Comet and Massive Star Spectra, M31 H-alpha nova monitoring. Spectra guiding worked very well, did have brief instance of ACE program losing communication with control card (a bit worrisome, it's getting OLD)

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

7.5

0

No problems to report

Spectra of Comet Atlas, Massive Binary, M31 Nova monitoring

Michael Fauerbach

FGCU

NA

CCD

7

1

Clouds

asteroid photometry. Full Moon and high clouds were not ideal, but no technical issues to report.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

11

Connection Issues

Connected during the day to get flats, etc. CCD computer dropped off-line and could not connect to it or the observatory computer after that. No issues connecting to the telescope computer though-- it worked fine except that the CCD would not open through it either.

Aarran Shaw

Butler

None

Leach Camera

0

All

Software/Control PC Issues

Matt Wood

A&M Commerce

None

CCD

3

9

Clouds

Clouds at beginning of night. In middle of night Camera computer rebooted itself with Virus Install as best as I can tell. This terminated the data collection. I couldn't find the restart instructions on either computer desktop. I restarted ACE on SARATEL, but when I tried to start the camera it had a failure mode. It's late enough in the night that I decided to give up.

Matt Wood

A&M Commerce

None

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Time series photometry of cataclysmic variables. Had a difficult time with getting a good focus. Ended at 338400 later in night through IR Block filter.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

11

0

No problems to report

M31, Exoplanet. No problems.

William Keel

University of Alabama

4 cats

ARC CCD

10

0

No problems to report

AGN extended clouds. Focus 333000, guider focus 4000. Guide camera did some weirdness at the start of the night (multiple images, not cooling) but settled down and ran fine for ~6 hours (2 disconnections - if you catch it right away and reconnect, guiding can resume). Peter connected, changed Windows settings in device manager to not power down USB ports to save power.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

0

12

Clouds

I was unable to observe; I offered the night to anyone who could use it, but had no takers. That turns out to have been a moot point; apparently domes on the mountain were closed all night due to "threatening clouds".

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

ARC CCD

8.5

1.5

Software/Control PC Issues

AGN extended ionized clouds. Focus 333500, guider focus 4000. Tonight featured an epic duel with the autoguider. Long email is being sent to Gary and Peter with details. Guider settings with ARC camera; X rate +1, Y rate +1, angle=0.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

10.5

0

No problems to report

AGN variability. Good night, though seeing was not the best. The telescope systematically points slightly east of target after slewing. Also, on a few occasions an exposure would self-abort soon after starting. Was able to restart each time.

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

ccd

10

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Mariel Lares-Martiz

ERAU

Caballero-Nieves

Spectrograph

2

7

Other

Maxim DL crashed while trying to operate the spectrograph. Seemed to work fine when relaunched. Could not get the stars to focus on the fiber plate. The Fiber focus maxed out at 2491, but the stars were still donuts. We could not find the fiber (due to not trying in the early evening) so decided to close for the night. Did not seem to be at the same coordinates in the spectrograph guide book.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/a

ARC CCD

9

0

No problems to report

EB program and T CrB monitor

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

8

Humidity

Humidity-- never opened.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

4

5

Humidity

The night started off clear but humidity began to rise so closed up around midnight.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

9

Clouds

Clouds and Humidity-- never opened.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/a

Arc CCD

5

6

Clouds

Eclipsing binary. Tele PC still has a desktop resolution issue (no time to reboot machine to see if that fixes). Focus is hard to figure out, though clouds and humidity were a problem second half of the night (mnt closed b/c of humidity in the end).

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC ccd

8.5

1.5

Humidity

Eclipsing binary star, T CrB monitor B and V. Always seems like the first attempt to move the tele doesn't work, have to stop it and try GO again. CCD pc connection quit on my RADMIN window 3 or 4 times, tele maybe once. The Tele pc display through RADMIN was very large and no setting in RADMIN or the display resolutions on tele pc made a difference, but no time to reboot machine, so I suffered the scrolling bars to see all of ACE. Tracking was not very good in the last hour or so at HA 4+ and before 2 airmasses. Focus may not be the best as I was at 520,000 and over 3" seeing seemingly all night till reopening and pulling it back a few thousand to get nearly 2" for the rest of the night.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Observations and analyses of short period Algols. ASASSN-V J223921. (Note: for some reason the entire image of the SARA observatory was not visible in Windows 10 and Windows 7 could not login in.)

Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

7

4

Equipment Failure

I shut down since the camera stopped taking images. I accidentally put in 2500 seconds for B and had to cancel and abort to change to the correct value and the camera stopped taking images. I forgot how to reset myself. Please reset for tomorrow. I took flats for myself and another observer.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CCD

9

0.5

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry for light curve and M31. Conditions were great, no storms as hinted by KPNO. Used JPL Horizons and SkyView Virtual Observatory to spot the asteroid. Pointing still west and south of center. Left the telescope in zenith park. Are the other stow positions still recommended? Thanks.

Zach Savery

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Photometric time series observations of G29-38 taken throughout the night. The dark frame counts are very similar to the bias frame ones.

Zach Savery

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Please ignore the previous 9/3 report, I messed up the date for the 9/2 observing. Photometric time series observations of G29-38 taken throughout the night. The dark frame counts seem to be at the same level as those for the bias frames.

Zach Savery

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

CCD

9

1

Clouds

Cloudy during the first hour that target was observable. Telescope computer display was weirdly zoomed in. Photometric time series observations taken of G29-38 throughout the whole night. Kaylee fixed the telescope computer display issue.

Zach Savery

University of Delaware/MCAO

Kaylee Grace, Millie Dill

CCD

9

1

Clouds

Cloudy during the first hour that object was observable. Telescope computer was displaying weird, very zoomed in. Photometric time series observations of G29-38 taken throughout the whole night. Kaylee fixed the display issue with the telescope computer.

William Keel

University of Alabama

DragonCon Live Astronomy

ARC CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Outreach targets. Focus 506400, guide focus 3800. Dark current closer to std value. Guider disconnected when turned off after first target and would not reconnect later (didn't much want to do a ground-up system restart in front of an audience). 5m exposure tracked OK over most of sky. VNC, RAdmin both show only part of telescope computer display.

William Keel

University of Alabama

DragonCon Space Track

AFC CCD

0

5

Clouds

Clouds never quite broke up enough during our half-night.

William

University of Alabama

DragonCon Space Track

ARC CCD

0.5

3

Clouds

Outreach. Clouds allowed a quick set of flats but that was all. The dark current is about 80 ADU/hour rather than the usual ~2, while the Leach CCD connector client panel says -2 C and the ACE control panel says -89. That looks more like the higher temperature, or at least not what's usual around -90.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Easton Honaker, Tali Natan, Millie Dill

N/A

0

8

Clouds

Cloudy with a chance of rain. Not surprising since it was the last scheduled night before shutdown!

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

6

1

No problems to report

No problems although clouds rolled in about an hour before morning twilight.

Kurtis Williams

TAMU-C

none

ARC camera

0

7

Clouds

Clouds shut mountain for entire night.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

7

Clouds

Never opened due to clouds.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

7

Clouds

Clouds and dust.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

7

Clouds

Dust and clouds-- did not open.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Easton Honaker, Millie Dill, Tali Natan, Ben Mayhew, Zach Savery

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Observed a hot Helium atmosphere WD. The filter wheel is quite dusty (at least the Bessel V that we used) and a cleaning of it the next time someone's at KP would be much appreciated. No issues other than that!

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CCD

8.3

0

No problems to report

Observed asteroid Heard and M57. Weather clear without smoke or dust. Noted pointing still to west slightly, but was able to find the subject in a busy field. According to WIYN data, seeing was 1 arc second, at least in second half. Used SkyView VIrtual Observatory and JPL Horizons Web to find and track asteroid.

William

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

7

0.5

Equipment Failure

AGN with extended emission clouds. Focus 507000, guide focus 0. Guide camera disconnected soon after local midnight and I never did get it to reconnect with MaxIm. (I did not try the power cycling that has sometimes been needed before, because that also warms up the CCD and takes ~1 hour out of the night)

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

None

CCD

6

2

Clouds

Hot Subdwarf photometry time series. No issue occurred.

Oswalt

ERAU

Boyer, Reynolds, Curtis, McGinley

Andor Camera

5

5

Clouds

Smoke or dust contributed to problems.

Sherman Losey

TAMUC

Fardowsa Abdulle, Kurtis Williams

ARC Camera

6

0

No problems to report

White Dwarf photometry Good weather and no problems.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC CCD

8

0

No problems to report

No real problems, but lost focus at end and never seemed to recover as good as it was. Best focus was around 2", seeing should've been at least that good. Eclipse timing in B and V with some early data on recurring nova T CrB pre outburst.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Leah Shafer, Hunter Wood

ARC CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Finished a little early...morning drive down to Tucson for our flight out.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Hunter Wood, Leah Shafer

ARC CCD

8

0

Software/Control PC Issues

Focus was still at non-physically high values. Ran to zero and reset. No focus problems after that.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Leah Shafer, Hunter Wood

ARC CCD

8

0

Software/Control PC Issues

The focus values ran away positive, eventually stopping at an encoder reading of 1269999. However, the actual telescope focus did not appear to change at all. Since the focus was good and we did not know what would happen if we attempted to change it, we did not do so.

