Starship Asterisk*

The Mauna Kea (MK) CONCAM is currently placed in front of the SMA building as the SMA roof is being upgraded for better access and perches for other cameras. It has been hooked up and continues to return images, but the CONCAM has not been oriented and there are big buildings looming in the front. We have an indication that this CONCAM3 will be returned to its usual perch sometime soon.

The old CONCAM2 is still out there (at MK). We have suggested that it be installed on the other side of the SMA roof, but it is possible that they just can't do that.

- RJN

Due to unexpected problems with modifications to the hangar facility that CONCAM is usually mounted on, it will be at least another week before it is back on the roof with a less obstructed view of the sky. I expect it to me remounted around Monday 9 August.

The latest images from MK, namely: http://nightskylive.net/mk/mk040803/mk0 ... 34003p.jpg
appear to show water on the outer lens. This will likely clear up during the day or in a few days without human intervention.

- RJN

aschinck wrote:Due to unexpected problems with modifications to the hangar facility that CONCAM is usually mounted on, it will be at least another week before it is back on the roof with a less obstructed view of the sky. I expect it to me remounted around Monday 9 August.

Excellent, right in time for the Perseids.

aschinck wrote:Due to unexpected problems with modifications to the hangar facility that CONCAM is usually mounted on, it will be at least another week before it is back on the roof with a less obstructed view of the sky. I expect it to me remounted around Monday 9 August.

Is there an updated estimate for when the CONCAM will be back in place?

Although still in the parking lot, and only about 50% of the sky is visible, the software that generates photometry files is now running.

The Mauna Kea CONCAM has been returned to the roof of the SMA Hangar facility. It should be operational tonight (Wednesday 29 Sept 2004)

Thanks aschinck, the camera is up again.

Since the camera's orientation has been changed, the photometry files are completely wrong. Please don't use them until I adjust the orientation again.

aschinck wrote:The Mauna Kea CONCAM has been returned to the roof of the SMA Hangar facility. It should be operational tonight (Wednesday 29 Sept 2004)

Yay!

Over the past few days we have had trouble with connection between the MK CONCAM local computer and the MK camera that takes the images. Mac Cooper on Mauna Kea has been alerted and is working with Lior Shamir here at Michigan Tech to fix the problem. Althought they are doing everything they can, we do apologize for the delay.

- RJN

On sight MK CONCAM coordinator Mac Cooper reports that for some reason the computer does not want to talk to the camera. We are investigating if the problem is with the camera or the connection between the computer and the camera. The problem is likely not with the computer as we can connect to the computer and it seems to be OK.

We are also investigating the possibility of replacing the CONCAM3 with the old CONCAM2 while the problem with the CONCAM3 is being debugged.

- RJN

Well the new CONCAM3 has now been replaced with the old CONCAM2 but for some reason even this CONCAM is now malfunctioning. We have been running tests and the computer, camera, and even CCD all appear to be working OK, but the dang thing keeps returning no-light frames. Even during the day! Mac Cooper confirmed that no lens caps have been left in place, but cleverly guesses that an iris might have been unexpectedly closed. That will be investigated tomorrow. If we are lucky then the CONCAM2 will start sending night sky images back as soon as tomorrow night.

The MK CONCAM3's SBIG camera is acting strangely so that it will not even talk to its computer. I emailed the camera manufacturer, SBIG, with details and they said to send it in to them and they will fix it. So we will do that. But surely this process will take a while.

- RJN

Well the CONCAM2 did indeed have its iris closed but it has now been opened. The new problem was lack of focus and Internet connection problems. The connection problems appeared to be all over Mauna Kea, but have since been resolved. Billie Chitwood worked hard last night trying to focus the CONCAM2 but for some reason it just would not focus. We will be investigating the problem in more detail in the next few days.

If this CONCAM2 cannot be focussed we will send MK another CONCAM2 that can be. We apologize for the delay.

- RJN

It would appear that my daytime focus efforts utilizing Subaru,a cardboard box, and an old Dell laptop running the CCDOPS program went better than I expected. In addition to getting a rough focus, I was eventually able to get an Ethernet connection, but only by disconnecting the hub and running the CAT5 to CONCAM2 directly. I will try to schedule some late night summit time later this week and perform a fine focus.

I swapped out the CONCAM2 on the roof of the SMA hangar with the CONCAM3 following the repair of its CCD camera by SBIG. Focus appears decent from the first images. Still an issue with secure communications, but it booted up well, and appears to be capturing and posting images.

I just checked the MK CONCAM and it too appears to be down, or at least the site is displaying an image from Feb 4 2005. The status indicator says it is "on" and the timer appears to be working.

The Mauna Kea camera is just showing black and white static.

Yes, the MK CONCAM3 has a problem with its CCD camera. This caused the strange "treeline" images and was diagnosed in concert with people at the camera maker, SBIG. Our site tech person, Billie Chitwood, will soon be switching in the old CONCAM2 for the CONCAM3 and shipping the ST-1001E camera back to SBIG for repair. He is a busy guy and this is not his highest priority, so please let's be patient. We at NSL apologize for the delay. We expect live night images from MK to resume from the old CONCAM2 sometime next week.

- RJN

Thanx Sir,

I am waiting to start monitoring as soon as it gets ready.

Still CCD is down showing off strange "treeline" images. Waiting for the tech person to get it up ready.

Mk has replaced the malfunctioning Concam3 with a Concam2 which is to be used until repairs can be completed on the newer model. There appears to be some difficulty starting the computer that controls the camera. Repairs are still in progress and hopefully it will not be too long until we have a working Concam at MK.

Waiting for the same sir.

The moon is around 12 degress above horizon and still rising. The waning moon at 98.9% outshines most of the stars but still Sirius(alpha Canis Majoris) in South, Saturn in the near center, Capella (alpha Aurigae) in North West are visibile. Magnitude limit is around 1.5-2.0. A still comet like object is visible in the center of the sky which is actually an internal reflection of the lens.

The sky is clear dark with nice look of Milky Way. The saturn rests in the center with moon just below horzon with phase at 83.9%. Magnitude visible is around 7.0. No problem with cam operation.

Moon at 73.8% fades away most of the stars limiting the visible magnitude to 3.0. The screen seems to be oval in shape. Don't know why.