School might get out in June, but the Observatory is a buzzing place with all sorts of activities while the students are away. The primary charge for us is completing the cleaning and maintenance work that needs to be done to keep all the equipment in top working order. This year, we also received a new optical tube assembly for the Kurtz Dome, necessitating some serious lifting and alignment procedures. Here is the list of activities done this summer to date (summer is not over just yet!):

• Dome cleanings: Just after students graduate, the first order of business is to give each dome a thorough cleaning. Observatories maintain a low level of sweeping, as this kicks up a lot of dust and makes the optics a real mess. In spring, the optics are thoroughly sealed in plastic bags, the cobwebs and pollen and dusted down from top to bottom, then the whole dome is vacuumed and wet-wiped.
• Batteries in the various components are replaced: there are little button batteries here and there for little things like ROM backups, and bigger things like illuminated reticles for the finder scopes.
• We installed the new 16″ ACF SCT telescope in the Kurtz Dome. The Takahashi refractor and the Celestron SCT were removed first. The mount saddle was configured for two optical tubes and was turned 90 degrees, so that required realignment. That done, the new 16″ OTA was put into place and counterbalanced. It is one heavy OTA at 75 pounds. The weights need to be in proper position to prevent too much stress on the mount’s drive systems. Once balanced, the whole system needed to be reconfigured for the larger tube using software that knows the extent to which the tube can travel without smacking into the pier. That would not be good!
• The Robotic Observatory had a complete software upgrade. Those who know me, know one of my mottos: if it is working, DO NOT upgrade anything. I hold to this as much as possible, but there are times when things are working, but the software manufacturers have control over us. In this case, the license for our internet-accessible server/control system was expiring, and they would not allow a simple renewal without software upgrade. Alas!  Upgrading that required upgrading everything. The status now with the software is that the automated focusing software is not compatible with the other pieces. We focus by hand for now. That said, there are other gremlins in the system:
  • The electronic focuser was getting stuck. A little dismantling and some lubrication fixed that. We had a solid run last night without any focuser issues.
  • No focuser issues means that we must have had something else going on… nothing is perfect. Yes, the shutter on the CCD imager was getting stuck! After 40 flawless images, the images started to show the bright stars with vertical blooming down each column. This means that the shutter was remaining open as the CCD downloaded the images by pushing the pixel charges down to the readout registers. Sigh. The camera needs to be dismantled and diagnosed now. That is on the to-do list.
• New tripods were ordered for the portable telescopes which have a few benefits: They allow easy polar alignment; They can be adjusted for height (not all students are very tall); They are lighter, easier to carry around; They are much more stable than the piers we used to use.
• The spectrographic system in the Alden Dome has checked out perfectly.
• The Heliostat has checked out perfectly, though I am beginning to think about getting the mirrors a new aluminum coating.
• Tested a home-made grism (a diffraction grating system: grating + prism = grism) with a DSLR camera on the 16″ telescope. Results are encouraging and might be awesome to use with winter Astronomy 392 classes.