Observers: Pogge, Villanueva
Telescope Operator: David Gonzalez-Huerta
Support Astronomer: Olga Kuhn
Instrument: LBC

Observing Log for 2013 Mar 15/16

Summary:

High clouds increasing through the day, some hope of clearing later, but this 
is a slow-moving band.  Winds calm, warm, and low humidity.  Clouds were
the problem of the night.  We had a late opening because of particularly
heavy cloud, then we had junk over us most of the night.  We opted to do
the LBC program because these were mostly short visits and could work with
openings in the cloud bands.  Seeing started out lousy (1.3+ arcsec), but
got quite good after midnight, 0.6-0.8-arcsec with occasional episodes of
puffing up.


Play-by-Play: All times are UTC unless otherwise noted

00:50 - Various startup activities.  The mods1 instrument server is
        reporting that one of its RAID disks has failed, system is
        operating on the backup.  The main consequence is slow
        response to logins (e.g., "mods1 status" checks).  Otherwise
        it functions normally.  

        LBC is being set to the summer focus position because the
        weather has been warm.

02:00 - Using LBC to start because we can punch clound bands on short
        visit targets - MODS has mostly long (2-3h) visit targets, and the
        bands won't let us finish.  If it clears around midnight we'll
        make a call to either continue with LBC or go to MODS1.

02:45 - clouds making this no fun, seeing doesn't look great to start.

02:51 - telescope operator closing due to heavy clouds, we wait...
        wind is also picking up, around 15m/s now.  Joy!

04:00 - still cloudy, but wind is dropping some.

04:40 - doing MODS1 calibrations while waiting for clouds to clear and wind
        to drop
 
        grpixflats.cal
        
05:05 - David going to open, the clouds are starting to thin and the
        wind is less (still breezy, but not moving into threatening
        territory) Satellite maps show a big "clear" hole coming up.

05:10 - OSU_monitor, N3627, running focus/collimation
        DIMM seeing is 1.1-arcsec, similar on collimation snaps 1.1 in
        blue, 0.9 in red.

05:27 - Starting N3627 science OB...  stars on first images are not so
        good, red is 1.6, blue 1.1, but DIMM is 1.0.  Close
        examination shows red slightly comatic.  clear from first
        science images that collimation was bad. 

05:40 - Re-acquiring and running focus/collimation again      
        This time bothered by clouds.  Too faint to get good collimation
        keeping going

        Red is way out of whack - had to add Z7 (coma) and some Z11 (spherical)
        Blue was pretty good...

06:35 - Trying science field again - LBC is not behaving well, but we
        still have clouds and 1.1-1.2" seeing.

        Seeing 1.3+, round images.  Seeing puffed up on us a little, 
        but worked in the end.

07:23 - NGC5194 - could not get focus/collimation stars - a bad cloud right
        over the source.

07:33 - NGC4258a - better placed relative to clouds, got stars and getting
        convergence.  Seeing 0.8 on red, 0.9 on blue.

07:45 - to science field... First images show 0.8-arcsec seeing, but
        some clouds still.  The main bands passed by, but fluff stuck
        to Mt. Graham.  Oh well.  Towards the end, we're getting 0.6-arcsec
        in red, 0.77 in blue.  Stars staying nice and round.  Great images.

08:25 - AZ_SUPER - executing GON_copoint.ob

08:36 - Executing GON_UNB_1.  Some cloud, we may have to do this twice.
        Seeing at start around 0.8, which will help.

08:46 - first images, 0.7" seeing in both filters.

09:06 - done, running dofpia to reset collimation before proceeding

        ** Note: This is a much better field for focus/copointing than
        ** the one provided.

09:10 - second crack at GON_UNB_1 because of clouds during the previous.

09:17 - more clouds after the relative clarity, having some issues
        with the DIMM star fading out, but seeing is holding steady.

09:30 - seeing starting to deteriorate through this set, now ~1.1-arcsec.
        blue worse than red, but both show signs of collimation slipping

09:40 - running dofpia, preparatory to executing GON_UNB_2.

        Note: dofpia showed blue needs some Z4, consistent with the
        worse FWHM in the last blue images, whereas red didn't change
        much.

09:44 - Executing GON_UNB_2.  Seeing in the first images is 0.8-0.9
        and looking nice and round.

10:15 - dofpia on this field for collimator tweak up

10:18 - Second run on GON_UNB_2, still cirrus, but not as bad as
        during run 2 on GON_UNB_1.

10:28 - U images broader (~1.1 arcsec) but nice and round, so not a
        collimation problem like pass 2 on field 1.  Red is 0.8 arcsec
        Seeing is starting to fluctuate as seen on the DIMM, but at low
        amplitude.

10:50 - OSU_monitor - NGC5194 revisited - now with fewer clouds.
        Focus and collimation run.

11:00 - Executing the science images for NGC5194.  First images are
        0.8-arcsec FWHM, and very round.   Later images getting better
        (red around 0.66), but a slight bit of elongation creeping into
        the blue images at one point, but later back to round.

11:39 - OSU_monitor - NGC4395 focus/collimate script

11:50 - Executing science images for NGC4395.  Little bit of blue enlongation
        on the first images, Red is 0.9-arcsec and round, blue 1 arcsec.

12:04 - 3Darks_Bino.ob for AZ_SUPER

12:24 - Executing AZ_SUPER FLri_16_96s_UNB_MAR.ob (ast dawn at 12:07)
        And then working our way down the exposures.  We'll get as much
        as we can before we collapse or the shortest of the sequence
        saturates...

--- closing telescope enclosure doors ---

13:17 - Executing MODS1 bias8K.cal

13:23 - Executing 25Bias_Bino.ob