Todd Hillwig

Valparaiso University

Hunter Wood, Leah Shafer

ARC CCD

10

0

No problems to report

On site observing. No issues.

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

8.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary. The network for Kitt Peak is perfect today.

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

8

0.5

Connection Issues

eclipsing binary. The Internet connection to both telescope and CCD computers are slow and keeps disconnecting. This did not happen on the previous day.

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

CCD

8.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Kent Montgomery

A&M-Commerce

Caitlin Bell, Eloise Bradicich

CCD

8

0

No problems to report

No problems

Kent Montgomery

A&M-Commerce

Caitlin Bell, Eloise Bradicich

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Some thin clouds early but cleared up nicely

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Everything worked well-- a few high cirrus clouds passed by this morning, but didn't cause any issues.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

Robert Berrington

ARC CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Tested the spectrograph, noted that the instructions show a figure of the FLI CCD at 10 deg C and large dark current obscurred long exposures of faint spectra, so set to -40 and seemed to fix. Initially moving the telescope required it to be sent to the target twice before it would move. EB program for eclipse timings and light curves with spectra for velocities and detecting certain elements.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

8

0

No problems to report

Another excellent night with all equipment working well.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan, Zach Savery

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Observed a pulsating white dwarf. Stunning night!

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

8

0

No problems to report

All working fine tonight, weather cleared just after sunset.

Kurtis Williams

TAMU-C

none

ARC

2.5

5

Clouds

White dwarf time series photometry. Nice start to night until clouds rolled in (forecast was for mostly clear skies, but storms formed over the mountains)

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD imager

9.5

0

No problems to report

AGN variability program. The telescope tracking was very good. When slewing to a new object, the telescope points slightly northwest of target. Optimum focus (V filter) = 787000 at an ambient temperature of 55 Fahrenheit.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Tali Natan, Zach Savery

CCD

8

1

Clouds

Observed a pulsating WD. Too cloudy at the beginning of the night, but once it cleared up about an hour or two in we were good for the rest of the night!

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Zach Savery

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

We observed a pulsating WD for the night.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware

Millie Dill, Easton Honaker, Zach Savery

CCD0

10

0

Software/Control PC Issues

We observed a pulsating WD for the night. The filter wheel could use a cleaning. At one point the camera computer said it was restarting and then turned off. It had to be cycled to come back on but after that, we had no issues.

Jim Webb

FIU

none

CCD

2

5

Connection Issues

Blazar microvariablity local network a little flakey, worried about losing connection before closing dome.

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

none

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Photometry time series. It was a great night.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Giant ionized clouds around AGN. Focus 783000, guider focus 25000.

Aarran Shaw

Butler University

None

Leach Camera

5

3

Other

Delayed opening due to WIYN weather report saying there was dust/smoke. Managed to open at 0630 UT, observed one known intermediate polar and another suspected intermediate polar. Once open, conditions were good!

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

ccd

8

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Xianming Han

Butler Univ

none

ccd

8

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries

Xianming Han

Butler University

none

ccd

7.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binary

Matt Wood

A&M Commerce

NA

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Time series AM CVn and DQ Her. No problems. Great night.

Matt Wood

A&M Commerce

NA

CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Good night. Sub arc sec seeing with IR Block filter. Focus 781316 with outside temp 15 C

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Another excellent night for weather and equipment all working fine.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Excellent clear night, telescope and all instruments working fine.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Siriah Eaglin, Sally Kingan

ARC Camere

7

3

Software/Control PC Issues

Microvariables. Two hours from sunrise the camera client failed. The camera did not download. I closed and restarted the camera client. I was able to take a series of images without incident. Then the temperature readout flipped to -1000. The camera was still reading out and the background appeared normal so the camera had not warmed up. Then the filter wheel #1 started moving on its own. I reinitialized #1 wheel and it worked for a few minutes. Then the ACE client failed and the dome control failed. I closed and restarted the ACE telescope control and everything worked again. I also closed and restarted the Leach Camera client on the camera computer. The dome interface reported that it was ajar though I had not tried to close it. I then closed the dome and it appeared to work correctly. All the clients are functioning again.

Gillam

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Universty

Barnier, Eaglin

ARC Camera

9

0

Clouds

Microvariables. Scattered clouds from 11-12 MST. Poor RA tracking in last half of observation. focus = 765382.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CD

12

0

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry and Eagle Nebula. All worked well and weather was good, too. Pointing was very good.

