Status Report from Rochester

[Stupendous Man <richmond@a188-l009.rit.edu>]

  Date: Sep 3, 2001

    I have set up a garden shed on the concrete pad at our
Observatory to house the Mark IV.  Inside are power and Ethernet.
Earlier in the summer, rainstorms left no trace of moisture inside
the shed, but in the past week I've noticed small puddles after
rain showers.  I want to track down the source of the leaks
and fix them before I put the Mark IV into the shed.

    I've written a simple Mark IV control program; it is 
designed to run on under Linux, and allow users to control the
camera either directly from the keyboard, or by editing a 
command file.  My goal is to allow remote users to interrupt the
default plan for a night in reponse to targets of opportunity.
Several other TASSians have mentioned plans to improve the
control program -- all of whom are welcome, of course!

    The academic quarter starts on Thursday, Sep 6, which will
cut dramatically into the time I have to devote to TASS tasks.

                                            Michael Richmond