=========================================== LBT OSU/RC Queue Observing: UTC 2010 Jan 10 =========================================== ========== Observers: ========== Steve Majewski (UVa), Rebecca Stoll (OSU), Rachael Beaton (UVa) Observing Assistent: David Gonzalez Huerta Support Astronomer: Marco Pedani ========== Instrument: ========== Lucifer - Red Arm ======== Summary: ======== Completed: (1) ND_SN08Q -- J Imaging (~1 hour spent / 0.8 hour estimated) (2) UM_KTERI -- KJz Spectroscopy + Cals (~4 hour spent / 1.1 hour estimated) (3) OSU_MARTINI -- HJKs Imaging (~1.5 hour spent; 2x Exp Time / 1 hour estimated) Partial: (1) OSU_ASSEF -- Acquired Telluric Standard and some low S/N data. Weather: Clear & Stable. Some Light Cirrus. Good Seeing at ~0.6". Cirrus increase over the night and then become variable, seeing remained stable at ~1.0". By Sunrise, clouds were heavy. Problems: (1) Lost 3.5 hours a mask lock up. (2) Lost 0.5 hours to Telescope Pointing problems. (3) Lost much time to checking, rechecking and trouble shooting script problems. Lessons Learned: (1) Double Check all Guide Stars. Need good tool to do this. (2) Proof Scripts and always double check the moves that LUCIFER makes. (3) Do not use relative offsets. =============== Detailed Notes: =============== ~~Search the page for your program ID to see relevent comments~~ **Previous Observers locked us out of the observing computers. This delayed our start and we were unable to obtain skyflats in the narrow filters. UTC 00:25 - Boot LUCIFER. === SKY FLATS === ================= UTC 00:41 --> 01:20 - Sky Flats. ~10 good s/n flats in K_s and J. **Note on Flats:** Take one manual exposure without saving to get an estimate of counts. Then, take a large number of frames with exptimes aimed at 10k counts from your estimate. Let this run until the counts drop to ~300. Then stop the sequence. To do the narrow band filters, must start ~40 min before sunset. === SETUP === ============= UTC 01:21 - Check pointing, pointing model and collimation. Some problems with pointing. UTC 02:11 - Seeing ~0.6" in r_sloan. Photometric. Sky Brightness V_band ~21.72 mag/ss Proceed to do the ND_sn08q LUCIFER Imaging program after double checking the pointing near the location of sn08q. === ND_SN08Q PROGRAM === ======================== UTC 02:16 - Start ND_sn08q program. No problems with script, found guide star, collimated. Seeing ~0.5" First image is 0066 Confirmed we are on field. === UM_KTERI PROGRAM === ======================== UTC 03:10 - Start UM_KTEri program. Problem with Guide Star as selected in Acquisition script for the Telluric Standard. ** GUIDE STAR was specified for a POSITION ANGLE 180 from the position angle specified. ** Random error with the Mask Unit caused a total freeze of the instrument. Called Munich to have Instrument Scientist reset the switch. Searching for new guide star! **We really need a good and easily transportable tool to help pick the guide stars appropriately UTC 04:43 - Finally corrected problem (required "blind" instructions from a recently woken up LUCIFER team member in Munich over a spotty phone connection). UTC 04:44 - Found the source of the guide star error. Position Angle was not defined properly for the lucifer system. Adjusted guide star to existing position angle. UTC 04:45 - Re-start UM_KTEri program. Seeing ~0.9" r_sloan. UTC 05:05 - Prt1: Telluric Standard - Faint Companion? Acquired in K,J,z. UTC 05:11 - Prt2: Object. Some Cirrus. K band has good signal to noise. UTC 05:36 - LUCIFER did not change filter from K to J, even though requested in script. **IMAGE .0111.fits IS BAD!!!** Problem submitted to IssueTrak. UTC 05:43 - Lost Guide Star ?? or Problem with Pointing ?? Aborting J Band Obj script. **IMAGE 0113, 0114, 0115, 0116 ARE BAD!!** Image 0112 is okay. UTC 05:51 - Problem diagnosed: somehow offset pattern put object off of image (and lost guide star). We are copying the K band nod pattern into the J and z scripts. K band script worked. UTC 05:53 - Reacquiring target, running J band script. UTC 06:09 - Grating Failed to be inserted properly. Script syntax is correct. Seems like the instrument ignored the command from the script. Letting script finish to avoid having to repoint the telescope, then adjusting. Reporting to IssueTrak. **IMAGES to 0129 ARE ALL BAD.