481 Field Trip

Some of Summer 21's 481 class got to meet the telescope this trip! <3

• • We switched Sleipnir to Loki and used an old version of Evora.  Loki doesn’t like having the correct time so we manually adjusted it to about the right time, not exact.  The flipping line is commented out, so that wasn’t an issue with this older version

  • Took our biases.  To take dome flats we tried a few different lighting solutions.  We tried with the dome spots (bulbs replaced) and we tried with just a desk lamp.  In the end we just used the general telescope room lights to take flats with proper counts. 

--> Quartz lamp is a future upgrade that would make dome flats more standard.

• • Evora crashed at one point when we first started pyraf (not sure if that’s connected).  Had to kill -9,  happily restarted. 

  • Focused with pyraf imexam.  

  • We took many pretty pictures, and some variable objects as well! 

  • Also looked at the moon with tiny blue telescope. 

(Group incoming will do inventory of groceries.)

Starting water level: 26 inches

Ending water level: 22 inches