AAVSOnet status, 2016-11-12

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Sat, 11/12/2016 - 22:08

Most of the AAVSOnet systems are operational, with the exception of coker30 (off the air).  Here are some notes on the various systems.

BSM_HQ  running nominally.  There is a software glitch where ACP hangs due to communication with the mount, but it happens rarely and results in a few lost hours at the most.  Helmar has been monitoring it, and I hope that we'll find a simple solution once enough failures get logged.

BSM_S  running nominally.

BSM_Berry  running nominally.

BSM_Hamren  running nominally.  Mike Linnolt has this system under the eves at his house in Volcano, and can only observe to the west.  It needs a robust enclosure so that it can work over more of the sky and for complete nights.  The focuser has lost communication with the Surface Pro tablet after the last Win10 update, so we're checking to see whether it is a software or hardware failure.  In any case, Mike focuses at the beginning of a night and most images look fine.

BSM_NM  running nominally.  Dick Post contributed a new Win7 computer and did the software installation to ACP8.  The focuser finally failed, after 500K images and 7 years of steady use, so Bill Stein had it refurbished at Moonlite.  Dick and Bill worked on the mount, tightened some screws, and it now tracks much better.  However, this is the system that the AAVSOnet Task Force is using for their development, and so only a couple of science nights have been taken in the past month, and those have not yet been processed.

coker30 was a loaned system from Phil Coker, and has been returned to him.  The original C30, a donation from Phil, has some electrical issues and is not operational yet.  Hopefully repairs will be made in the next month or two.  Until then, we'll see if we can move its projects to other telescopes.

SRO is running nominally.

OC61 is running nominally.  It had some new dust about a month ago, and the camera was removed for cleaning.  Since then, we haven't had a complete set of flats due to weather.  We have those flats now, and so the science data that has been taken in the past month should be processed shortly.

TMO61 is running nominally, and has several new nights of data over the past month.  There are some flakey aspects to its operation, but Bill Stein and Gary Walker are working with NMSU to get it working more reliably and more often.

If anyone finds CFW-10 filter wheels for the SBIG cameras, we could use a few for the BSM systems to give them more filter slots for more projects.  Right now, only BSM_NM and BSM_Berry have the big wheels.  The CFW-10 is no longer in production, so you'll only find it on eBay or Cloudy Nights or at your local club.

Arne