Shutter Failure




Telescope MDM 2.4m
Date 11/19/1995
Instrument Charlotte
Filter V_KittPeak
Exposure
Time

300 s
Other Image not processed.

Problem:

The bright trails of the stars in this images are due to the fact that the shutter was not closed when the CCD was read out. During the readout process, light was still able to hit the CCD and produced the star trails which will therefore always point in the direction in which the CCD is read out (in this case, toward the top of the image). It is readily apparent that brighter stars produce much more of a trail than fainter ones which, if they are faint enough, do not produce any kind of noticable trail at all.

Fix:

There is no easy fix to this problem. If the shutter is actually failing, the best solution will most likely be to contact technical assistance.

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