Exercising the Spectrograph (September 10th-11th)

Post date: Sep 15, 2015 10:57:13 PM

Four of us, mostly from EvCC, mounted Kia (the spectrograph) and exercised it on a variety of stars. It did really well! A few targets didn't appear in the field of view upon slewing, but fortunately we were able to just move on to the next, and so avoided wasting time searching blindly. Our longest exposure, ten minutes, showed a small jump in dec, but overall everything worked really well. A lovely dark night.

Water: Went from almost 27" to spot-on 25". That's half an inch per person per night.

Issues: The relay activated from the paddle's move-dome-right button oscillates, so instead we used the button on the front of the relay cabinet. Air smelled fresh, we unplugged the now-empty Glade air fresheners. Installed GFCIs in the bathrooms for everyone who likes to use electricity and water at the same time. Traded control room white light bulb for a brighter one--will continue to improve lighting in that room. In the kitchen someone has obviously used the butcherblock counter to cut on; moved cutting board to plain sight.

Groceries: Just paper towels. There are still two 2.5 gallon water jugs up there, and more than enough blue jugs full of water.