___________________ List of tasks that could possibly be automated, as discussed by Greg and Jeff ___________________ - azimuth : royal pain in the arse right now because of intermittent failures, but that may change soon - snow removal : with dry air (jeff suggests nitrogen) blowing on at least the tertiary, possibly the primary - coarse actuator change : so much snow accumulates on the coarse actuator bellows that a winter actuator change requires a bit of brushing and TLC. We need to rethink the actuator coverings if we ever want to be able to switch actuator positions remotely. Greg says: Jeff says that switching actuator positions in the way we would like (without spilling our helium) may be possible. It sounds like it is a matter of someone trying it out and watching it with one hand on the kill button. The software changes will not be hard (in fact, now that I think about it, it is probably just be a matter of going to the "elevation limits" menu option and changing the two stow locations. I have to think about it). - cryogenics : not much more we can do about this. Timbuktu and the X10 help a lot. - batteries : again, not much we can do. But this is only every 1.5-2 days. Giles says: we expect 2-4 days with new batteries. They are in SPARO closet and are labelled clearly as "2000" batteries. Preamp batteries may be on floor - others are on top shelf on right as you go in to closet - chopper amplitude : will we ever be changing the throw on a regular basis? Is it worth controlling this via GPIB port? Giles says: doubtful