Progress

[Thomas Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>]

I have been running the last few days.  The moon has been near full so
there are big "holes" in the data where the images are rejected because the
sky is too bright.  The pipeline works as planned, and rejects the images
that I would reject if I looked at them and keeps most images that I would
keep.   This is good because there are just too many images to look at more
than a few percent of them.  When the sky is clear, the images look really
flat.  

I noticed that TOM1 was taking more data (sorry Mike, no data for your
star) than TOM2 even though it is mostly looking closer to the moon.  But
TOM1 has a long lens shield where TOM2 has none.  I removed the lens
shields for the telescopes in the dome because the ones I was using would
not fit.  Looks like I have to make some short lens shields that will fit
under the dome for TOM2 and TOM3.  TOM3 usually does not have a problem
since it is looking far from the equator. 

There always seems to be something that needs to be done to improve the
operation.

Meanwhile, the Bird House is essentially finished.  We have started to
assemble TOM4 and TOM5.  The Bird House does have room for lens shields. 
Sigh!  One keeps learning.  I should have started sooner as I will be dead
by the time I learn what I need to know.  But that is true of everything in
life.  Today I am working on the motor system to open the roof.  I have
taken lots of pictures, so there will be a "Show and Tell" note.   

Tom Droege