Observers: Pogge, Villanueva
Telescope Operator: David Gonzalez-Huerta
Support Astronomer: Olga Kuhn
Instrument: LBC and MODS1

Observing Log for 2013 Mar 17/18

Summary:

Mostly clear but windy in the afternoon, some threat of clouds far
to the west (may skirt us).  Split LBC/MODS1 night:
  LBC - sunset until 2300
  MODS1 - 2300 until dawn
We were closed the first couple of hours by high winds.  When we
opened with LBC, the seeing stank: 2-3 arcsec.  It got only marginally
better.

We switched to MODS1 at 2300, and watched the seeing slowly improve.
Did a couple of fields that could likely tolerate poor seeing, but
it's a stretch, and the seeing was variable through the night,
sometimes impressively so (the DIMM plot looked like a supernova
spectrum).

Finished at UTC 1200


The Nitty-Gritty: 

All times are UTC unless otherwise noted

00:00 - high clouds threatening from the west, but the wind will be
        our main problem.  We've already had brief gusts over the
        20m/s limit.

00:30 - LBC Calibs, 25Bias_Bino.ob, 2Darks_Bino.ob

02:00 - David opening, wind has been below limits for a while.
        A little late, but running sky flats.  The LBC data-taking
        system makes this so simple...

02:20 - Closed to check wind... the tree anemometers were suggesting
        it was windier than we measured during sky flats (we had the
        wind to the telescope's back at the sky flat position).  The
        second weather station that would have given accurate readings
        of wind speed in that orientation is still not functional.

02:40 - Olga was reviewing the temperature-dependent focus settings
        for the LBCs, and since outside air temps are forecast to get
        below 0C, she's worried that the focus shimming on LBC done
        earlier may have overdone it - it was set for 10C.  Since
        we're closed by wind, Olga had John Morris back off blue 0.5mm
        and red 0.7mm so we won't hit any hard limits on focusing if
        we get to open the next couple of days.  Note that this takes
        about 1 hour to execute.

05:00 - Opening after being down for "high" wind (sustained wind was
        15m/s, with one or two gusts at 20m/s - DGH is conservative)
        Cloud bits rolling over, so not photometric.

05:05 - OSU_monitor/N3489 - focus and collimation
        Seeing doesn't look very good, but hard to tell as collimation
        isn't very good yet...

05:25 - N3489 science script - will get seeing from first images.

        DIMM showing seeing 2.5 arcsec, mirrors still out of thermal
        equilibration.  Images have 1.8 (red) and 2.2 (blue).  DIMM
        meanwhile, is bouncing around between 2 and 3 arcsec.

        Ugh.

        Next images are 1.9 and 2.3 (red,blue).
        Overall hovering around 2-arcsec. 


Not a lot to work with here...

SWITCH TO MODS1
        
06:05 - Reconfiguring for MODS1, and mostly hoping for the best.  There
        is one target up at 0700 that alleges it is poor seeing
        tolerant (an RV program), so we'll take a crack at that
        and hope the seeing gets better.

06:40 - Getting focussed and collimated.
        Seeing 1.6-2 arcsec, 

06:45 - Feige 34 - Std Star
        Seeing is all over the place, 1.2 to 2.0.  The jumpiness 
        complicates acquisition

        During the spectrum exposure, seeing got better, then when
        we started getting hope up, puffed up again.  One of those
        kind of nights.


ND_COSMOS/galex5075

07:05 - Acquisition... 

07:16 - Start of science observing.  Seeing about 1.2 arcsec.  A little
        more than requested, but given the 1.2-arcsec slit this will
        still capture most of the light and then cruelly disperse it.


OSU_RV-MODS/bhb1

07:52 - Acquiring - seeing jumpy but around 1.5-arcsec according to the
        DIMM, 1.2 on the WFS and guide star, but jumpy.  Well-centered
        after the offset.

08:01 - Starting spectra.
        Seeing 1.2-arcsec with occasional puffs to more.


OSU_CHAOS/NGC4254_f1

08:24 - Acquiring - Seeing 1.3-arcsec, sometimes better

08:35 - Starting science observations (6x1200s)
        Seeing 1.2 arcsec, and satellite shows junk coming in from the West.
        
        part way through first spectrum, seeing started jumping a
        great deal, including a few puffs.  Not having fun...  Data
        will likely be degraded.

        Throughout the seeing varied from very good to pretty bad.
        Please evaluate data.


HZ44 - Standard Star

10:47 - Acquiring star

10:54 - starting spectra - seeing 1.5-arcsec - dual & red grating


HZ43 - Standard Star *** For Manual Illustration - Do Not Use ***
 
Why?  See the footnote on the primary standards table. This spectrum
is being taken to demonstrate why I recommend this not be used in
poor seeing...

11:19 - Acquiring Star

11:29 - starting spectra, took extra acquisition

12:00 - Done - MODS1 put to bed