LBT OSU/RC Queue Observing: UTC 2008 March 9 Observers: Rick Pogge, Peter Garnavich, Jose Prieto TO: Aaron Ceranski AA: Marco Pedani Summary: Poor seeing (2-3") for much of the first part of the night and non-photometric, with a period of ~3h where observing was stopped by solid overcast (~5-8UTC). A few observations were started but aborted because we could not complete the epochs in the desired order because of weather (e.g., UM_Asteroid epoch 1 taken in marginal maximum seeing, but clouds kept us from getting the other 2 epochs within the prescribed timeframe). Towards dawn conditions and seeing improved to about 1.3-arcsec at B, but still non-photometric. Lots of clouds at sunrise. Some problems with the LBC GUI as noted below, and the usual slowness getting the system focussed at startup, hindered by rapidly falling temperatures (mirrors not equilibrated) and poor seeing. Total of 48 science frames in both cameras. Programs Observed: (limited by 1.5-arcsec seeing) OSUmonitor: Epochs for N2403, N4236, N4449, N5194 OSUmonitor dailies for M82, M81, N4258, and M101 Attempt to observe UM_Asteroid aborted by problems Detailed Notes: UT 23:39 - Taking darks 2x900s in each channel UT 01:05 - Taking 25 bias sequence Password for weather station: pvnc UT 01:30 - Opening the telescope UT 01:43 - Test flats 1sec exptime are saturated UT 01:48 - Starting BI flats. In red side its only reading out chip 2. UT 01:54 - Now changed to VV OB test flat; 5k counts in test image. Load flats OB - Scaled by 10 to get 10sec in each side. First images are 25k (blue side) and 29k (red side) - Scaled by 15 original OB after 2nd pair of images (~17k and 22k) .. took 5 flats in V&V UT 02:05 - Trying rR OB scaled by 10 - First images have 11-14k counts UT 02:10 - Slewing to SA98 standard field to see focusing - We start taking focus images .. 02:20 .. had to send big focus change (5000nm blue, 9000nm red) - Second iteration it needs positive Z11 (spherical) in red and blue channels .. looks better, central hole shows up clearly - Third iteration and lbcfpia finds reasonable values for corrections - After a while of fiddling around, we kind of gave up with the red .. blue converged soon .. we slew to NGC2403 at 03:16 UT 03:20 - Taking focus images .. after one iteration focusing converges, nice .. seeing not very good, probably around 1.3 arcsec UT 03:24 - Started NGC2403 OB BR .. seeing much worse than thought, 2.2 and 2.0 arcsec in blue and red - Did NGC 2403 under bad seeing conditions - Moving to UM Asteroid field - 03:34 had to restart the gui a few times .. it seemed like the OB was making the gui crash .. Rick suggested loading another OB (focus) and after that it worked. UT 03:49 - Started running UM asteroid program epoch1 .. VV OB - Seeing in blue side is 11pixels = 2.5 arcsec, seeing in red 14 pixels = 3.2 arcsec - Running a focus again because the seeing in red V-band looks too bad UT 04:04 - Started UM asteroid program again after running the focus OB - Seeing in blue side V is 10.5=2.4 arcsec UT 04:17 - Moved to M82 and started to take a focus images and run OB UT 04:27 - Started M82 OB .. VR first - There are some clouds - Seeing is 9 pix in R = 2.1 arcsec, 8.8pix in V = 2.0 from the first images - Started the M82 OB at 04:37 .. getting guiding failures due to clouds passing by UT 04:50 - Moved to UM Asteroid program and run focus OB .. its overcast now UT 04:59 - Started the UM Asteroid OB, epoch2 - Guiding on blue failing momentarily due to clouds - First images looked moved due to lost of guiding (clouds) UT 07:00 - Reopening after closing due to clouds .. counts of polaris in seeing monitor look stable now - When reopening the gui crashes .. telescope not going to position due to connection between LBC and telescope. UT 7:15 - Moved to M81 field and taking focus image. - Filter hardware failure in red side when running the focus OB (similar to last night failures) .. going from V to r - First focus image .. trying to take second but nothing is happening after starting the OB, camera just sits there - Had to turn off LBC because it was not responding .. probably a similar filter failure .. after turning on, OB doesn't run again, doesn't time out and doesn't give a message with the problem. - Turn LBC off/on again .. didn't do anything after trying running the OB once again - Now we turn off everything, including LBC connection - Turn on LBC connection (07:54!). Aaron restarted the "RPC server" connection that died. UT 08:06 - Finally, after restarting RPC server, the telescope is moving and LBC is moving filters, taking focus image, etc. - After 3 focus iterations we are finally ready to go and start science exposures UT 08:15 - Started science VV OB exposure .. red channel OB execution error, filter was not moving .. second time seems to be ok - Seeing is 8 pixels= 1.8 arcsec in V red - Seeing is 6.5 pixels = 1.5 arcsec in R red - Running M81 OB again to look at the offset of the V filter in red side .. changed by -0.08mm and the image looks better (stars were elongated before) UT 08:47 - Moved to NGC4236 and doing focus .. looks good after one iteration UT 08:53 - Started science exposure BR OB. - Seeing in R is 6.5 pixels = 1.5 arcsec, and 1.9 arcsec in B (first images), 1.9 arcsec in U - Seeing in R is 6 pixels = 1.4 arcsec (last R image) - Clouds are passing by, the background level is changing and we have lost polaris  a couple times - Run the focus OB in the same target, we will run the OB again UT 09:11 - Started to run science OB in NGC4236 (second time) - Server crashed after finishing the OB and trying to load a new OB UT 09:28 - Moving to NGC4449 to do focus .. after two iterations we converge UT 09:38 - Started science OB BR - Seeing is now pretty bad in seeing monitor (~4 arcsec) - Seeing is 5.8 pix = 1.3 arcsec in first R image .. B image doesn't look very good in focus - Seeing 6.3pix = 1.4 arcsec in V image (last) UT 09:54 - Started another OB of NGC4449 - Seeing ~ 1.3 arcsec in R .. finishing this one we go to NGC4258 UT 10:06 - Moving to NGC4258 to take focus images - After two iterations it looks good UT 10:17 - Started science OB for NGC4258 .. guide stars failed, clouds - Restarting the OB after guiding failure in previous exposure - Guiding is not very good after restarting, more clouds - Seeing is 7.8pix = 1.8 arcsec in R, and 8.5pix in B - Guiding failed a couple of times .. clouds .. seeing better (1.1-1.2 arcsec) in later R images but observing through clouds UT 10:58 - Moving to NGC5194 focus field .. first focus images not used because mirror was still moving - Needed just one focus iteration .. seeing looks like improving UT 11:06 - Started science OB BR on NGC5194 (M51) - Very nice first images .. seeing is 4.0pix=0.9 arcsec in R, 5pix=1.1 arcsec in B - 4.5pix = 1 arcsec in first V image UT 11:43 - Moved to M101 and getting first focus image now .. good after one iteration UT 11:48 - Started science OB - Seeing still decent .. 5.2pix=1.2 in R, and 6.4pix=1.4 arcsec in B (first images) UT 12:21 - Moved to take morning flatfields - Starting with test rR OB .. first scaled the exptime by 30 - Only ~2k counts in the first batch of flats - Second set of flats we scale to 60sec, to few counts in the first .. ended up with ~8k counts - Third set has 30s exptime .. - Fourth and last set with 10s UT 12:54 - Started BI flat OB .. no scaling - Did Uz flat OB .. closing the telescope now UT 13:30 - Running 25bias OB .. - Running 3bias OB .. thats it for tonight --- Jose