OSU/RC Queue Observing: UTC 2010 Jan 13 =========================================== ========== Observers: ========== Steve Majewski (UVa), Rebecca Stoll (OSU), Rachael Beaton (UVa) Observing Assistent: Wayne Wack Support Astronomer: Dave Thompson Instrumentation: Tim Shih ========== Instrument: ========== LUCIFER ======== Summary: ======== The evening started clear but clouds came rapidly. We doubled to tripled exposure times on evening projects. We fought up to 5 magnitudes of extinction at times. We used sucker holes where possible to obtain some data. Obserations: ------------ (1) CALIBS: (evening) Br_gamma, H2, FeII, Pa_beta, K_s, H, J ** See notes on specific flats!!** (2) OSU_SMBH: s50014+cals; hs0810+cals (did sciobs 3x to boost flux) ** See notes for concerns. (3) OSUM33: did program 2x to boost flux in clouds. ** See notes for concerns/comments. (4) OSUASSEF: he0435 acquired, but unable to get spectra (5) OSU_SAG: We were able to find the fields, but were unable to find guide stars in the field in 5 mags of extinction. Cals were acquired. (6) UVa_IC883: We did 1/4 of the Exptime in the 2 bands without collimation but with guiding. Focus was poor, but data were acquired. Time Lost: ---------- (1) Lost 2x 30min to a instrument mask lockup. (2) Lost ~3hrs to poor weather. Lessons Learned: ---------------- (1) It would benefit the observers to have a standard readme file format. At least for information pertinent to observing (magnitudes, desired S/N,etc) (2) PI Contact information needs to be in the readme at the top. (3) JITTER scripts will only take absolute offsets. (4) Backup bad weather proposals wouldn't hurt to have. =============== Detailed Notes: =============== ** Search for your Program ID as listed in the Summary ** ====== CALIBS ====== ** Observers needing more flats can try to access flats from the technical runs in early January. The flats should be stable to 1-3% between the runs (according to the instrument scientists). UTC 23:47 -- Start Narrow Band Flats: Br_gamma * First 10 images are bad - weird spot on images - (img# 01-10 -- BAD) * Test comes out okay, doing x10; ~5k CTS (img# 11-20) UTC 23:51 -- H2 Narrow Band Flats * x10 H2 Flats, ~5k CTS (img# 21-30) UTC 23:53 -- FeII Narrow Band Flats * x10 FeII Flats, ~10k CTS (img# 31-40) UTC 23:58 -- Paschen Beta Narrow Band Flats * x10 Pa_beta, ~ 15k CTS (img# 41-50) ** If you can see the quadrant boundaries in the image display, this is an indicator of a highly variable sky, which may result in bad flats. This was only seen in the Pa_beta flats. Users needing flats in this band should try to access flats taken during recent technical runs. All LBT users have access to data taken as "calib." If you cannont find flats during recent runs, contact the SA for this run -- and the headers in these files can be adjusted in the archive (can also try to search using the LUCIFER SDT username/passwords in the archive). UTC 00:01 -- Done with Narrow Band Flats; Rotate & Reset Enclosure to update encoders. * some clouds on the horizon. seems clear overhead. UTC 00:29 -- Start Broad Band Flats -- K_short * x10 K_s, ~20k CTS (img# 51-60) UTC 00:49 -- H Broad Band Flats ** Could not start H Flats until after sunset! ** * x10 H,2s ~15k CTS (img# 61-70) * Thick front on the horizon ... UTC 00:54 -- J Broad Band Flats * x10 J 2s ~9k CTS (img# 71-80) UTC 00:56 -- Finished with Twilight Cals. Checking Pointing. * Tonight we are going to focus on bright, short targets to help reduce overheads and maximize our time (e.g. fighting clouds). We want to get as many complete observations as possible! ======== OSUSMBH ======== ** Will start with s50014 observations. UTC 01:26 -- Check pointing near first Telluric Std hip2306 UTC 01:29 -- Run: OSU_SMBH.HIP02628K_acq.script UTC 01:33 -- Mask frozen. UTC 