TOM2 and TOM3 in the Dome

[Tom Droege <tdroege@veriomail.com>]

The dome sits on a flat roof, but a "flat roof" has a slope or it will 
surely leak.  It will leak anyway, but less if it has a slope.  When I 
mounted TOM2 and TOM3 on their channel frame I forgot about the roof slope, 
which is about 1/12 or 5 degrees.

When I tried to polar aligh TOM2, the data made no sense, then I finally 
remembered the roof slope.  I had set it up thinking I had a flat surface 
and just did not think to check it.

Dan and I spent the morning under the two telescopes putting in cross 
pieces under the channel frame and leveling it up.  The whole mess weighs 
several hundred pounds so we had to be careful and just pry and block until 
we got it into position.  It is now there and pretty level.  Tomorrow I 
will be sore.

The pair of Mark IVs just barely fits in the dome.  I will have to remove 
the cover mounting bars and run it without the electronics covers.

Yesterday the tree trimmers came and removed the big Oak that was blocking 
my view.  It was dying and Jennifer was reluctant to have it cut.  But once 
we cut it down, we could see that it was mostly dead.  Many of the branches 
were hollow.  A good storm and I would have had Oak tree in the dome.

Slowly we are getting into a state where we will be able to take data with 
TOM2 and TOM3.

Tom Droege