30/07/2015

Tenerife summer maintenance 2015 update 2

On reviewing last night's alignment run data we found that the quality of the mapped points was insufficient, and would not be usable to create an acceptable pointing model.

Today we have returned to the observatory with the aim of carrying out another alignment run this evening. In preparation for this second alignment run we have adjusted a number of elements of the mount RA drive, in the hope that we will improve the pointing and tracking performance in this axis. We are cautiously optimistic that we have made a breakthrough in this area.. but we won't know for sure until we review the full data set generated by this evening's alignment run.

27/07/2015

Tenerife summer maintenance 2015 update

The summer maintenance trip is now well underway. We have completed the work to re-grease the mount, and to run replacement wiring for the Galaxy camera focuser.

We are currently aiming to bring the system back online shortly with the Galaxy focuser working without its temperature sensor. Once we have the system back online we will be able to continue the work to restore the focuser functionality during the day, minimising the interruption to the operation of the system. To this end we are planning to perform a mapping run tonight with the hope of bringing the system back up tomorrow evening.

26/07/2015

Tenerife summer maintenance 2015: Focuser repair

The delayed 2015 summer maintenance trip has started today. Our focus on this trip will be to repair the faulty focuser on the galaxy camera.

Our initial investigations today have revealed that a fault with the wiring running through the mount has caused the focuser unit to fail. We have run tests with cables bypassing the mount wiring and found that the focus position changes correctly, however even with replacement wiring the temperature sensor is not responding.

We have separately tested the temperature sensor and verified its operation, leading us to believe that there is a fault with the temperature sensor input on the focuser control unit.

We are currently working on a number of solutions to this problem.. but we'll tell you about them later. For now I can say that we're in the process of replacing the faulty wiring and are hoping to re-grease the mount (a part of the regular summer maintenance work) tomorrow. If all goes to plan we will be realigning the system in a few days time, allowing us to return to operation with the cluster and constellation cameras as we work to complete the repairs on the galaxy focuser unit.