LBT OSU/RC Queue Observing: UTC 2009 January 28

Observers: Linda Watson, Paul Martini
TO: Aaron Ceranski
AA: Olga Kuhn

Summary:

The seeing started out above 2.5'', and evenutally worked it's way down
to a low of about 1.2''.  The night started off with some wispy
clouds, mainly on the horizon.  The humidity dropped from 68% at the
beginning of the night to 8% around UT 0600.  Then the humidity rose
up to about 30% by the end of the night. Some clouds, mostly on the
horizon, at sunrise.

Observed: NGC 628, NGC 925, NGC 3077, NGC4236, NGC 4214, NGC 4395, NGC
4449, NGC 4605, NGC 4736, NGC 5194, NGC 5474, IC 2574, NGC 4258

Note that many of the observations were made under worse seeing
conditions than requested. 

Detailed Notes:

UT0120

Slightly late start due to problems with one of the doors. Obtained 
B/R twilight flats, although the count rates are fairly low. 

UT0200 

Spent a great deal of time with focusing. Seeing is very poor
(2-3"?), perhaps in part because of a several degree differential between the 
mirror and ambient temperatures. Eventually started a sequence on 
NGC628 for OSU_monitor, but aborted due to poor image quality 
and tried another focus sequence.

UT 0300

Another attempt at NGC 628. Seeing is now about 2.5"

UT 0415

Moved to NGC 925.  Spent ~45 minutes focusing.

UT 0500

Seeing at NGC 925 ~ 2.7''

UT 530

Focus at NGC 925 again and observe block one more time because seeing
is so bad.  Seeing ~ 1.8''

UT 0600

Focued at NGC3077 for about 20 minutes then observed.  Seeing ~ 1.5''

UT 0640

Focused at NGC 4236 for about 15 minutes and then observed.  Blue
channel was out of focus, so we refocused and observed the block
again.  Seeing ~ 1.5''

UT 0740

Focused at NGC 4213 for about 15 minutes and then observed.  Red was
out of focus, so we refocused and observed the block again.  Red was
still out of focus after refocusing.  Seeing ~ 1.4'' (being out of
focus, effective red seeing ~ 2.2'').

UT 0830

Focused at NGC 4395 for about 10 minutes and then observed.  Seeing ~
2''

UT 0850

Focused at NGC 4449 for about 10 minutes and then observed.  Seeing ~
1.3''

UT 0910

Focused at NGC 4605 for about 10 minutes and then observed.  Exposures
not in good focus.  Including bad focus, seeing ~ 1.7''.

UT 0935

Focused at NGC 4736 for about 10 minutes and then observed.  Seeing ~
1.5''

UT 1000

Quick focus at NGC 5194 and then observations.  Seeing ~ 1.3 - 2.1''.

UT 1045

Focused at NGC 5475 and then observations.  Seeing ~ 1.4''.


UT 1130

Focused at I2574 and then observations.  Seeing ~ 1.3''.

UT 1200

Focused at NGC 4258 and then observations.  Seeing ~ 1.3''.  Exposures
got out of focus by the end of the OB.

UT 1245 - UT 1315

Mirror was stuck after reaching a bending limit and trying to reset
all parameters to the lookup table values.

UT 1315

Tried to get data on NGC 4826, but it was too bright already.

Sky flats: 5 VV and 5 UY flats obtained.  Some have counts that are
too high.

We were not able to get more BR flats in the morning.