TSU 2-m AUTOMATIC SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE PROJECT


                          Monthly Report for March, 2000


     This monthly report for the TSU 2-m AST project covers the calendar month of 
March, 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--VIII) 
covers the status of various tasks in the schedule; and a third part (IX) gives  
highlights for April.  During March, 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.  Undergraduate student Kenneth 
McDavis continued doing a project related to the control system.


                          I. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE PAST MONTH

     During March, 2000, we said we expected to do the following things [with steps 
taken then in brackets]: (1) to finish all the mechanical acceptance tests for the 
telescope, [These tests are essentially finished except for the test Marshall was to do 
on the primary mirror.  Two engineers from Marshall attempted to run these tests on March 
30 but had trouble with instrumentation.  They were scheduled to return for further tests 
on April 4 after reworking their equipment.  In addition, we have talked extensively with 
Roy Young about the acceptance tests for the telescope and plan to meet Scott Smith at 
Marshall in mid April to discuss the status of the telescope and get his advice about any 
mechanical/optical modifications or changes he thinks necessary before we send the 
telescope to Arizona.] (2) to begin making modifications of the oil bearings,  [We have 
most of the material for this in hand, but we can't actually do it until we take the 
telescope apart again.] (3) to acquire the actual computers to run the telescope (Task 
174), [We decided to begin operating the telescope with computers we already have in hand, 
which are the ones we are using to develop the operating system.  They are quite adequate 
for this purpose, but they could be physically a little smaller.] (4) to arrange to take 
delivery of the CCD dewar and controller in late March or early April (Tasks 145-150),  
[We have been in touch with Bob Leach about this delivery date and find delivery of the 
dewar to him was delayed.  He now estimates delivery of the controller/ dewar to us 
around 1-15 May.]  (5) to finish the calibration bench and start integrating it with the 
guiding head, [We have received all the calibration sources and optical parts for the 
calibration bench.  Also, we have built all the special parts to fit this stuff together 
and had most of the aluminum parts anodized.  We must still finish setting up the limit 
switches for the flip mirror mirror and assemble the calibration bench, although we did a 
preliminary assembly before sending parts out for anodizing.] and  (6) to begin procuring 
the spectrograph camera. [We have got Harland Epps to agree to manage procurement of the 
spectrograph camera for us. (see attached letter and E-mail).  He has begun drawing up 
documents for for procuring the glass blanks for the spectrograph camera and should 
finish this task in April.]


                                 II. ADMINISTRATION

     During March we have extensively revised our Internet site for the telescope project 
(coe.tsuniv.edu/eaton/homepage.html) to include information about the tests of the telescope 
structure that we have done and to give results of the analysis of the vibrations of the 
telescope that the Structural and Dynamics Testing Group at Marshall did.  There are also 
many more pictures of the telescope and its various systems.


                           III. MECHANICAL INTEGRATION

Tasks 75&95: Assembly of telescope:  We continued running acceptance tests of the telescope 
during March as mentioned in section I above.


                            IV. SET TELESCOPE UP AT SITE

Tasks 132&136: Contracts for transport to Arizona and staging to the observatory:  Busby 
has two quotes for transporting the telescope from Nashville to Arizona, one with a 
machinery-moving company in Nashville and the other with Sierrita Mining in Arizona.  We 
also have a verbal agreement with Sierrita to assist with setting up the telescope at the 
observatory, which will become a formal agreement when the details on how to ship the 
telescope are worked out.  In addition, we have finished all of the pallets and boxes to 
ship the telescope except for a relatively simple 2x4x5-ft box for the drive electronics.


                                V. CONTROL SYSTEM

     Williamson has continued integrating the motion-control algorithm into the program that 
calculates position on the sky.  We have run a preliminary version in the telescope as a 
test to look for gross errors and discovered several.  Williamson is gradually taking charge 
of this work and seems to have very good judgement about ways to improve the computer code 
and wiring of the telescope.


                               VI. SPECTROGRAPH CAMERA

     We have decided to use Harland Epps to spearhead procurment of the spectrograph camera, 
as mentioned in Section I above.  He seems to be able to work very easily with both Eaton 
and Busby and is willing to help us with the contraction work.

Task 208-210: Design and manufacture mounts for optical elements:  We have have perfected 
our preliminary designs for mounts for the echelle grating, cross-dispersion grating, and 
the two reimaging mirrors mentioned in February's report.  We started turning these models 
into shop drawings, which will be finished in early April.  Also, we have ordered most of 
the materials for constructing these four mounts and arranged with Mark Wells to do most of 
the machining on them.  Wells delivered in March the devices (based on a design by Tull) 
for positioning the mirrors and echelle grating in their cells, we had them anodized, and 
we have assembled some of them.


                               VII. CALIBRATION SYSTEM

Tasks 246-248, and 259: Assembly/modification of the guiding head:  We finished assembling 
the window for the instrument-head cover, fitted it into the cover's top plate, stiffened 
the top plate and prepared t for welding to the sides (cylinder) of the cover.  Wells also 
finished manually polishing one of the blanks for the pickoff mirror and will get the mirror 
surface nickel plated in April. 


                              VIII. DATA-HANDLING SYSTEM

     Fekel continues to work with Jeff Hall on defining the requirements of the data-
handling/ reduction system that Hall will write for us as a modification of his existing 
software.

                            IX. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE NEXT MONTH

During April, 2000, we expect (1) to finish all testing of the telescope in Nashville and 
prepare it for shipment to Arizona, (2) to make the modifications of the oil bearings when 
the telescope is partially disassembled,  (3) to continue writing the telescope control 
software and get it running well enough on the simulator and actual telescope to begin tests 
of acquiring and tracking stars during the month after the telescope is installed at its 
site,  (4) to arrange with Bob Leach for actual delivery of the CCD dewar and controller 
(Tasks 145-150),  (5) to receive specifications from Epps for the glass for the lenses of 
the spectrograph camera and begin procuring that glass, and to get Epps to start drawing 
up the specifications for a contract for the mechanical cell for the camera lens, and  
(7) to finish defining Jeff Hall's role in the data handling system, define the system 
requirements for him, and get him started on actually modifying his software for us.