BSM South's ST8-XME camera failed in mid-August. Peter Nelson kindly swapped it with his spare ST10-XME camera, and we ran with that (binned 2x2) for a couple of months. SBIG has now repaired the camera, and Peter has now installed the ST8-XME, with first light on 2014-10-04. It will take a few days to get new flats and darks and re-establish the program, but the camera appears to be working fine.
In the meantime, BSM_NM's ST8-XME camera failed after the restart following the southwestern monsoon. We are in the process of sending that back for repair. Again, as in the case of BSM_South, Bill Stein has kindly donated an ST10-XME camera for use until the ST8 is repaired. Bill installed the camera on 2010-10-05, and new images were taken the following UT night. It will take a few days to get the proper calibration frames. While it is currently clear in New Mexico, it looks like the clouds from Hurricane Simon are going to prevent observations for a few days.
That also goes for Sonoita. John Gross installed the mount and OTA after the mount refurbishment, and we're nearly ready to go with that system. Hurricane Simon is already impacting the Tucson area, so John planned on taking darks and biases last night, but the first clear night should result in science frames.
BSM_Hamren is up and running in Hawaii at Mike Linnolt's home. The weather for the past couple of weeks has been poor, but that pattern will break. The Moonglow all-sky camera that Mike will be using has failed, and we are in the process of getting that repaired.
BSM_HQ is working pretty well. I have a number of improvements to do to the hardware, and the mount needs final polar alignment tweaking. There is a chance that I can get this done during the week. While we've had an unusual set of clear nights, I expect BSM_HQ to get used about 30 percent of the time, still a nice addition to the BSM network.
Coker30 and OC61 are working as normal. TMO61 will start up as soon as Hurricane Simon is out of the picture.
Arne
Arne,
Thanks for the update. I haven't received any images from OC61 in four weeks. Is the scope busy with other targets or has the weather there just been bad?
Thanks,
Bob
Hi Bob,
The weather has been good, but there are two main projects running on the telescope and your objects may not have been given sufficient priority to superceed their scheduling. Contact me off-line as to your highest-priority targets and I will boost their scheduling priority to ensure that you get data.
Arne