Observing log for UT20110206.


Weather: Cirrus at sunset, clearing later, and returning with slightly
thicker clouds toward UT11:00. High winds (~20 m/s) at the beginning
of the night, causing us to lose ~2 hours before slowing down to 10 to
15 m/s.


Seeing: 1.5'' to 2.0'' 


Programs: 
UM_UM_AZ_Bechtold: Partially complete. Because we opened
late, we were chasing it into the west. Poor seeing. Guide star
problems caused the script to abort after about 0.4 hour.

OSU_SMBH: "Last resort" program. 3 targets observed when we couldn't
do other programs due to RA, seeing, instrument issues, or clouds.

OSU_a1689: We chose not to pursue this program tonight because of the
clouds. But we did confirm that we get errors for both the primary and
secondary guide stars for "position 4".

ND_oldsn-ir: Completed, with no problems except that the seeing was
around 1.5'' instead of the requested 1.0''.


Detailed log:

01:05 Sunset. Variable fast-moving cirrus. High wind prevents opening.

04:30 Wind a bit lower. Opening. Fewer clouds now. All-sky camera
looks pretty good.

04:45 Pointing correction done. Starting program UM_UM_AZ_Bechtold.
Note: We changed the SAVE_MODE to 'integrated' in the acquisition script.

05:20 After careful alignment, the rotator quit moving, so we had to
restart the acquisition.

05:40 Started alignment again.
06:00ish Started science exposure.
Note: Guiding only happening sporadically, as the 80'' offsets are
making the star inaccessible. Seeing is not much better then 2''.

06:24 Preset was canceled because guiding was off for too long. The
next offset caused the script to abort. TO is doing a wind check.

06:38 Started acquiring telluric. Guide star out of range. We picked a
new one.

07:02 After trouble with collimation (probably due to low elevation of
~35 deg), started the telluric spectrum.

07:07 Moving to target SDSSJ0800 for program OSU_SMBH.  
Note: The ROT_ANG keyword is no good anymore; we changed the scripts
to use POSANGLE instead.
07:23 Starting science exposures. Some thin clouds overhead, but it's
hard to tell.
07:56 pointing check 
07:59 Acquiring telluric
08:10 Running telluric script

08:19 Moving to OSU_SMBH_PKS0952
08:26 aquiring science target
08:31 started science observation, again, maybe thin clouds overhead
09:02 Aquiring telluric.
09:11 Starting telluric obs.

09:20 Starting program ND_oldsn-ir, J band
09:54 Starting H band

10:30 Starting program OSU_a1689.
Note: We moved "position 4" to the second spot, so that if the
alternative guide star fails it will do so quickly. If it does not
fail, the script will get the same data as the original, but in a
different order.
Some thin cirrus. Seeing around 1.5 arcsec.
10:39 Position 4 failed to find the alternate guide star. Will wait
for clearer conditions and pick a new guide star.

10:41 Acquiring object SDSSJ1353 for program OSU_SMBH. Guide star too
faint.
10:44 Acquiring B1422 instead. Guide start too faint.

10:48 Acquiring SDSSJ1358 instead. Guide star is bright enough, but
was lost briefly during acquisition. All-sky monitor is unclear, but
we must have clouds.
11:43 Acquiring telluric.
11:50ish Guider problem
12:17 Restarting acquisition
12:28 Starting telluric observation
12:37 Finished.

Doing calibrations (OSU_SMBH_ff210H.obs, OSU_SMBH_ff210J.obs,
OSU_SMBH_waveH.obs, OSU_SMBH_waveJ.obs, UM_UM_AZ_Bechtold_ms0451.flat.obs,
and UM_UM_AZ_Bechtold_ms0451.arcs.obs, in that order)

We recommend that imaging users use the sky flats from yesterday, as
there are clouds today.

Doing darks.