OSU/RC Queue Observing UTC 2012 June 11
(civil date 2012 June 10/11)
======================================

Observers: R. Pogge
Telescope Operator: G. Bechetti
Support Astronomer: O. Kuhn
Support Tech: T. Shih

Instrument: LUCI + MODS

Summary:

  Clear with only light winds today, way better than yesterday.

  A few thin clouds far to the south at sunset stayed away until a
  little after 1am.  First part was photometric if hazy from smoke,
  second half was spectroscopic with wisps of high cloud coming up
  from the SSW.

  Started with LUCI and switched at 12:15 to MODS for the rest of the
  night.

Programs Executed:
  AZ_SDF
  AZ_z9 + UKIRT standard
  OSU_LSNe (PTF11dsf)
  ND_b7kepler
  MODS Standards: BD33d2642 and Wolf1346


Details: All times are UTC unless otherwise noted
-------

Startup

02:30 - Winds light at sunset, mostly clear skies with some clouds appearing
        in the far SSW.  Vent doors opened early.

03:00 - acquiring pointing star during twilight. Staged the 1" LS mask for
        AZ_z9 and flushed detector

03:05 - starting collimation, converged but WFS image kind of lopsided.
        Doing a second at 03:15 sky is darker, seeing is 0.7-0.8-arcsec but a
        little variable.

AZ_z9 Program

03:20 - AZ_z9 acquisition.  1" long slit target, taking field and mask snaps.
        convergence a little slow

03:31 - converged, offset 1.76" to the slit, ref star is dead center, doing
        blind offset

03:32 - Starting observation, one 4x15min shot.  Seeing ~0.8" on the guider.

03:45 - AO shell RIP during end of the first image of the set... new program
        does not cancel the preset, and the guiding is still solid (0.9") so
        we continue...

03:53 - Juan-Carlos is resetting the shell, had a little puff during the
        reset, but settled quickly about 5 minutes into the 2nd integration

04:35 - done, going to standard star (FS-130, script macs1149_std.acq).
        Seeing was around 0.8-arcsec, but some puff during and shortly after
        AO secondary recovery.

04:38 - WFS converged, taking target image 0011, mask image 0012 next., start
        at 04:43.  Slit was very faint.  should have put in a different
        filter for the slit image.

04:46 - Done.


AZ_SDF Program

04:47 - AZ_SDF acquisition. Filter wheel and grating unit faults.  We'll let
        preset go to start on WFS converge while recovering.

04:51 - WFS converged, 0.6" seeing, mask still moving so we can't start
        instrument recovery until 04:53

04:54 - getting acq images by hand, faster than re-executing preset.  glitch
        on image 0017 should have been mask but grating instead of mirror was
        in???

05:01 - while Olga is using the LUCI ACQU, I'm doing a sanity check with the
        field and slit images.

05:09 - I find dx=1.825 dy=-0.94 by hand.  LUCI ACQU gave dx=0.736 dy=-2.564
        we sent our dx/dy offset w/o rotation

05:12 - minor shift, dx=-0.2, dy=0, get pretty good alignment on the three
        objects that are in the slits.  One is known to be a little offset
        from past observing from April, so we're good.

05:14 - Starting observing script. Seeing 0.6-0.8" FWHM. Winds calm.  We'll
        be here for about 2h.

05:57 - First pair of spectra down, diff and can see emission in one of the
        faint targets.  Looks like diffs of data from 2011 Apr 19 that Olga
        got from the Repository, so we got the alignment right. Continuing.

06:25 - Seeing getting a little fuzzier, now 0.8-0.9".  Third image diff
        shows we're still good.

07:17 - Last image done, all OK.  Seeing 0.8 at end.

==============
MODS OBSERVING

07:18 - Moving to Zenith to reconfiguring LBT for MODS observing

07:31 - Config done, going to pointing star

07:34 - Going to collimation star.  Seeing ~0.9"

07:40 - BD33d2642 - dual grating Std Star

        Satellite shows junk coming in from SSW, not here yet
        ACQ image shows 0.8" seeing

OSU_LSNe Program - Target: PTF11dsf

07:58 - Acquisition using the -UT08.acq script

08:08 - Started observation, seeing ~0.8-0.9"

08:20 - scattered thin clouds coming in from SSW.  Thin clumps moving fast.

08:32 - can see [O III], Hb, Ha, and [O II] w/o processing.  nice.

08:54 - wisps of thin cloud, lit by the moon.  Getting a few tenths of
        a magnitude of cloud based on the guide data plots.


ND_b7kepler Program

09:16 - Start preset for ND_b7kepler.  
        Star in acq image is 0.8" FWHM (SDSS g)

09:26 - Start of observation - target easily visible, good guide star
        Still cirrus rolling by, seeing 0.9".

Occasional dips of up to 0.5 mag during the sequence as wisps of cloud
pass by, followed by big holes.  All of it is fast moving.

10:48 - Sequence completed

Wolf1346 - MODS Std Star

10:49 - Acquiring wolf1346  

10:54 - started observing, through passing thin clouds

11:05 - Done, closing doors, 

============================================
11:10 - LUCI then MODS calibrations

LUCI: AZ_SDF El=55 Rot=283: Flats, no comps
       AZ_Z9 El=60 Rot=51:  Flats, no comps

Zenith:
   MODS: bias8K, grlamps
   LUCI: darks

========
Notes Added 2012 Jun 11 (day after)

First LUCI 900s darks for AZ_z9 have lots of artifacts on them. See
luci.20120611.0062-66.fits for a specific example of persistence from
the earlier flats.  We also see this in the 1200s darks 0067-71.

During the afternoon today we took new 900s darks for AZ_z9.  Images
are luci.20120612.0001-6.fits, but note that .0001 has some blobby 
artifacts that are not on 0002 et seq.  Similarly 1200s darks have
repeats.