02:02 -- Mask Unfrozen. Lost 30 min to Instrument. UTC 02:06 -- Run: OSU_SMBH.HIP02628K_acq.script UTC 02:11 -- Run: OSU_SMBH.HIP02628K_sci.script * Seeing is 0.7" in the Guider, but slightly variable. * img# 087 & 088; Quick Extract shows good signal. UTC 02:22 -- Run: OSU_SMBH.S5_0014_acq.script * Acquisition okay. ** A zoom of the finding chart with a slit overlay on the target would be helpful! Also, a larger jpeg. Otherwise, very smooth scripts! UTC 02:28 -- Run: OSU_SMBH.S5_0014_sci.script * img# 93 & 94 * Signal is too low! UTC 02:40 -- Get Flat & Arc ( OSU_SMBH.wave210K.script & OSU_SMBH.ff210K.script ) UTC 02:57 -- Move to: OSU_SMBH.HIP29600K_acq.script * Guide Star seems faint. ~2 mag extinction from clouds. * Collimation stuck, but telescope seems to be guiding. UTC 03:11 -- Do: OSU_SMBH.HIP29600K_sci.script UTC 03:17 -- Re-homeing the guider probe. The probe did not move to the guide star. UTC 03:33 -- Further problems with guiding/collimation. Will take the standard without guiding -- using track mode. The star is 6th mag in K (heavy blocking filters are used, but this should be okay). UTC 03:39 -- Finish. 2 hrs; lost ~45min to problems. ======= OSUM33 ======= UTC 03:39 -- Do: OSUM33.scriptH * Do broadband first to check position and estimate extinction. * Guide star is slow to acquire ** Jitters can only use ABSOLUTE offsets! Changed the script. ** Offsets are too small for the collimation to keep up. MUST have more than 45 seconds at a position. We are editing the script sp that NDIT=2 exposures, jitter=4, DIT= 30 (to make darks easier). 30s exposures in H-band may be too long since H band sky is bright. * Not sure if we are getting the signal that is requested. Running the Hband script a 2nd time to help boost flux. UTC 04:06 -- Do: OSUM33.scriptFe * Edit script for 30 second exposures and upped jitter positions to 7. * Altered Jitter to 13 to increase flux while observing in clouds. UTC 05:17 -- Finished. Obtained 2x the requested observations. * 1.75 hrs; ======== OSUASSEF ======== UTC 05:17 -- Slew to Pointing star near position of he0435. * readme file is very clear -- thank you! UTC 05:31 -- Do: OSUAssef.HE0435.acquisition.script UTC 05:35 -- Mask LockUp. * Very cloudy. Loose 20 min. UTC 05:55 -- Return to OSUAssef.HE0435.acquisition.script * Acquired target. Able to resolve the 4 lenses. Faint! * Centered the target on the slit ... UTC 06:15 -- Preset configuration was lost, must re-acquire. High clouds. Lost Guide star. Moving away from the clouds. Additionally there is not enough time before this target gets too low to do the observations. :(. ======= OSUSMBH ======= UTC 06:23 -- Move to HS0810. Guide star is too faint. Replaced with a much brighter star (R2 ~ 8) and changed the rotator angle to 180 to find this brighter star (hopefully this is okay!). UTC 06:33 -- On field. Guide star is good. Found Target. Very bright! UTC 06:50 -- Start OSU_SMBH.HS0810_sci.script * Did a quick extract, getting ~300 counts in what we predict is H_beta. In one set of obs this is 4x ~300 cts = 1200cts. We will run a second and third time to reach a S/N of 50 in the H_beta line (at least) as described in the readme. We are not sure where the continuum is measured in order to estimate a S/N there. UTC 07:06 -- Start OSU_SMBH.HS0810_sci.script UTC 07:19 -- Start OSU_SMBH.HS0810_sci.script UTC 07:34 -- Start OSU_SMBH.wave210J.script UTC 07:42 -- Start OSU_SMBH.ff210J.script UTC 08:03 -- Start TelluricStd: OSU_SMBH.HIP41798J_acq.script; Start Telluric Std: OSU_SMBH.HIP41798J_sci.script; * Changed the rotation angle of this to match the science data (and arcs). We will take the observation in track mode instead of guiding. This will be okay for the short exposures needed for this bright star. * Sky is clearing a bit. * No light is