LBT data mining leads to increased open shutter time

The software group at the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBTO)1 used logs and telemetry related to telescope control system behavior to investigate improving the operational efficiency of the telescope. Our investigation unearthed several surprises of unknown, unexpected, and undesired system behavior. What had been implemented was not always the same as what we thought had been implemented. A bit of rework using minimal resources would provide an inexpensive and immediate benefit leading directly to a more efficient operation. Also noted were software resource usage anomalies that had gone unnoticed and areas where logging and telemetry data was inadequate to answer fundamental questions. We considered trade-offs regarding what and when to modify configuration parameters, hardware, and software that when changed, would increase performance. In this paper we statistically examine the raw data and model system improvements for different implementations when viewed as a system. We also compare the overall system performance before and after the modifications we have implemented.