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Roy Prouty

Roy Prouty

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Time/Date

20230127T1726-

People

Roy, Connor, Gabriel

Spaces Occupied

PHYS 401, 433C, Dome, Roof

Goals

  1. Find missing ZTF/M42 data from 20230126
  2. Setup GoogleDrive Sync
  3. Take Flat, Dark, and Bias frames
  4. Test configuring PHD2on the Control Computer and use it via the finderscope

Log

  1. Turned DC on (Why does this turn off?)
  2. Starting Up Scope
    1. Control Computer(CC): Started DFM TCS, ASCOM Dome Control Panel, TheSky6
    2. Front Panel: Enabled MTR Driver Chassis, Drives
    3. DC: Opened Blue Iris
    4. CC: Dome Control > Connect; Then Open
    5. CC: TCS > Telescope > Initialization > Apply Windows Date & Time; Sync
    6. CC: TS6 > Telescope > Link > Establish
  3. Cameras
    1. Collected Deep-Sky camera and planetary camera from shelves with adpaters
    2. Connected Deep-Sky Camera to Finderscope; powered (still on?); connected to Icron extender with long USB-3.0/B
    3. Connected Deep-Sky Camera to On-Axis port; connected to Icron extender with shorter USB-3.0/B
    4. DC: SharpCap > Cameras > ZWO ASI 2600MM Pro (Deep-Sky)
      1. Finderscope camera is working
    5. DC: SharpCap > Cameras > ZWO ASI 178MM (Planetary)
      1. On-Axis camera is working
  4. Enabled Auto-Doming
    1. CC: Enabled Dome Control > "Slave Dome to Scope"
    2. Front Panel: Enabled AutoDome and Dome Track Switch
  5. DATA FINDING
    1. GON Captures are in "D:\SharpCap Captures\2023-01-26\Capture\20_49_30"
    2. ZTF Captures are in "D:\SharpCap Captures\2023-01-26\Capture\21_32_14" 
  6. DATA SYNCING
    1. Downloaded and installed Google Drive Setup from https://www.google.com/drive/download/
    2. Installed on Director user profile
    3. Used Roy's credentials to log in
    4. Setup Sync between " "D:\SharpCap Captures\" and "UMBC Observatory > Observations > Spring2022 > SharpCap Captures"
  7. SharpCap File Save Settings
    1. Toward top-right of the SharpCap window, there is "Capture Profiles"
    2. You can load, save, manage different save profiles, specifying file type and some other fields.
    3. ALSO. On the bottom-right of the SharpCap window, there is a Scope Controls frame with a notes section. This populates a Notes field in the save profile, it's not clear where this ends up – doesn't seem like it gets to the FITS header ...
  8. Open Mirror Doors
    1. CC: TCS > Telescope > Misc > "Switches/Mirror door"s tab
    2. We confirmed that all four mirror doors opened correctly
  9. Weirdness with Lower Dome Shutter
    1. We noticed that the lower shutter didn't open all the way from 2.d.
    2. Fix: Asked them to open again, and the lower shutter opened all the way

ToDo

  1. Configure DC to remain on
  2. Permanently allow BlueIris to run
  3. Need extension cord to allow box fan to pull from roof access door
  4. Need to buy another long USB-3.0/B cable Onkar Rekhi / Gabriel Koletsi , spec one of these out and post to "To Buy" discord channel

Notes

  1. Finderscope camera port was not powered off
  2. Finderscope Deep-Sky Camera image suffers from vignetting

Weather

If using the telescope, record the ambient temperature, dome temperature, forecast seeing, temperature, humidity, transparency, cloud cover, etc. We'll eventually arrive at a solid table of these and can query online resources to build this quickly.


Data

If using the telescope cameras, record the local and any remote location of collected data.