When we arrived the Observatory was in an unfortunate state. The hole at the top of the dome was open to the elements; the CCD Camera was hanging from the telescope at the end of a piece of nylon twine (originally a safety line). The hand-controller for the telescope was non-operational (error code 16), the SBIG STV system not operational because it needs the hand-controller functional (as I understand the reports of others), the robofocus was disconnected and it's operational state is undetermined; the video camera link from observatory to Hab was not working, and the computer for the Observatory was not there. On top of that the corrector plate of the telescope (what appears to be it's lens to those unfamiliar with Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes) was dusty and dirty. The azimuth screws were loose, and the screws that hold the mount to the auto-guider section were loose, pointing the scope manually was impossible because of the slop and play these loose screws caused.

The night we arrived the sky was jet black with thousands of brilliant stars, steady seeing, and virtually no light pollution. We anticipated nights of exciting visual astronomy; the 14 inch telescope is a magnificent window into the heavens, and even used manually is a powerful observing tool. The dome was secured, the telescope cleaned, the CCD brought into the Hab for safe keeping, the finder scope aligned. Cleaning and neatening up the observatory, and establishing the audio portion of the video/audio link to the hab was largely done by several able students from BYU who were here with Prof Allred. I believe they cleaned the corrector plate too; I cleaned the corrector plate with canned air and a small soft brush. The plate appeared quite clean following this so I did not use lens tissue and solution. Various screws were tightened up removing most of the play in the mount. Polar alignment will have to be redone some clear night when the hand-controller is fixed.

Despite the absence of the hand controller we were prepared to observe many targets visually and take digital pictures through the eyepiece. Unfortunately, we have had many cloudy nights in our rotation; the first three nights were clear but we were very busy getting squared away. We managed some snap views between clouds of Jupiter and some bright stars in Ursa Major to align the finder scope. We had a brief opportunity at twilight Feb 26th and photographed a strong waxing crescent moon high over head, and observed Venus in gibbous phase near the western horizon before the clouds returned. That was the extent of our observing. It is very awkward to slew and point that telescope by hand, there are no manual fine motion controls, and no setting circles, it is dependent on it's electronics and software. Faint deep sky targets would be difficult to acquire and track as it now stands.

Recommendations:

1. This telescope with these dark skies is a tremendous resource. Whatever work it takes to get it back online for remote use (by BYU or elsewhere) is worth it.
   
   
2. We were told that a replacement hand controller is in the works, that should be followed up on. According to Peter Deterline; The hand controller is in the works from Celestron. The problem is that they don't have one right now. They are quick and understand the importance of getting this out to us. They also have the address to send it as soon as they get one. So we're in a holding pattern with that one for now.
   
   
3. Placing a professional or amateur astronomer on a crew who is familiar with the equipment here, with the resources to finish setting the scope up should be a priority. BYU seems eager to help and to have the scope online. Peter Deterline was very helpful in guiding us with what we could do if the hand controller had been available.
   
   
4. Our crew had sufficient expertise to get the system working at least manually, and with a computer and hand controller that work, we could have gotten it online at least to the Hab. Whatever telescopes are sent with a manned Mars mission, they need to be robust and redundant, capable of being effectively used despite electronics and software failures. Indeed, that is a lesson for all Mars equipment, wherever possible a manual operation mode should be required Commander's Check-In