LBT OSU/RC Queue Observing: UTC 2009 March 22 

Observers: Paul Martini, Ondrej Pejcha
TO: David Gonzalez-Huerta 
AA: Olga Kuhn

Summary:

We observed for close to seven hours. The first 1.5 hours (some twilight)
were lost due to poor convergence of the new dofpia script. There was 
substantial Z22 (5th order spherical) and this prevented the script from 
converging for SX. The presence of Z22 appears to be tied to the presence of 
a radial thermal gradient in the mirror. The last ~1.5 hours were lost due to 
thick clouds. The rest of the night had partly cloudy conditions and variable 
seeing of between 1" and 2". 

Observed:

OSU_monitor: M81,M82,N3344,N3627,N4258,M101,IC2574

Detailed Notes:

UT 0000 

Biases 

UT 0200

Started setup, trouble with blue side convergence due to the presence 
of substantial 5th order spherical, which the script does not solve for 
and is somewhat degenerate with focus. (A nice upgrade to the dofpia script 
would be that if one side converges it would stop running on that side.) The 
image quality is about 1" on the red side and 1.5" at best on the blue side. 

UT 0330

Finally got started on M81,M82 after inputing +300 Z22 by hand. The blue side 
image quality is still poor (between 1.3 and 1.8 toward end of M82), while 
the red side FWHM is about 1". 

UT 0500

Trying NGC3344. Added more Z22 to SX to bring the total to +400. There is 
substantial improvement, but probably another 100 is still warranted. Seeing 
about 1.5", better in red than blue. Some rotator jumps in blue. 

UT 0545

NGC3627 observed with similar image quality. Transparency deteriorating (lost 
Polaris temporarily). 

UT 0640

NGC4258 with 1.2" FWHM in both channels. Convergence was faster and 
no sign of Z22 in blue. Repeated the OB because of poor transparency. 

UT 0820

Observed M101 once. Noticed that the rotator moved between the first and 
second images (both sides). The first blue image is trailed. This is also 
apparent in some previous (and subsequent) images. The cause appears to be 
that the OB checks that the rotator position is correct, but not the PA, 
at the start of the OB. But since there is a small slew (due to the focus 
offset field), the PA does change at fixed rotator angle due to this 
offset. After the first exposure is finished, the LBC software seems to 
realize that the PA is incorrect and moves the rotator, but starts at 
least the next blue image too quickly. 

UT 0900

Observed IC2574 twice due to continued poor transparency. 

UT 0950

Repeated M101.  

UT 1030 

Incoming thick clouds, lost pupil images and closed.