OSU/RC Queue Observing UTC 2011 Apr 27 (civil date 2011 Apr 26/27) ============================================================================== Observer: David Atlee (OSU), Jennifer Johnson (OSU), Alexandro Bedregal (UMinn) Observing Assistant: Steven Allanson Support Astronomer : Marco Pedani Instrumentation : Tim Shih =========== Instrument: =========== LBC / LUCIFER ========= Summary: ========= High winds prevented opening at the beginning of the night. When we did open at approximately 2130, the seeing was so poor that LBC was unable to collimate. We switched to LUCIFER, and found that seeing was 3-4". We conducted observations for several programs, including a ToO submitted by Andy Gould, but with longer than planned exposures to correct for the poor seeing. Seeing remained poor throughout the night, and moderately high wind conditions restricted the observability of targets west of the meridian. We encountered a software problem with the MOS mask alignment tool for LUCIFER. The tool was apparently unable to correctly parse the reference stars assigned in OSU_GalCenX Mask #2. Instead, we completed some additional observations of Mask #1 (which aligned correctly) until poor seeing led to loss of signal through the slits. A trouble report has been submitted to Dave Thompson for review. We also encountered a software problem with the LUCIFER instrument control. A command to move the calibration unit wa dropped due to a communication error. A repeat attempt left the unit in an unknown state which required direct intervention from the engineering control panel by Marco. Finally, we needed to re-start the LUCIFER control interface early in the evening to recover from a problem with the MOS mask control. The mask control interface accepted commands to move the mask, but it did nothing. There was no error message to indicate a problem, so this error is so far un-documented. As a result of this, the file manifest for the night contains a single file with no sequence number. This is an orphan data file associated with re-starting the LUCIFER control interface, and it may be ignored. ============ Opening ============ 0059 Beginning LBC bias frames for LBCB and LBCR cameras. 0113 Ran telescope preset test. Successful. 0155 Sunset. Clear sky and photometric. High winds prevent opening. 0433 Wind has calmed enough to open. Beginning collimation/focus sequence. 0443 DOFPIA failed to find any pupils. Pointing toward another star. 0502 Unable to get good focus convergence. Estimated seeing 3-4". 0506 Seeing too poor for every LBC program. Switching to LUCIFER. ============ UVa_H2IMG ============ 0521 LUCIFER not moving blind mask out of FPU. No error message. 0526 Re-started LUCI control software. 0550 Beginning collimation sequence. Estimated seeing 2.5". 0555 Moving to science field for IC883 to acquire reference images. Doubled exposure times due to bad seeing. Taking BrG images; seeing 1.8" 0603 Beginning sequence of H2 exposures. Seeing 1.9" 0613 Moving telescope to calibration field to take BrG exposure. Seeing 1.4" 0640 Moving telescope to science field for NGC 5257. Guider seeing is 3.0". This should correspond to approximately 2.0" in the narrow band images. 0727 Nearing end of exposure sequence. Guide star seeing is still ~3". Estimated 2" seeing in BrG directly from luci.20110427.0067. 0739 Starting H2 integration. Failed to find guide due to drift in telescope pointing model. 0740 Re-pointing telescope. 0742 Sending telescope back to science field. 0745 Average wind speed has dropped to ~10 m/s with gusts up to 14 m/s 0752 Estimate 1.6" seeing in H2 band, still ~3" in guider. 0809 Slewing to standard star field for BrG flux calib. 0819 Estimate seeing 2.5" in BrG filter at airmass 1.5. 0820 Taking H2 standard field images. ============= OSU_A1689IM ============= 0830 Moving telescope to first mosaic field in full script. Telescope is currently pointing into ~15 m/s headwind. 0832 Unable to center guide star. Restarting GCS. Guider reports 2.5" seeing 0840 Lost guiding during exposure #7 (106) 0843 Stopped mosaic sequence after exposure #8 due to wind shake. 0845 Rotating telescope enclosure to check wind. ============== OSU_GalCenX ============== 0850 Moving telescope to science field for Mask #2. Current airmass 2.6 0918 Unable to acquire Mask #2 due to software problem. MOS Acq routines did not display boxes on image of field. Moving to mask #1. 0925 Beginning acquisition sequence. Seeing is ~2" in BrG band. 0945 Beginning spectrum. Some slits do not contain obvious stars. It is unclear whether this is by design. 1000 Seeing is becoming very poor. Guiding is intermittently lost. 1012 Stopping exposure due to very poor S/N from bad seeing. 1013 Re-attempting Mask#2 acquisiton for troubleshooting. ============ OSU_mb093 ============ 1040 Moving telescope to target field to begin acquisition. 1041 Failed to locate a suitable guide star. 1045 Re-sending preset. 1100 Beginning science script. Seeing 3" in guider. 1112 Re-starting science script due to observer error. 1128 Beginning a second observing sequence to improve S/N. 1137 Moving telescope to telluric standard field. 1145 Beginning telluric spectrum. 1152 Unable to move calibration tower in. Web I/O error. 1207 Set calibration tower in beam. Beginning specflat sequence. 1215 Lamp switched off during flats. Editing script and trying again. 1219 Beginning arc lamp scripts. ============== Calibrations ============== 1221 Moving telescope to Alt=22.3, Rotang=358.6 for lamp spectra of microlensed target star (OSU_mb093) 1222 Beginning lamp flat observations. 1226 Beginning arc lamp sequence. 1230 Finished arc lamps. Taking first test images through BrG filter. 1242 BrG sky flats beginning at #197. CR~2500 1246 Left calibration tower in. Moving it out. 1247 Re-starting sequence. CR ~20000. Shortening exposure times. 1250 Beginning H2 sky flat sequence. CR~13000 1301 Beginning script to take flatlamps for GalCen Mask #1. Telescope Alt=27.2, Rotang=314.5 1304 Beginning arc lamp exposures. 1309 Beginning flat lamp sequence for UM_ClaudiaScarlata Mask #2. Telescope Alt=65.6, Rotang=275.7 1319 Beginning short flat lamp exposure sequence. 1321 Beginning flat lamp sequence for UM_ClaudiaScarlata Mask #1. Telescope Alt=80, Rotang=126. 1330 Beginning exposure of short flat lamp script. 1342 Beginning dark frame script for configurations in OSU_mb093 program that have not previously been taken.