Category: Observation Log

Weather Conditions:

• Humidity: 13-18%
• Wind: 0-13 mph avg winds
• Skies: clear
• Lowest temp: 41 deg F,  5 deg C

Errors/Issues:

• Had to lower voltage for Rx4 X-Pol to minimum and still did not achieve close to desired IF/LO value. Power level started at normal levels and decreased during first track to ~-15 dB, same as last night of observations. Then it started fluctuating again, going up to -9 dB and back down to normal values in between first and second tracks. Fluctuations of IQ power continued. continued

Executed Runs (10 GHz):

• 10 min Jupiter multi-source track processed as primary calibrator
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 15 min 0319+415 FLANK IM target calibrator track
• 45 min FLANK IM target repeated no-ccd
• 15 min 0319+415 FLANK IM target calibrator track

-Casandra, Adam

Weather Conditions:

• Humidity: 15-24%
• Wind: 0-7 mph avg winds
• Skies: clear
• Lowest temp: 47 deg F, 8.3 deg C

Errors/Issues:

• PTC socket error on first attempt to slew the telescope. Upon investigation, PTC showed icon indicating it’s not connected to the LAN. Upon restarting PTC, icon did not return and telescope slewed properly.
• During first track, Rx4 X-Pol power dropped to about -15 dB, then to about -16 dB. It continued to fluctuate throughout the night, eventually dropping below -20 dB. However, there was no apparent corresponding drop in Y-Pol power for Rx4, which would indicate that the receiver is still cold.
• On the ninth track, a_boss started returning ptc errors and track stopped. Reboots of ACU and PTC were required to get it running again. It worked for a few minutes and the gave more ptc errors. At this point we called it a night so that more troubleshooting can be done on telescope drive system.

Executed Runs:

• 40 min Jupiter offset track for alignment
• 10 min Jupiter multi-source track processed as primary calibrator
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track (incomplete due to drive errors)
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track (incomplete due to drive errors)

-Casandra, Adam

Weather Conditions:

• Humidity: 73-81%
• Wind: 0-6 mph avg winds
• Skies: cloudy-clear
• Lowest temp: 38 deg F, 3.3 deg C

Errors/Issues:

• Rx4 IFLO module was changed today by Peter. Servos did not get Rx4 X-Pol IFLO values to target. Railing the voltage by hand still did not produce close to desired IF/LO values. Power looked okay at first, then during the first track it dropped to ~-28 dB and IF/LO values changed dramatically.  After first track, ran servos on just Rx4 X-Pol to try and fix it. It worked for a little while and then power dropped again, to ~-16 dB. Rx5 X-Pol power also dropped to about -15 dB, but it improved later in the night.
• Rx1 X-Pol power looked good after servos but I channel power went up to ~-9 dB during first track
• Jupiter was only 5 degrees away from the moon tonight. This could have been the cause of some of the power issues, but the worst issues were observed only on X-Pol, and some issues persisted even after slewing away from Jupiter and the moon.
• Had a ptc socket error at 11:20 pm HT that ended the 3rd Q2343 main track early.
• While troubleshooting the ptc socket errors, and the initial power cycling of ptc did not work, encountered a jack 1 brake failure while attempting to put the telescope into neutral position. This failure is serious enough that further observations were cancelled until Peter can take a look at the hexapod.

Executed Runs:

• 10 min Jupiter multi-source track processed as primary calibrator
• 40 min Jupiter offset track for alignment
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track
• 15 min 2253+161 Q2343 IM target calibrator track
• 45 min Q2343 repeated no ccd IM target track (incomplete due to ptc socket error)

-Casandra, Adam

Observations cancelled due to high winds.

-Casandra, Adam