William Keel

University of Alabama

4 cats

ARC CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Ionized clouds around AGN. Focus 765000. Guide focus 0; found bad values in guider speed/angle; reset to xspeed +1, yspeed +1, angle=0.

Gary D Henson

Clouds

Poor Weather all night, never opened.

Gary D Henson

Clouds

Poor Weather all night, never opened

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD

0

9

Clouds

Poor Weather all night, never opened.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

4

0

No problems to report

Early morning-- no real issues, but the telescope drifts N/S a little when pointing around an elevation of 45 degrees (or lower) toward the west.

Nayra Rodriguez

IAC

Alejandra Goded (IAC)

ARC CCD

4.5

0

No problems to report

Student research projects on exoplanet transit and SN follow-up, 2nd half night. Focus 720464.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC

0

12

Other

Schedule conflicts on my end, and no responses from others to observe. Humidity may have been too high, according to present KPNO weather report; cloudy at present (1:45 pm Sunday, Mar. 17). Did not observe night of Mar. 16, 2024.

Millie Dill

University of Delaware

Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker, Zach Savery

Andor CCD

7.5

0

Other

V filter on wheel one needs to be cleaned. It's splotchy and dusty, so flats aren't great.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

10

1

Clouds

AGN-ionized clouds around galaxies. Focus 721000, guider focus 27250.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

10

0

No problems to report

EB's.

William Keel

University of Alabama

No time for any cats

ARC CCD

0

11

Humidity

KPNO weather status continues to list humidity, threatening clouds, and snow. I can take a hint.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

3

0.5

Humidity

No issues-- humidity shot up rapidly just before twilight began so closed up.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

11

0

No problems to report

Observations of near contact binaries. ASASSN-V J070545.44+834129.8 and second binary to round out the night. All went well.

Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

0

10

Other

I am not sure if it was from the Texas Fires but I could not get images. I observe tomorrow also.

Millie Dill

University of Delaware

Kaylee Grace, Easton Honaker

Andor CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Observed white dwarf EC14012-1446.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

0

12

Clouds

EB's. Threatening clouds, never opened.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

8

Clouds

Clouds-- never opened.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

Gary Henson

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

Variable stars, open cluster

Maddy Buisch

Agnes Scott College

Elliot Arp, Linda Ho, Isabelle Adams, Isabel Masawi, Hodari James

CCD

2

0

No problems to report

Observed Orion nebula and Oyster nebula. First time taking images of sky objects for most of our observers. Note: the dome shutter takes a long time to open and close.

Terry Oswalt

ERAU

n/a

CCD

0

12

Clouds

Never opened dome, due to clouds, wind, humidity, snow and rain on mountain.

Alejandra Goded

Instituto Astrofísico de Canarias

Nayra Rodríguez

ARC CCD

6

0

No problems to report

Student research projects on exoplanet transit, 2nd half night.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CCD

0

0

Other

Submitted KP report with the current date that morning, 2/18. After Ken's email, I realized that I should have changed the date to enter the starting date, 2/17/2024. Other comments filed are OK.

Ken Rumstay

VSU (Emeritus)

None

CCD camera

10.5

0

No problems to report

AGN photometric observations. No equipment problems; bright sky (gibbous Moon) and thin cirrus all night.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC CCD

10

0

No problems to report

Asteroid photometry and NGC 4216. No problems with any system. A joy to observe again.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

1

0.5

Equipment Failure

Logged on this morning to check the status of the telescope-- no one was using it so I logged on for a couple of morning targets-- first set of images were fine, but when I moved to the second target they came out looking like biases. Changed filters and changed pointing to verify, but they came out the same way.

Robert Berrington

Ball State Univeristy

none

arc

0

10

Connection Issues

Upon first attempt to connect to the machines, none were responding. It was later determined that the observatory had seen a significant power outage. The machines were subsequently turned on, and the CCD cooling was reinstated. It took the remainder of the evening for the CCD to cool to the point where it would be useful so I did not open.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

0

12

Snow

Snowed in, never opened.

Kaylee Grace

UDel/MCAO

Tali Natan, Easton Honaker, Millie Dill

Spectrograph

0

12

Equipment Failure

Too humid to open and bad weather. Spectrograph wouldn't work, ThAr lamp wouldn't produce images well and the buttons to manually move it around were greyed out, pointing to a likely issue.

William Keel

University of Alabama

None

ARC CCD

0

12

Clouds

KPNO status lists high humidity, dripping domes, threatening clouds, rain, snow, ice on domes, fog, and dangerous conditions.

Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

0

12

Clouds

Heavy clouds tonight. Observations were to continue from last night.

Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

12

0

No problems to report

Observations of 2 eclipsing binaries. ASASSN-V J051407.35+010227.4 a short period Algol and GSC 4968 0751, WUma System.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Tali Natan, Easton Honaker

Spectrograph

10

0

No problems to report

Took spectra of two massive stars. We had to reset the Spectrograph at the beginning of the night because it wasn't connecting correctly but we had no issues after that.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

0

12

Clouds

Eb's, but high clouds all night with bright moon, so never opened.

Tomomi Otani

ERAU

Erin Abraham, Adrian Moraga

CCD

1

7

Humidity

Public Outreach Focus was off. We only spent one hour before we closed the dome due to high humidity so we could not find the right focus.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

0

8

Humidity

High humidity-- never opened.

Gary Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

0

9

Humidity

High Humidity, threatening clouds/rain, Never Opened.

Yong Sheng

Clemson University

Dieter Hartmann

Andor griz

0

11

Humidity

Very cloudy and humidity was too high to open the dome.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

Spectrograph & CCD

0

9

Humidity

High Humidity, threatening clouds/rain, Never Opened.

Martha A. Leake

Valdosta State University

none

ARC

0

12

Clouds

Asteroid photometry. Cloudy, with showers likely later. 100% cloud cover falling to 90, from 10-11, and 70-60% from 1-3. Never opened. Operations and set up had no problems.

Kaylee Grace

University of Delaware/MCAO

Tali Natan, Patrick Stanley, Millie Dill, Zach Savery

Spectrograph

8

0

No problems to report

First time attempting the use the spectrograph. Couldn't line up our objects on the fiber, likely due to our own inexperience. Clear night, but no data taken other than some calibration frames.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

0

12

Clouds

Too cloudy to open.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

ARC CCD

11

0

No problems to report

AGN-ionized clouds. At start, focus readout was 1194394 and drifting upward (out of range so could not do focus jogs). Rezeroed focus position and encoder, and focus was 463000. Guider focus close to 0.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

n/a

ARC

12.5

0

No problems to report

eclipsing binaries in BVR. Some high thin clouds during the middle of the night for couple hours, but not too bad.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Divyeshwari Vansadia

ARC Camere

12

0

No problems to report

Micro-variables in open clusters. The weather stations available (WIYN 2.1-m etc.) don't work reliably. The SARA 0.9-m weather station doesn't work at all.

Stephen Gillam

ERAU

Divyeshwari Vansadia

ARC Camera

4

6

Snow

Micro-variables in open clusters. Blowing snow, fog, high humidity. The weather stations available (WIYN 2.1-m etc.) don't work reliably. The SARA 0.9-m weather station doesn't work at all.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

n/a

ARC

4

7

Clouds

Eclipsing binary program. Radmin crashed several times on me and at one point I couldn't reach either the tele or the ccd machines and at the same time the KP weather pages and all sky camera pages were unreachable as well for about 15 minutes. Clouds were the primary loss of time.

Todd Vaccaro

Ball State University

N/A

ARC

10

2

Clouds

Eclipsing binaries. clouds shut mnt down for about an hour late in the evening, but opened back up for the last couple hours. First bias was odd looking with dark vertical band in middle of frame (posted image on Discord), but the rest looked fine. On a previous night I took long/short flats and attempted to make a bad pixel map since there are a couple columns that appear bad, but they didn't come out in my maps, so maybe someone else could try and share? I have stellar comps that run into them over the course of the night as things meander.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

Rutherford

CCD & Spectrograph

9

0

No problems to report

Massive Star Spectroscopy and M31 H-a monitoring

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

6

0

No problems to report

M31, variable stars

Gary D Henson

ETSU

none

spectrograph

0

9

Clouds

Thick cirrus clouds moved in around twilight, expected to stay most of night.

Tom Rutherford

ETSU

None

CCD

7

0

No problems to report

No Problems. M31, variable stars.

Gary D Henson

ETSU

none

Spectrograph

7

4

Humidity

Spectroscopy of Massive Stars - ACE didn't need night for engineering, checked out all systems after recent ccd glitch and overall observatory operation - Good

Terry Oswalt

ERAU

n/a

Leach CCD

0

14

Clouds

Gyrochronology project. Did not open dome due to threatening clouds. No other telescopes on the mountain opened either.

Walter Van Hamme

FIU

Samec

CCD

0

10

Clouds

There were clouds but since the camera was just reopened, the focus could have been very far off.