Walter's LogBook
	October 2006

Overview

David Levy discovered a comet visually! I managed to get an image of it (it was low in the east at dawn).

The SXV-H9 is the imaging camera, with exposures for variable stars of 120 seconds at 4x4 binning (unguided). This month's session notes are below the overview section.

Monthly Statistics, October 2006
Night	Imaging Time (s)	Exposure Time (s)	# Targets	# Exposures	T (C)	/\T
10/04/06	22873	18840	46	157	12.3	-4.8
10/06/06	32340	27960	62	233	13.2	-6.2
10/07/06	23554	18960	37	158	17.0	-6.3
10/08/06	21116	18240	33	152	16.6	-9.6
10/14/06	17534	15000	37	125	8.6	-1.6
10/16/06	11952	10560	23	88	13.2	-3.2
10/21/06	13938	12120	29	101	9.0	-3.3
10/30/06	37118	31560	70	263	10.8	-4.6
10/31/06	25705	19800	47	165	12.6	-4.8
9 nights	206130 (57.26 hr)	173040 (48.07 hr)	384	1442

Session Notes

2006 October 4/5

I slept in the attic tonight. Good thing since I heard the dome motors running several times in an unusual way. Turns out the dome was getting stuck in several spots for some reason, so I had to go out a few times and give the dome a push.

A visual discovery by David Levy! It was low in the east at dawn so I stopped the ACP run to image it!

Comet Levy (2006 T1)

SXV-H9 binned 3x3, Johnson V filter, 6 x 60 seconds.

2006 October 6/7

I took the east motor cover off and discovered that the drive belt had disappeared. There was some belt debris below, but not enought to account for the whole belt (which may be in the dome ring or on the roof somewhere -- have to check sometime). It's quite impressive that the dome can move at all with only one motor!

The dome limped through OK until midnight, and then, just for kicks, I slept in the dome until 6am, rotating the dome manually. Now I can say I've slept in the dome! (At least in a catnap sort of way -- the LX200 motors make a great alarm clock!). It was a very pleasant night and I could here the sounds of the town. Watching the telescope, focuser, and dome all working together was really neat and gave me a new appreciation for the power of automation, first-hand! There's something surreal about watching an automated observatory!

I got a webcam shot showing the full moon in the slit, lighting up the scope tube too. The sensitivity of these webcams is rather low compared to the Starlight Xpress cameras, to say the least!

Moonlight by WebCam!

Winchester Observatory interior webcam.