OSU/RC Queue Observing: UTC 2010 Jan 12 =========================================== ========== Observers: ========== Steve Majewski (UVa), Rebecca Stoll (OSU), Rachael Beaton (UVa) Observing Assistent: Wayne Wack Support Astronomer: Dave Thompson Instrumentation: Tim Shih ========== Instrument: ========== LBC Blue ======== Summary: ======== Obserations: ------------ (1) CALIBS: (evening) 9 x Biases; (2) UVa_AND: Completed Observations of UVaAndXXII; One additional observation to fill time. (3) OSU_MONITOR: 2x Obs on M81; Completed M82; 2x Obs on N3627 (poor seeing) (4) UA_ZARITSKY: cl1103 (problems, see log); standard; cl1216; standard (5) ND_SN09DC: completed (6) CALIBS: (morning) 25xBiases; B,V,r_sloan,U x 5 quality variable Time Lost: ---------- (i) Lost one hour during twilight to a telescope problem (elevation not responding). (ii) Lost another ~30min to a focusing problem that resulted in a mirror lock up. Lessons Learned: ---------------- (i) Be careful about copying scripts over! and write detailed readmes to help us understand the science and diagnose problems with the OBs! This cost 30 of on sky observation! =============== Detailed Notes: =============== ** Search for your Program ID as listed in the Summary ** ====== CALIBS ====== UTC 00:05 - Start boot of LBC Blue. Some light clouds. Clear. UTC 00:51 - Set of 9 Biases (U filter, dome closed). * 500-700 Counts. Looks good. UTC 01:00 - Telescope Elevation Problems. UTC 02:02 - Problem Corrected. Lost 1 hour to Telescope Problems. ======= UVA_AND ======= UTC 02:05 - Move to AndXXII. UTC 02:10 - Run focus & collimation. UTC 02:15 - LBC crashed, LBC restarts. John Hill is now on speakerphone talking us through. UTC 02:18 - LBC Back up. Lost 3 min to Instrument Trouble. UTC 02:21 - Start UVaAndXXII_5. Guider Seeing ~1.2"; Estimate ~0.9" on Chip. UTC 02:32 - Images out of round on first few images. Telescope has cooled significantly. Stop OB, Rerun dofpia. UTC 02:38 - Restart UVaAndXXII_5. Seeing ~0.9" (from earlier images). * Images are Round, 1.0" in V Seeing! ** Touched up Z4 before the last image; Focus is a bit unstable due to coolig of mirror UTC 03:15 - Re-Focus; 0.97" from dofpia. UTC 03:18 - Start UVaAndXXII_1; Guider Seeing ~1.3"; Estimate ~1.0" on chip. * First images have 1.0" in B. ** Tweaked Z4 before 5th image in sequence. 1.25" by end of sequence. UTC 03:52 - dofpia; 1.0" from dofpia. UTC 03:57 - Start UVaAndXXII_2; * Focus is starting to stabilize. UTC 04:35 - dofpia 1.05" Seeing. Start UVaAndXXII_6 (V). UTC 05:15 - dofpia 1.07" Seeing. Start UVaAndXXII_3 (B). * Seeing degrading ~1.5" in B -- also at ~1.7 airmasses! UTC 05:54 - dofpia 1.35" Seeing. Start UVaAndXXII_4 (B) * Steady degredation of the seeing as we go to higher airmass, focus stable. * Some thin clouds on the horizon. UTC 06:28 - Start UVaAndXXII_7 (r_sloan). We added an exposure to fill time until the OSU_Monitor observations of M81 & M82 are in a more prime location. * Seeing ~ 1.4". Low elevation. UTC 07:02 - Finish UVaAnd! =========== OSU_MONITOR =========== UTC 07:02 - Move to OSUmonitor/M82. Run OSUmonitorM81focus.ob UTC 07:04 - dofpia: 1.04" Seeing. Clear, Photometric. Breezy/Gusty Winds. UTC 07:11 - Do OSUmonitorM81.ob - Seeing 1.0" UTC 07:35 - Notice script has stopped and the camera is not exposing. 3x120s img in V and 1x120s in SDT_Uspec obtained. * LBC control is sending commands to the Right Telescope and became hung. Stop script. ** Lost ~20 minutes. UTC 07:37 - Do OSUmonitorM82.ob * Looks good, running smoothly. UTC 07:47 - Re-do OSUmonitorM81focus.ob; Seeing 1.1" UTC 07:54 - Re-do OSUmonitorM81.ob * OB is only requesting 4 images; this may suggest we had completed the observations earlier ... still rerunning. * OB completed without error. Obtained 2x the data requested for this field. UTC 08:07 - Move to OSUmonitor/N3627 UTC 08:11 - Do OSUmonitorN3627focus.ob * dofpia is not happy, only one star in field (1.5") UTC 08:16 - Move to N3627 field. Run dofpia on field -- 1.2" dofpia worked okay on field. UTC 08:22 - Do OSUmonitorN3627.ob * Seeing is above the limit. There are no other LBC obs at this time. We will add exposure time to compensate for flux lost due to seeing. ** Seeing holding at 1.2" UTC 08:57 - dofpia on n3627 field UTC 09:00 - Do OSUmonitorN3627.ob * Seeing variable. B band seeing ~1.5" :-( Sorry! UTC 09:32 - Finish OSUmonitor! =========== UA_ZARITSKY =========== UTC 09:33 - Move to c11103. UTC 09:36 - do focus; weirdness; idl error; UTC 09:43 - re-do focus. Fail. UTC 10:08 - Mirror in Panic. Reset Mirror. * Lost 40 min to focusing problems. UTC 10:21 - start cl1103.ob Seeing 1.5" - 1.7" Photometric * OB is only reading out one chip. Target seems to be dithered out of the images. * OB is running a 4-split dither pattern. "Short" Photometric OBs are reading out all 4 chips. * We collectively decided that only having one chip read out is a mistake. UTC 11:19 - We are editing future observations to read out all chips for safety - it doesn't cost us anytime. UTC 11:22 - 2 of the 4 900s exposures contained the cluster. The other two were of a blank field. * Its important to have a detailed readme file to help us understand the observations. UTC 11:25 - Move to standard.ob (sa104) UTC 11:32 - Move to cl1216.ob; dofpia 1.3" Seeing UTC 11:39 - Do cl1216.ob **Note we changed the OB to read out all 4 chips** UTC 12:43 - Finiah cl1216.ob UTC 12:44 - Do standard.ob UTC 12:47 - Finish ========== ND_SN09DC ========== UTC 12:48 - Slew to SN09DC UTC 12:50 - dofpia 1.13" UTC 12:55 - Do sn09dc * (this will go into astronomical twilight) UTC 13:14 - Finished! ~1.1" Seeing. ====== CALIBS ====== UTC 13:15 - Run 25 biases. (~17min) UTC 13:30 - Test Twilights UTC 13:36 - Start Morning Twilights. Acquire in B,V,r_sloan,U; variable quality ... suggest PIs build super sky flats from the totality of the night's observations.