** UTC 06:15 - Manually changed grating, camera and filter. Restart J Science Script. Images start at 0133. Lovely, good S/N. UTC 06:25 - Start z script. Starts image 0139 Good S/N. **NOTA BENE: When using relative offsets in a series of scripts, you must NOT COMMENT OUT the TELESCOPE SETUP block in the script. Otherwise, the second set of observations will start where the previous relative offset ended. This is particularly troublesome when scripts are aborted!! Using ABSOLUTE offsets completely allieviates this problem, since the Telescope will just offsets from the TELESCOPE SETUP blocks last entered. **We recommend only using absolute offsets.** **NOTA BENE: In KT_Eri-J telescope setup was commented out UTC 06:34 - Stopped Guiding. Put in Calibration Unit. Start ARC Calibration Scripts in K, J, z. UTC 06:50 - Starting FLAT Calibration Scripts in K, J, z. **Although this program will only see ~1.1 hours of actual data, we have spent more than 5 hours on it (1.5 to technical problems) but the remainder to sorting out errors in the scripts. **We are uncertain about how the flat focal plane was set up. UTC 07:00 - Flushing Detector. UTC 07:05 - Move to SpectroPhotometric Calibrator (White Dwarf). Acquire, Adjust Pointing. Collimate, Expose in K, J, z. ** WD looks to faint to be the actual target. Offsets in the script were in the wrong order which resulted in observing the target in the same location on the slit. These problems are hard to diagnose. Relative offsets should NEVER be used. ** WD target was hard to identify. ** Some Clouds -- Non-Photometric; Getting very low flux in the WD. Problems with script operation. UTC 08:40 - Very little data acquired for the GD 71. We are giving up. We spent 4 hours on this program and did not complete it. K & J band with VERY low signal to noise. Did not do z band, too many clouds. UTC 08:41 - Clouds. Up to 5 magnitudes of extinction in places. === OSU_MARTINI === ==================== UTC 08:50 - Start OSU_martini imaging. Only remaining broad band imaging project. UTC 08:55 - Mask lock up again when switching to imaging. Calling Munich. Adding to IssueTrak. UTC 09:58 - Still waiting to be able to fix the mask problem. UTC 10:35 - Problem Solved! Sorry Martini Program, we're going to something else. **LOST 2 HOURS** === OSU_ASSEF === ================= UTC 10:38 - Looks Clear. Edit Telluric Standard for "OS" to "OBS" typo, set telescope_mode to active, and update instrument setup parameters in acquisition scripts. UTC 10:40 - Mask becomes locked again. Calling Munich (again). **Problem: The nb6 slot is now empty, the 0.5" slit is now in position nb26. ALL scripts must be edited to this change. ** Recommend that the script "test" program be released to users to find errors in the LUCIFER script. UTC 10:56 - Starting Acq Script for Telluric Standard. ** Images 0204, 0205, 0206 UTC 11:08 - Telluric Standard Obtained. Moving to Science Data. ** Quick Reduce: > 8000 cts in single exposure UTC 11:25 - Found Object! Seeing ~0.6" UTC 11:40 - Start Sci Script. Some clouds. UTC 11:58 - Clouds moving in. Little to no signal in 0213 and 0214 ... UTC 12:04 - Abandoing program due to clouds. === OSU_MARTINI === =================== UTC 12:05 - Manually remove mask. Switch back to broad band imaging. UTC 12:07 - Adjust Pointing. UTC 12:14 - On field. Do J,H,K. Run full set of scripts again to account for clouds. Can see the galaxy cluster in a difference image, but perhaps not the lens. UTC 12:45 - Most images are heavily dominated by sky ... increasing total exposure time for this program. UTC 13:11 - Lost Guide Star. Checked Pointing. UTC 13:20 - Too Cloudy & Bright. Wait to do H Flats. === Flats === ============= UTC 13:35 - No Flats. Increasing clouds, moon and threatening rain/snow. === Darks === ============= UTC 13:40 - Start dark script for all readout, save, and other exposure modes used for the night.