TSU 2-m AUTOMATIC SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE PROJECT


                          Monthly Report for August, 2000


     This monthly report for the TSU 2-m AST project, now liberated from the 
hubris of NASA Code S, covers the calendar month of August, 2000.  The first part 
of the report (I) discusses what we did with the expected highlights identified 
in last month's report; the second section (II) covers the status of various tasks 
in the schedule; and a third part (III) gives highlights for September.  During 
August, 2000, we continued to have one part-time employee (Mike Williamson) working 
at TSU on the telescope program, in computer programming and electronic 
instrumentation, in addition to M. Krebs and M. Wells, who provide machining work 
at their private shops.  Allen Keel continued doing projects related to the control 
system as a summer student, and Kenneth McDavis assisted on several projects 
involved in perfecting the telescope.


                          I. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE PAST MONTH

     During August, 2000, we said we expected to do the following things [with steps 
taken then in brackets]:  (1) rebuilding the axial hard points by replacing the motors 
with manual screws and to build better attachments for the springs to hold the mirror 
down to the hard points, [Eaton designed these modifications and Krebs built them. 
They require anodizing in September, but will be ready for our next visit to the 
telescope in September.] (2) obtaining the computer to use in the telescope, [We 
rebuilt an old surplus computer in our lab, replacing almost all of the key electronic 
parts (motherpoard, CPU, hard drive, and CD drive) and modifying the box so that the 
drive slots are now 90-degrees from the plugs to conform to the orientation of the 
computer in the telescope.] (3) archiving the drawings of the telescope and its 
enclosure, [We completed this archive and have it distributed over various computers 
in preparation to writing it to CD's], (4) beginning to write the actual computer 
program to control the acquisition/guide camera, [Williamson has spent a considerable 
amount of time on this task in August so that it will be ready to use for testing 
in the telescope in September.]  (5) starting to modify the building for the 
spectrograph and local contol/utility room, [We finished plans for doing this with 
Sierrita Mining and expect to get the work done in September.] (6) finishing setting 
up the spare drive tractor, [This proved harder than expected, and we are deferring it
indefinitely.] (7) continuing to procure the material and services for constructing the 
camera for the spectrograph with the aid of Harland Epps, [Work continued in this 
area with contracts for procurement of the glass and design of the lens cell 
proceeding.] and (8) beginning to take delivery of most of the parts of the mounts 
for the spectrograph optics (mirrors and gratings) and to start integrating them 
mechanically. [We have received most of the mechanical parts from our machinists Wells 
and Krebs and have begun fitting the pieces together and making modifications as 
required.]



                               II. CONTROL SYSTEM

     Williamson has continued writing the control system for running the telescope 
and integrating together the various functions.  His main tasks for August (continuing 
into September) are 1) to get the control algorithm to the point of being able to 
find and track stars, 2) getting the control routine for the acquisition camera 
ready to detect stars in images of the sky, 3) writing control functions for the 
acquisition (guide) camera to find centroids of star images and center them in the 
field of the camera by commanding the telescope.  These tasks are proceeding apace, 
and he intends to have software written for writing files to use with TPOINT by 
the next work session at the telescope in late September.



                          III. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE NEXT MONTH

During September, 2000, we expect to resume detailed testing of the telescope and its 
control system on site in Arizona, specifically  (1) to put the rebuilt axial hard point 
actuators in the telescope and recolimate the primary mirror accurately,  (2) to achieve 
first light at prime focus with the primary mirror, (3) to obtain images of the North 
Star sufficient to begin testing the optical figure of the primary mirror and assess 
how well its supports work, (4) to find stars with the evolving control system and 
perform the first tracking tests with the telescope, (5) to begin constructing 
mathematical models of the secondary-mirror cell and the algorithms for moving the 
secondary with its drive motors and testing these models in the lab, (7) to construct 
corrections to the pointing for imperfections in the telescope mount and code them 
into the control system, (8) to continue perfecting the computer program to control 
the guide camera, (9) to continue procuring the material and services for constructing 
the camera for the spectrograph with the aid of Harland Epps, and (8) to continue 
taking delivery of parts of the mounts for the spectrograph optics (mirrors and 
gratings) and integrating them mechanically.