David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 646 (2018-12-29)

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Notes (S647)

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot  - Session Event Log
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (1),  Minor Issues (3),  Continuous Improvement (1)
	Images from 2018-12-29  >>

Session Aims & Highlights (2018-12-29)

Main aims

1. Targets. Acquire images of a range of targets (comets, variable stars, nearby stars and deep sky objects)
2. Software. Test operation of Observatory Control Program (AstroMain)  following several recent code changes and corrections.
3. Stability. Check overall stability of the Observatory System (hardware & software) 

Equipment & Software

•  12" LX200 and ST-10XME
•  80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
•  CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2,  POTH Hub
•  Pegasus UPB & Motor Focus, TCF-S
•  AstroMain 3.6.1, AstroPlan 1.5.1

Highlights

• Images.   Images from a number of targets were successfully acquired
• Identified and fixed the bug which was stopping PHD2 GuideStats being written out to the (Guide).dat file for each frame and for the overall target
  
• New code in AstroPlan to automatically fetch the constellation in which a target sits (based on Ra Dec coordinates) is now working
• Session observations are now being correctly saved in database following recent bug fix

Summary Plots & Logs

Observing Plan (2018-12-29, S646)

Observing Result (2018-12-29, S646)

Night Sky Summary Plot - 2018-12-29 Top axis: Sky Brightness at Zenith (in ADU/s) Lefthand axis: Local Time (hh LT). Righthand axis: Sun Altitude (degs)

Session Event Log (2018-12-29, S646)

Time   Event Detail 18:31 AstroMain Started AstroMain started 18:32 Services Started Observatory Services started 18:32   Dome Connected Pulsar Dome connected via POTH (COM9) 18:32   Telescope Connected LX200GPS/R connected via POTH 18:33 Observatory to Auto Observatory placed in Automated Mode 18:33 Session Initiated Session Initiated (2018-12-29) 18:33   Plan Requested Observing Plan requested from AstroPlan Scheduler 18:36   Plan Loaded Observing Plan loaded (2018-12-29, V1, Scheduled Start 18:41) 18:37 Equilbration Stated Equilibration Started 18:37   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera connected(set temp -20 degC) 18:37   Telescope Connected Telescope Connected (TheSky) 18:37 Session Started Session started (2018-12-29 S00646) 18:58   Dome Unlocked Dome unlocked by User 18:59   Shutter Opened Shutter opened (opening time 45s) 19:19 Equilibration Started Dome equilibration started (wind direction 225 deg) 19:22 Equilibration Completed Dome equilibration completed (4 mins total) 19:23 Queue Started Queue started (2018-12-29 V1, 53 targets, Scheduled Start 18:41) 19:56 Queue Aborted Queue aborted by user 19:56 Observatory (Manual) Observatory placed on Manual Mode 20:02 Observatory (Auto) Observatory placed in Automated Mode 20:02 Preparing Session Preparing Session (2018-12-29) 20:02   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera connected (set temp -20 degC) 20:02   Telescope Connected Telescope connected (TheSky6) 20:03 Session Restarted Session restarted (2018-12-29 S00646) 20:03 Equilibration Skipped Equilibration skipped by user 20:03 Queue Restarted Queue restarted (2018-12-29 V2, 53 targets, Scheduled Start 20:05) 20:03     Target Started (1/51) Target started (1/51, GCVS GK Per) 20:08     Target Completed (1/51) Target completed (1/51, GCVS GK Per) 20:08     Target Started (2/51) Target started (2/51, GCVS CI Cyg) 20:15     Target Completed (2/51) Target completed (2/51, GCVS CI Cyg) 20:16     Target Started (3/51) Target started (3/51, GCVS AM Her) 20:18 Critical Cloud Alert Critical Cloud Conditions (Obs.Manager will close Dome) 20:18     Target Aborted (3/51) Target aborted (3/51, GCVS AM Her), due to Cloud 20:18 Session Suspended Session suspended 20:19 Shutter Closed Shutter closed (closing time 50s) 20:31     Target Failed (4/51) Target failed (4/51), due to cloud 20:38     Target Failed (5/51) Target failed (5/51), due to cloud 20:48     Target Failed (6/51) Target failed (6/51), due to cloud 20:58     Target Failed (7/51) Target failed (7/51), due to cloud 21:08     Target Failed (8/51) Target failed (8/51), due to cloud 21:15     Target Failed (9/51) Target failed (9/51), due to cloud 21:17 Queue Aborted Queue aborted by user 21:17   Observatory (Manual) Observatory placed on Manual Mode 21:18   Session Closing Session closing (close down by user) 21:18   Telescope Parked Telescope parked 21:19   Dome Parked Dome parked 21:20   Camera1 Disconnected SBIG Camera closed down & disconnected 21:22   Services Stopped Observatory Services stopped 21:23   Session Ended Session ended

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Operational Issues (2018-12-29, S646)

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (1)
• Minor issues (3)
• Continuous Improvement (1)

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Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• Session delayed by Locked Dome (Software).  Some 30 minutes of observing time were lost at beginning of the session resulting in the loss of 2 scheduled targets (BL Lac and NGC 7000) ,  as it had been forgotten that  the Software Dome Lock was Set to On at the end of the previous session which prevented the Obs.Manger from opening the Dome Shutter at the start of the Equilibration stage.  Some 24 messages lines were reported   
    "Open Shutter       Fail           Dome is Locked. It cannot be opened at this time"
  Fixed 2018-12-31 (New code added to AstroMain v3.7 to check Dome Lock prior to going into Fully-Automated Mode)

Minor issues

• Whilst waiting to make new dome connection AstroMain put out multiple report messages about Dome Slaving
    "Turn off Dome Slaving...    Fail      Object reference not set to an instance of an object".
  Resolved (date unknown)
   
• A 'Next' ToO unable to start when a regular target is waiting to start.   After NGC 7000 Mosaic (80 mins) failed to start, the Mosaic File located and installed in Targets/Mosaics folder,  attempts to rerun NGC 7000 as an Immediate Target failed, as Job Executor had moved on to SS Cyg and was in a 75 min long wait loop
  Fixed 2019-01-02  (AstroMain 3.7 code ?
  >> modify code to allow a pending TOA target (Next) to force execution to jump out of a target wait loop in order to commence the ToO.
   
• ToO Next should happen immediately after current target finishes and not wait until Next Target was due to start
  Fixed 2019-01-02  (AstroMain 3.7 code) 

Continuous Improvement

• Quality of Observing Plan Charts.  Quality of Plan and Session Chart images needs to be improved, in particular the colour of text needs to be preserved
  Fixed 2018-12-30 (images are now saved as .png files instead of the earlier .jpg files)

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