ENR CTIO 1.5-m 2025-02-19

It has been 6 years since my last visit to CTIO, and 19 years since my last observation at 1.5-m when Arturo Gomez was my support to run the RC spec. Great to be back to see old and new faces on the mountain.

Thanks a lot to Roberto's help for my first at bat! We immediately encounter the false platform warning. Although the platform is completed down, the TCS warns the platform is up in flashing red. The next problem is pointing. The plumb line needs to be reset. While we try to point to a bright star, the hand paddle by the console can't slew the telescope. We then disconnect and reconnect the paddle's wire by the console to recover its functionality. Meanwhile, the hand paddle in the control room initially can only move E/W, but not N/S. Later in the night, the paddle works fine in all directions.

The pointing continues to be challenges later in the night even after we checked the pointing in the beginning of the night. The intended science star is even beyond the guider's FOV. At least, the shift is quite consistent in the N-E quadrant but takes some time to locate the intended targets using SIMBAD. Try to observe RKS1453-1820 as the last target, but the pointing is totally lost.

At 1:40 am, the mountain lost power for a few seconds and the power resumes less than a few minutes. Luckily, a science frame is just finished right before we lost power.

There is no exposure meter readings or the HV LED in the expmeter is always red the entire night. We restart the expmeter a few times, but it doesn't work. Roberto advises to tackle this problem or restart OPTGUI tomorrow.

The ctimac4 can't connect to the intranet, so the weather condition and the instrument temperatures are read from the tablet above the ctimac3.