coming through the slit -- img# 310 is bad * Track mode is probably not sufficient at high elevation. UTC 08:08 -- Instrument will not update with manual settings. * Restarting the instrument manager. Instrument is following commands in Munich. * TURNS out LUCIFER does not like elevations > 85 degrees. We, unfortunately, discovered its operational altitude limit :-)! * Skip telluric for now to wait for it to fully transit passed 85 degrees. UTC 08:25 -- Start OSU_SMBH.HIP41526J_acq.script Start OSU_SMBH.HIP41526J_sci.script * Changed the rotation angle of this to match the science data (and arcs). We will take the observation in track mode instead of guiding. This will be okay for the short exposures needed for this bright star. * Adjusted the guidestar to allow the PA=180 and keep consistent with the cals. * Eventually decided to guide. UTC 09:03 -- Re-Start TelluricStd: OSU_SMBH.HIP41798J_acq.script; * Acquired, Running. Lots of flux! * Trying to run the Standards in Track mode is not effective at high elevation. * Guided for these observations. UTC 09:16 -- FINISHED! 3 hours; lost ~30min to instrument troubles. ======= OSU_SAG ======= UTC 09:17 -- Move to position of OSUsag.script2mass2.acq; Halt Script, Move in CAL unit. * Plan is to do cal, sci, telluric, sci, cal, rv_std UTC 09:25 -- Do: OSUsag.scriptarc.obs && OSUsag.scriptspecflat.obs UTC 09: -- Acquire 2mass2 via OSUsag.script2mass2.acq * Guide Star is too faint. Searching for a brighter guide star; none available in this field. * Frantically searching observations for possibility of bright guide stars (e.g. 8 < R2 < 10) UTC 10:21 -- Moved to an R2 = 9.36 magnitude guide star near 2mass3 ... ============== Futile Efforts ============== UTC 10:30 -- Can't find the guide star or the target - H=9 target (both really really bright). Searching for other programs with bright guide stars and bright targets. Estimating 5 magnitudes of extinction ... but not giving up hope yet! UTC 10:31 -- Moving to IC883, an imaging project. We don't think we can accurately position targets on the slit nor find good guide stars. We hope a short image program like this might withstand guiding/collimation errors. UTC 10:33 -- Guide star (R2=13.6) is too faint to guide or to collimate. The only visible objects in the sky are planets. UTC 10:40 -- Slewing to Mars. Only off a bit from Mars, offsetting. UTC 10:55 -- Sucker Hole opened up overhead, going back to IC883. UTC 11:00 -- Started UVa_IC883_H2.txt * Totally out of collimation. With no wavefront sensing, this is useless. * There is nothing bright enough to focus on. UTC 11:09 -- Slewing to Saturn; Out of Focus Br_gamma image of Saturn (im# 384) UTC 11:23 -- Slew back to UVa_IC883_H2.txt; Pointing/Focus problems. UTC 11:32 -- Went to pointing star, cleaned up pointing; Focus on a Pointing star using manual estimations. Finally focused, good seeing! UTC 12:50ish -- Running IC883_H2.txt; 13.6 magnitude guide star looks like 18th mag. Not collimating only guiding ... * We obtained 11x 1min images of IC883 in H2 and then in BraGamma. We did this with guiding but with out active optics. Cloud cover was heavy. We recollimated in between the filters. The focus had drifted considerably. To end the night we went back to Saturn and did short observations in narrow band filters. We were able to guide on an 8.5 magnitude star (13.5 with the estimated 5 mags of extinction) and were able to obtain a decent image of a +0.8 object. Hopefully, this illuminates the severity of the weather conditions and how hard we tried to obtain data in these conditions. ==== CALS ==== UTC 13:23 -- Start script for darks for all independent dectector setups and exposure times. These will run during the day and will not show up in the attached data_log. These will still be on UT 13 Jan