TheSky X quit in the middle of a run (was:ACP and 3.8v6 Run Fell Apart)

[Robert Capon]

Hi Bob-

I'm not sure what happened, but ACP and 3.8v6 were running well all night, but then unravelled at 1011 UTC this morning. Here is the condition that I found: ACP was closed. Scheduler had a Windows message that it stopped working (probably because ACP was offline), the AAG weather software was frozen and showed ACP as connected, the ACP weather feed program was frozen and wouldn't close, TheSkyX program was closed, the scope was tracking at the sidereal rate, and the dome was closed. (It looks like Digital Domeworks saved the day. When ACP disconnected from DDW, that started an 8 minute clock, and after 8 minutes without a program connected, it timed out and closed the dome.) No damage to the telescope. ACP was imaging right up to the end, so it only tracked on its own for an hour.

I was sleeping when this all happened, so I did not stop the dispatcher. Up until then everything ran very well. I ran POSS half the night, and had a very productive imaging run the other half.

Two screen shots and two logs attached. In the second photo, notice ACP is not connected to the AAG sensor, but the AAG is showing that it's still "attached". The AAG program wouldn't even close with a ctrl-alt-del. I had to restart the machine and force the program to close. So this was a pretty messy end to an otherwise very good session.

Best,

Rob