TSU 2-m AUTOMATIC SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE PROJECT


                          Monthly Report for October, 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 October, 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-III) covers the status of various tasks in 
the schedule; and a third part (IV) gives highlights for October.  During October, 
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.  
Williamson and Eaton made a trip to Arizona to work on the telescope, and Roy Young 
from Huntsville, Alabama (NASA-MSFC) joined them for the last three days of the 
session.  The weather there was abnormally wet, which made observing impossible on 
all but two-three nights and difficult on all but one night.  


                          I. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE PAST MONTH

     During October, 2000, we said we expected to do the following things, most of 
which had to do with resuming testing the telescope on site [with steps taken on 
them in brackets]:  (1) to move the control console for our tests into the control 
building and use it for conducting further tests of the control system, [We decided 
not to do this in October because we did not have cables long enough to run to 
the video monitors.  We did fish a temporary cable for protected power through the 
holes into the control building, and we ran further acquisition and tracking tests.]  
(2) to recolimate the primary mirror by using the comatic shapes of off-axis star 
images, [We did this and got the optical axis alighed to the physical axis to within
about 0.5 arcmin.] (3) to make more critical observations of stars to verify the 
mirror-support system and assess the image quality of the primary mirror, [We took 
two sets of images inside and outside focus, as well as several images of faint 
stars at close to optimal focus.  The extrafocal images show there is probably a 
slight, but small amount of spherical aberration but little in the way of other 
problems.  The focused images show spreads of about two pixels, roughly 1.6 arcsec.
This image size is entirely consistent with measurements made in an earlier incarnation 
of the mirror by R. Parks, our optical consultant.]  (4) to implement the mount model 
in the telescope control system and retest the pointing and tracking of the telescope, 
[We did this on one night and part of another, although the weather was awful for much 
of our October work session.] (5) to make a number of minor mechanical and electrical 
modifications of the telescope hardware designed to make the telescope more reliable, 
[We painted some rusting metal on the telescope, fitted the base skirt, cleaned up the 
enclosure, and fitted a temperature/humidity sensor into the control system.] 
(6) possibly to put the secondary mirror into the telescope, along with the guiding 
head, and use it to run the first tests of the telescope as a Cassegrain system, 
[This task is deferred indefinitely until we can get the secondary mirror back from 
the optical shop, where it's being refigured.] (7) to finish assembling the mounts 
for the spectrograph optics and finish a preliminary design of the fiber feed for 
the spectrograph, [We have continued assembling these mounts and modifying them to 
take the optical components.  The mounts for the two gratings and collimating/re-
imaging mirrors should be finished by the end of December.  The ones for the mirrors
lack holes for attaching the pucks in the back plates and some modifications to 
various small parts.  The stands for the gratings lack several small modifications 
and final assembly.  The stand for the echelle grating lacks attachment points 
machined into it for the fiber feed and reimaging mirror.  Most of the parts of 
these stands still have to be anodized.  On the other hand, we have nearly finished 
designing the fiber feeds and the reimaging mirror and its mount.] (8) to take delivery 
of the CCD controller for the spectrograph from SDSU, [We had to order the computer for
this system through TSU after SDSU could not do it for us, and this is delaying 
delivery of the electronics to control the CCD further.  The computer is supposed to 
arrive in November (17th), so the CCD control system should be finished some time in 
December.] and (9) to continue procuring the material and services for constructing 
the camera for the spectrograph with the aid of Harland Epps. [This task is proceeding 
on schedule with delivery of most of the glass expected in November.]


                               II. ENCLOSURES

     We extended our contract with Sierrita Mining to furnish a storage building at 
the site to hold the box for the primary mirror, the pallets for the fork and top-end 
structure, and various test and assembly equipment too large to store in the telescope 
enclosure or control room.  We have arranged the furniture in the control room and 
nearly finished getting all the superfluous equipment out of the telescope enclosure.  
Boyd has made progress on getting the AST hooked up to the Internet.  


                               III. CONTROL SYSTEM

     Williamson continues to make progress on writing the control system for running the 
telescope.  He has now integrated the mount model into the control program, and added 
sensors to measure temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure, and started designing 
the routines to control the secondary mirror and instrument head.



                          IV. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE NEXT MONTH

During November, 2000, we expect to prepare for another work session at the observatory 
in early December to continue detailed testing of the telescope and its control system 
and to continue progress on the echelle spectrograph.  Specifically, we expect (1) to 
modify the telescope's base skirt to provide an access hole through it and to cut it off 
to a uniform height that will not rub the base,  (2) to obtain everything we need to 
move the control console for tests into the control building,  (3) to obtain material 
for finishing the secondary oil-return system (now manual, via a pan), for putting louvers 
into the pump house, for finishing the air sucker for the telescope and to send all this 
stuff out to Fairborn Observatory,  (4) to finish fitting together and testing the 
secondary mirror cell and instrument head as systems and decide how to get them out 
to the observatory, (5) with the help of NASA MSFC, to continue bugging Torus Optics to 
finish refiguring the secondary mirror,  (6) to continue assembling the mounts for the 
spectrograph optics and design the jigs for assembling the components in them, (7) to take 
delivery of the computer for the CCD controller for the spectrograph and send it to SDSU, 
and (8) to continue procuring the material and services for constructing the camera for 
the spectrograph with the aid of Harland Epps.