TSU 2-m AUTOMATIC SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE PROJECT


                          Monthly Report for January, 2001



     This monthly report for the TSU 2-m AST project, now liberated from the hubris 
of NASA Code S, covers the calendar month of January, 2001.  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-III) covers the status of various tasks in 
the schedule; and a third part (IV) gives highlights for February.  During January, 
2001, 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.  Sean Willaims, a graduate student in electrical engineering, joined the 
group to work on the CCD controller for the spectrograph.  We had intended to take 
the secondary mirror to Arizona in January, but it was still not back from 
refiguring, so we spent our work session of 23-28 January working on the control 
system and fitting the telescope enclosure with interlocks to prevent damage to the 
telescope.


                          I. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE PAST MONTH

During January, 2001, we said we expect to do the following things, most of which 
have to do with testing the telescope in Arizona [with steps taken on them in 
brackets].  (1) to put the secondary mirror into the telescope and get it to focus, 
[Deferred; no mirror.]  (2) to run extensive tests on the telescope with the 
secondary in place, [Deferred; no mirror.]  (3) to integrate into the control 
system limit switches to monitor the position of the movable parts of the enclosure 
and to determine when the telescope is at its home position, [We put these switches 
in place and integrated the two to detect the enclosure roof and front flap into the 
control system.  In addition, we fitted up an optical sensor to detect the telescope 
at its home position to use to control the rolling roof and designed a mount for it.]  
(4) to tie up some loose ends on the oil-pumping system such as rewiring the primary 
pumps for 220V and tidying up the secondary return system, [We rewired the oil pump 
for 220V on protected power and tested it.  We also replaced the overflow reservoir,
a plastic piece that had a crack, and tested the the secondary oil-return system.]
(5) to continue assembling the mounts for the spectrograph optics, integrating the 
optical elements into them, and designing and building the system for getting light 
into the spectrograph,  [We have continued working on these tasks as a low priority, 
gluing the pucks on the back of the collimator/reimaging mirrors and reworking the 
lateral pucks for those mirrors.  We also started constructing the stage for fiber 
input and the holder for the flat in the reimaging system.] (6) to take delivery of 
the CCD controller for the spectrograph from SDSU, [Although we didn't get this 
delivered in January, it should be quite soon.  SDSU has mounted and usaed our 
engineering-grade CCD, which is supposed to be very good over about 2/3 of its 
surface, and they should deliver the system in February.] and (7) to continue 
procuring the material and services for constructing the camera for the spectrograph 
with the aid of Harland Epps.  [We took delivery of the final shipment of glass from 
Ohara, arranged for Optovac to generate the rough shapes of the CaF2 lenses, and 
made progress on the final design of the camera (by Epps) and its physical mount 
(by Schier).

                               II. ENCLOSURES

     Boyd finished wiring the unprotected power into the enclosure for the 
spectrograph&control room and put a refrigerator, coffee pot, and heater in the
control room.  He also changed the locks so all the enclosures are on the same key,
unlike our offices in Nashville.  We are running the computers on protected power 
through an extension cord until we can determine just how much is required for the 
various devices that go into the room for spectrograph.  We also got the two 
computers at the observatory integrated into the local network so we can now run 
them from Nashville, although the connection is too slow for any kind of real-time 
operations.  Finally, in a development independent of the 2-m project, Boyd has begun 
constructing a radio link from Fairborn Observatory to the outside world, which will 
give vastly improved internet communications with all our telescopes.


                               III. CONTROL SYSTEM

     Williamson continues to make progress on writing the control system for running 
the telescope.  We decided to define multiple home positions for azimuth in addition 
to the single home position near 0 deg, and we added Sony magnets at five more 
positions 60-degrees apart on our last trip to the observatory.  Williamson has written 
a routine to detect passages of these positions on the fly and calculate corrections to 
the pointing from them.  He tested it with observations on one night in Jamuary before 
the snows istarted.  This technique will require further development.


                          IV. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE NEXT MONTH

During February, 2001, we expect to continue working in Nashville on tasks related to 
our next trip to the observatory, probably during the second week in March.  These jobs 
have to do with improving the control system, designing parts for the spectrograph, 
advancing the procurement of the spectrograph camera, and preparing to put the secondary 
mirror into the telescope, if and when it ever arrives.  Specifically, we expect (1) to 
determine with the help engineers at of NASA Marshall SFC what further figuring is 
required for the secondary mirror and to establish a schedule iwith Torus Optics for 
finishing it.  (2) to take delivery of the CCD controller for the spectrograph from SDSU, 
set it up in the lab, and start excercising its control program, (3) to run the computers 
at the observatory continuously for a month and use a program on the computer in the 
telescope to record the atmospheric sensors (temperature, pressure, and humidity) 
periodically, (4) to finish the design of the spectrograph and its camera (mainly done 
by Harland Epps), (5) to finish procuring the glass for the spectrograph camera and 
finilize the contract for polishing the lenses, (6) to finish the design of the housing 
for the spectrograph camera (Alan Schier), (7) to finish designing the devices for leading 
the fibers into the telescope, (8) to get drawings of these devices to the various machine 
shops for making them, (9) to finish gluing the pucks to the collimating/reimaging mirrors 
and make the remaining modifications of their mounts, (10) to finish aligning the parts 
of the calibration bench for the spectrograph, and (11) to procure material required for 
our next work trip to Arizona in March.