OSU/RC Queue Observing UTC 2011 Apr 23 (civil date 2011 Apr 22/23) ============================================================================== Observer: David Atlee (OSU), Kris Sellgren (OSU) Observing Assistant: David Gonzalez-Huerta Support Astronomer : Dave Thompson Instrumentation : John Morris =========== Instrument: =========== Lucifer ========= Summary: ========= The weather was quite good for most of night. High winds and clouds before sunset prevented us from getting twilight flats, as did clouds at the end of the night. We also lost approximately 50 minutes to high winds during the night. We discovered that there were two lights left on in the dome. The first was located and turned off within approximately 1 hour of opening, but the second remained on for several hours, and could potentially affect three separate projects. We completed observations for 3 UM, 2 OSU and 1 UVa project. While the science observations for the UVa project (H2 imaging) were completed, we were unable to take photometric standard observations because the script did not provide any guide stars. We have identified a suitable guide star, and we will revisit this object to obtain flux calibrations later in the run. We completed all calibration lamp exposures in the morning to save time during the night. Dave Thompson indicated that repeating the telescope altitude and instrument rotator angle would reproduce the flexure conditions of the instrument and yield reliable calibration spectra. ============ Opening ============ 0155 Sunset 0210 Opening dome to begin pointing check ============ UM_TPyx ============ 0228 Moving to first telluric field. Conditions are non-photometric, but clouds are light and concentrated toward the west. 0238 Began K-band telluric spectrum. FWHM is 0.9" in K-band. Collimation is not great due to high sky background. 0241 Beginning H-band telluric spectrum. 0245 Beginning J-band spectrum. 0248 Beginning z-band spectrum 0252 Moving to nearby Persson standard to improve telescope collimation 0302 Moving to science target. Guider gives 0.9" seeing. 0304 Beginning acquisition sequence 0309 Beginning K-band integration. Seeing ~0.7" in BrG + K. 0315 Beginning H-band integration. 0320 Beginning J-band integration 0323 Beginning z-band integration 0327 Finished science spectra. Moving to second telluric field. We will take arc- and flat-lamp spectra at the end of the night. 0335 Beginning K-band telluric spectrum 0338 Beginning H-band telluric spectrum 0341 Beginning J-band telluric spectrum 0345 Beginning z-band telluric spectrum =================== UM_ClaudiaScarlata =================== 0356 Moving telescope to science field 0410 Beginning MOS spectrum. Seeing is 0.4" in H-band, 0.6" in guider. Cirrus. 0415 There appears to be a light on in the dome. 0431 Light has been located and turned off. 0520 Finished MOS science observations. We will take arc- and flat-lamp calibrations at the end of the night. ============ OSU_A1689 ============ 0517 Moving telescope to first telluric field. 0529 Beginning telluric spectra 0535 Moving telescope to science field. 0538 Error offseting telescope. Mirror not idle. Re-starting acq script. 0550 MOS spectra started. Intermediate cloud cover. Seeing 0.6" in H-band. 0605 Clear continua visible in brightest galaxies with single 5 min exposures. 0625 Cloud cover has slowly worsened since sunset. Now opaque near horizon, and stars appear fuzzy near zenith. 0635 Discovered another light on in the dome on level 10. Turned it off. 0707 Aborted observation due to high winds after exposure #14/24. 0757 The combined images from tonight plus images from night 1 yield 21/24 integrations for this mask. We consider this mask finished. 0758 Will take specflats in the morning after matching Alt/ROTANG =================== UM_ClaudiaScarlata =================== 0758 Moving telescope to science field. Waiting for AZ cable to unwrap. 0804 Re-sending telescope to target field. 0823 Beginning science observation of field. Seeing is 0.7" in H-band and 1.0" in guider. Light cirrus. 0845 Cirrus has largely cleared with clouds only near horizon 0909 Guider shows 0.8" seeing 0827 Moving calibration tower in to take lamp spectra. 0933 Taking arc spectra. 0934 Grating tilt failed to stabilize due to high altitude. We will return to calibration spectra for this field at the end of the night. ============= UVa_H2IMG ============= 0937 Moving calibration unit out. 0941 Moving to IC883 science field. We'll take 9 BrG images that we didn't get to last night. We use a modified dither sequence to better sample the sky with the smaller number of exposures. 0942 Unable to complete slew. Telescope pointing error. 0944 Re-sending slew command. 0946 Unable to locate guide star. 0949 Re-sending slew command. 0952 Beginning first BrG integration. Seeing is 0.6" in BrG, 1.0" in guider. 1005 Starting H2 script. 1007 Collimation did not stabilize. Re-sending command. 1017 Telescope unable to guide on pre-selected guide star (too faint). Assigned new guide star. 1027 Seeing in H2 is 0.5", 0.8" in guider 1028 Emission from guide probe sometimes appears on images due to placement of new guide star. 1104 Moving to standard star field with H2 filter. Unable to move probe to guide star. Terminating standard observation. Explanation: Guide star not specified in script. All observing scripts must include a guide star. ============ OSU_HeI ============ 1106 Moving telescope to telluric standard star. Unable to locate guide star. 1114 Re-sent preset successfully. Beginning telluric acquisition. 1123 Beginning telluric standard spectrum 1140 Beginning integration of science target. Seeing in J band is 0.6". Guider reports 0.9" seeing. 1150 Clouds have begun to appear. 1209 Moving the telescope to the flux standard field. 1218 Beginning flux standard observation. 1222 Terminated flux standard script after 3 (of 4) observations because the sky is too bright to guide. ============= Calibrations ============= 1225 Sky has patchy clouds, which prevent twilight flats. We will push these to later in the run. 1236 Preparing to take calibration spectra for TPyx observations. Setting telescope to Alt=23.5, ROTANG=42.4 1238 Executing K-band arc lamp script for TPyx. 1244 Executing K-band flat lamp script. 1248 Executing H-band calibration lamp scripts. 1253 Executing J-band calibration lamp scripts. 1258 Executing z-band calibration scripts. 1303 Configuring telescope for Scarlata_target2 calibration. Alt=65.6, ROTANG=275.7 1317 Initializing calibration lamp spectra. 1322 Moving telescope to A1689 position, Alt=54.9 & ROTANG=98.4 1330 Beginning spectroscopic flatfield integrations. 1337 Moving telescope to position for Scarlata_target1 calibration, which has Alt=80 and ROTANG=126 1344 Beginning calibration lamp sequence. 1354 Moved telescope to position for HeI calibration. Position is Alt=43.0, ROTANG=189.2 1358 Beginning calibration scripts. 1413 Moving blank mask and blind filters in to prepare for dark frames 1420 Beginning dark frame integrations.