OSU/RC Queue Observing UTC 2012 June 13 (civil date 2012 June 12/13) ======================================= Observers: R. Pogge (OSU), D. Berg (UM) Telescope Operator: S. Allanson Support Astronomer: O. Kuhn Support Tech: D. Officer Instrument: MODS Summary: High, relatively heavy cirrus during the afternoon and light winds. Clear Sky Chart was looking bad, then near sunset it all slipped south of us, and is moving mostly far SW to SE, we're north of it. At sunset it is judged to be spectroscopic, though likely very clear most of the sky west. Wind was dead calm at sunset, warm, 13C outside, 14C in the chamber. Not photometric, wisps peeling off the stuff southwest of us popped over from time to time, but nothing as thick as we'd seen during the day. Seeing was highly variable, between 0.5-0.7", with occasional puffs to 1.5" or worse - stuff was definitely blowing over at times. Had high thin clouds most of the night blowing by fast with lots of holes. One shell RIP during the observations of pc1220, paused then resumed while Steve recovered the system. More graceful than the past few nights. Because of the timing of the two projects and the downtime on the scope due to the shell RIP and other fun, we had to fill in a couple of late-night spectral targets as there was insufficient time left to try to execute the other MOS targets for the 2nd half (OSU_CHAOS and OSU_CLASH). Because programs are heavily weighted to the start of the night, tomorrow night we will have these in starting position: UM_M101stars UVa_Stream_Spec Both can tolerate mildly non-photometric conditions as we've been experiencing, and require a prompt start as soon as it gets dark enough to acquire the fields. Programs Executed: OSU_PC/pc1220 field --> completes project(?) OSU_LSNe/PTF12pam --> completes project 2 fill-in programs, snapshots of RM-mapped PG quasars Details: All times are UTC unless otherwise noted ------- Startup 02:00 - Vent doors open, clouds have gone except far south and east. 02:50 - Pointing set, waiting for it to get dark enough to collimate. Looking very good. 03:00 - Reset AOS to make sure change in Default.sav file (now a pointer to MODS.sav), going to a collimation star. Seeing 0.6-0.7", nice! GD140 - Standard Star - dual grating & prism 03:18 - Sending acq for gd140. 0.53" seeing 03:23 - started observing script 03:40 - starting dual prism OSU_PC Program Seeing is good enough to shoot this (<0.8"). 03:48 - Running acq script - using acqMODS_mos to test the focus offset method 03:59 - Starting observing script. Seeing 0.6" FWHM 04:07 - two subaps on the WFS image look weird, corrected itself 2 later at 04:11 Doug Miller called, we'll watch and call him again if it recurs. AO secondary strangeness. 04:33 - Drop in gstar counts, cloud blew past. By 04:43 it was passed us and back to steady counts. 05:13 - seeing suddenly puffed up, 1.5-arcsec. No wind change, no obvious cloud in the guide star photometry, mirror temp is flat, no temp difference inside or out of the enclosure. Nothing obvious. This is during the 3rd image of 4. By 05:20 we were back below 1" again. Almost recovered to the way it was before by 05:23. 05:40 - Shell RIP - Steve recovering, paused exposure at 1550s of 1800s. 05:46 - resumed after WFS settled and converged. Seeing about 0.8" again. 05:55 - seeing slowly getting worse, ~1", El=40-deg. HZ44 - Standard Star - dual grating & prism 06:12 - started acq script - seeing 0.9" FWHM 06:17 - started obs script, seeing on first grating spectrum 0.9" FWHM, but then started getting puffy during the 2nd exposure OSU_LSNe - PTF12dam 06:36 - started acq script, PTF12dam-UT07.acq. 06:46 - started observation. Seeing ~1", but variable. 07:14 - seeing better, ~0.8 FWHM. Spectrum shows 4363 cleanly in a single 1200s exposure. 5007 is booming, 2600 ADU in central pixel. Danielle is impressed. Wolf1346 - Standard Star (grating + prism) 07:55 - starting acq script 08:00 - starting obs scripts, PG1700+518 - late night filler target 08:20 - starting acq 08:30 - confirmatory thru-slit snap - image saturated, hand adjust then 10s (oops) 08:35 - starting obs, 3x300s, seeing ~0.6-0.7" (NOW it gets better...) 08:56 - starting second 3x300s, seeing ~same. 09:18 - On setting up next target, had to abort as there is an alarm sounding up on LUCI1 on the telescope and Steve needs to investigate it. Telescope going to Zenith... 09:40 - Alarm was reset, back to work... PG2130+099 - late night filler target 09:43 - Sending preset and acq, using _UT10.acq 09:54 - Starting obs script (had a little trouble with alignment because of the faint slit image). Tons of signal, seeing has decided to get good again. Go figure. We're in a hole between patches of thin high cloud. BD28+4211 - standard star (dual grating + prism) 10:31 - sending preset and acq 10:34 - lost guide star, telescope glitch of some kind. Resent the preset 10:36 - executing obs script... ------------- End of Night Calibrations: OSU_PC/pc1220flats.cal, lamps.cal, and prbias.cal All other calibrations were done previously - this mask was new today.