We are continuing the acceptance and development tests on the telescope begun in July, 2000. The work planned for our trip scheduled for late May, 2001, has to do mainly with developing the telescope control system to work automatically, with a secondary emphasis on getting the secondary mirror to work reliably enough to use the telescope as a Cassegrain system.

The work planned fell into four categories as follows:

1. MECHANICAL ADJUSTMENTS and augmentation of the telescope structure.
1. Replace the standoff for the secondary mirror cell and shim it to give the proper focal range for the Cassegrain system. (Eaton and Wells remade the standoff on 22 May and Eaton fitted it into the telescope on 25 May. Eaton and Williamson tested it by observing stars on 26 May, changed the shimming of the mirror in the cell to give the right range of motion and retested it on 27 May.)
2. Try to make up a fiber to lead light from the instrument head into a photometer to use in tracking tests. (We made this up before the trip to Arizona as a fiber glued into a piece of capillary tubing and an adapter. We fitted these together at the observatory on 28 May and put the fiber feed in the telescope with its output going into a video camera. We ran tests with this setup on 28 May, finding that the video camera we sere using wasn't sensitive enough to see light from most stars.)
2. ELECTRICAL WIRING.
1. Replace the cable to control the motors in the sceondary mirror cell with one that's more reliable. Reconfigure the placement of the amplifiers for these motors so all the wires fit. (Eaton wired these up the week before the trip and Williamson tested them. We put them into the telescope on 25 May and used them to run tests on 26 May.)
2. Integrate the JPEG server into the computer system at the observatory so that it will grab a frame every minute (through a cron job). (We set this up in the lab at TSU to test it and transferred it to the gateway computer at the observatory on 26 May. It works moderatly well except for the fact we haven't been able to get the web-based administrative module to work with Netscape.)
3. Work on MIRRORS.
1. Get the secondary mirror aluminized and get it back to Fairborn Observatory in time to use it in May. (Busby and Eaton arranged with Clausing to get the mirror coated and delivered to the observatory by 25 May.)
2. Retest the aluminized secondary mirror in the Cassegrain system. (We put the mirror in the telescope on 26 May, after replacing a broken motor in the cell and reshimming the attachments on 25 May, realigned it, and retested it for focus range.)
3. Make a mask for isolating various areas of the primary mirror and use it in testing the optical system. (We decided not to do this test because it was impracticable to get the material for it to the observatory.)
4. Take images with the full Cassegrain system to assess quality of the complete optical system. (We did this on the nights of 27, 28, and 29 May, getting images to assess the alignment of the telescope, the tracking algorithm, and the focus.)
4. Work on the DRIVES and CONTROL SYSTEM.
1. Run extensive tracking tests with the fiber feed in the instrument head to determine the best exposure times and techniques to use for the guiding camera. (We ran these on three nights, finding that the tracking works pretty well, even with a simplified tracking algorithm. Williamson has tried changes in the tracking algorithm which make it somewhat more reliable, and we have collectd images to use this summer in refining the tracking algorithm. In addition, Williamson has incorporated an exposure control into the tracking system, based on the V magnitude, that compensates somewhat for the low dynamic range of the guide camera.)
2. Run further acquisition tests with secondary mirror in place. (We ran these as part of the tracking tests described above.)
3. Get the roof control mechanisms/computer installed and operating. (Boyd finished all the physical parts of the roof-control system before our work session and started modifying the control program, which was originally written by Epand. He continued work on the controls during our work session, getting to the point of running the roof under computer control on 28 May. Mechanical problems with the roof drive (namely, loose sprockets on the chain drive which Boyd had to fix on successive days) kept us from running more extensive tests of the roof control.)
4. Get the communications between the roof computer and the telescope control computer set up and working reliably. (Williamson and Boyd set this up and tested it by activating the roof controller from the computer running the telescope.)
5. Get the telescope control computers to communicate reliably with the Fairborn Observatory weather station. (Williamson -- 4 hrs.)
6. Get the telescope control system to start automatically at the start of the night, to run automatically through a set of stars, then to close automatically at the end of the session. [This is an extension of work we did in March.] (We tested this startup procedure on 28 May and have written the code for determining when to a) open the roof, b) begin observing, and c) shut down to be incorporated into the control system.)
7. Construct and test a routine for automatically focusing the telescope. Assess the temperature dependence of the focus, if possible. (We collected images from the guide camera to use for this during the summer shutdown.)
8. Devise a scheme for determining the position of the fiber that can be automated and test it.(Williamson worked on this problem throughout our time at the observatory.)