Team H$T Round 2: Yma's Return (July 23-27)
Post date: Jul 25, 2015 5:16:7 AM
July 23: Day One
Water: Level at 14 inches when we arrived, so we refilled the level to 28.5 inches
Issues: All the doors inside MRO were open when we arrived
We arrived late -- Never again!
"Smells like air freshener with essence of dead rat"
Used Raid on the wasps in the living in the lock at the front gate. Raid ended up on two members' hands, so they washed their hands for 20 minutes when they arrived inside.
Used the foot pump once and it stuck. We are currently without pump running water. Dr. Laws was contacted about the problem.
Computer: Andor software quit working at 10:30pm. Restarted the program immediately and it worked fine the rest of the run.
Images: A number of flats had odd streaks that looked like satellite streaks, but would stop part way across the image. We took enough flats without streaks that this should be a problem during reducing.
Weather: Plagued by clouds early in the run, but they didn't become a problem until we began testing exposure times on science objects around 10:00pm. Clouds affected the entire rest of the night's images.
July 24: Day Two
Water: 26 inches
Issues: Realized one of the teams before us moved the ladder in the dome. We didn't move the ladder back just in case.
The lower dome door took 10-15 seconds to respond.
Fixed the foot pump! It was just a switch.
The propane tank was open and the grill was not cleaned when we opened the grill for dinner
Dome paddle stopped working early in the night
Computer: Andor software stopped around 11:35 pm we immediately restarted afterwards. Andor software stopped again at 12:06 and when we were shutting down at 4:16.
Add_Headers also stopped working as we started looking at data from a previous group's data. Found that the Add_Headers would not open without DS9 open as well. Add_Headers when restarted needed to add headers to all the previous images.
Telescope was having a difficult time tracking at 12:42. It was pointed almost directly at zenith, so this may have been the problem because tracking worked fine later.
Imexam in pyraf began giving different a different flux, peak, and sky when the same star was measured multiple times in the same image. This was also when Add_Headers was acting up, so we just restarted both programs and that seemed to fix the issue.
Images: A number of flats again had odd streaks like the previous night. Again, we took enough that this shouldn't be a problem.
Weather: Clouds, but in waves around 10:30. Clouds everywhere at midnight. Ended a bit early because of the clouds.
Other: Painted half the walk way to the deck before running out of paint.
A nap before the run is a great way to stay awake during the run.
July 25: Day Three
Water: 23.5 inches
Issues: Dome paddle still not working on start up tonight (started working in the middle of the night! yay!)
Some tracking issues
The relay has gotten louder, noticed it for the first time tonight
The next group should bring up paper towels
Computer: Some tracking issues again near zenith
Images: Nothing out of the ordinary.
Weather: Before observing, winds around 20 MPH and clouds are splotchy. Chance of rain and faster winds, so we're keeping an extra eye out. Ended up not raining or have fast winds and it cleared up beautifully later in the night (we saw the Milky Way).
Other: Found the geocache and left a prize in there.
July 26: Day Four
Water: 21.5 inches
Issues: The dew point of the weather station might be broken because it has consistently been equal to the temperature for many hours with no rain.
Ran out of liquid dish soap
Running low on spoons, so bringing extras next time might be a good idea.
Computer: Andor stopped working at 12:44.
Images: Looking A+. Flats are still picking up streaks.
Weather: Doom clouds coming over the dome around sunset, but they dissipated by 10:30pm. Blessed with near cloudless skies the rest of the night. Wind almost to the limit of closing a couple times during the night.
Other: Relay not as loud as last night.