Observers: R. Pogge (OSU), E. Huff (OSU) Support Astronomer: D. Thompson (from Tucson), O. Kuhn (on-site) Telescope Operator: David Gonzalez Instrument Config: MODS1 Summary Still windy at sunset but under the limits with very clear skies. Much better than the past 3 nights. Wind went over limits for 2h requiring us to close between 0430 and 0630. Cost us a couple of targets. Seeing went from 1.2 to 0.9 before closure, then 1.3 after re-opening, much of it likely thermal (mirrors warmer than air). Seeing was variable all night, we ranged from 0.7 to 1.5 or worse. The median appeared to hover around 1-arcsec most of the night. Finished a number of programs despite the weather setback. Not as much as we'd like, but we were 4 and 4 (4 nights lost, 4 nights with observing most of the night). With one exception equipment worked well, and that exception was LBC-R for an experimental MODS1+LBC parallel observation. P. Garnavich reported that the MODS1 spectra looked great. The PEPSI team has left, so we have all night dusk-to-dawn. Details: All times are UTC unless otherwise indicated 01:55 - Open and equilibrating. Warmer than last night. 02:40 - starting telescope pointing and collimation... 03:00 - initial collimation, seeing ~1.2 arcsec, still keeping an eye on the wind numbers, currently 12m/s 03:02 - OSU_ETG - NGC4694. Tolerant of >1-arcsec seeing, OSU P1 target 03:07 - starting acquisition - seeing ~1.2-1.4 arcsec and variable. 03:14 - running obs script. Altered from 6x600s to 3x1200s because of the 1.2-1.3 arcsec seeing. No risk of saturation. 03:40 - checked first image with the experimental MODS quick look pipeline, peak cts of 2090 ADU in the central H-alpha emission line. Blue also looks good, H-beta, gamma, delta, [O III]5007 (but weaker than H-beta), and [O II] 3727, all tucked in among a nice galaxy absorption-line spectrum (nice Balmer sequence). Looks really nice. Seeing still around 1.2 arcsec and variable. 04:00 - starting image 3 of 3. Seeing closer to 1.1 arcsec now but still variable. Wind still gusting up to 15m/s. For brief intervals it would dip down or even sometimes below 1-arcsec part then puff up again to 1.1 arcsec. 04:22 - OSU_ASASSN - ASASSN 13dn. acquiring, 3Kx3K images for slit and field. wind gusts picking up a little. Seeing about 1-arcsec, maybe a little less at times. 04:32 - starting science observing. A wind gust exceeded limits, hoping it doesn't repeat within 10 minutes or we have to close. Seeing is 0.9 arcsec, but occasional puffs. 04:38 - Aborted first exposure when wind gusted repeatedly over 20m/s limit. Closed, only got about 220sec of exposure. Saved images (blue 0004 and red 0010). Note: we accidentally confused the 13dn and 14ae acquistion directives, and had mis-placed the target and galaxy relative to the slit. 05:30 - still closed, gusts now >23m/s at times. We wait... 06:25 - Wind below limits long enough to re-open. finally! ------------------------------ 06:30 - OSU_ASASSN - ASASSN 14ae pointing and acquiring. Slew is from horizon pointing prior to opening doors. An issue is the temp has declined since we've been closed for 2h, so while the mirror temps are flat, delta-T glass to air is about 2C. Seeing is 1.3 arcsec or so, slowly settling. 06:40 - started obs script, target is dead-center. Seeing is about 1.3-arcsec, within the program's requested margins. Seeing improved through the integrations, down to ~1-arcsec by end of first exp, but occasionally puffs. 07:05 - seeing now about 0.9-1.0 arcsec during 2nd integration. Definitely a broad, double-peaked feature around H-alpha at z=0.4. Seeing during 3rd integration degraded to 1.2 by end. ------------------------------ 07:38 - ND_COSLLS J1306 (2nd priority). We're just going to skirt the end of the observing window. Seeing 0.9 arcsec. 07:47 - started obs script. Seeing 0.9 arcsec, but puffing near start. quick-look spectrum shows decent signal, some visible narrow absorption lines. Seeing is variable. ------------------------------ 08:26 - MODSPhotCal Hz44 - Flux Standard Star in LS60x5 slit Dual Grating and Blue Grating spectra, 3x each. ------------------------------ 08:56 - OSU_VOID, VGC65A, running the UT9 acq script, but modified for direct acquisition rather than blind offset. 09:07 - redid acq - strangeness due to the long telescope unwrap causing a preset timeout (>5 min to move). This cascaded in an odd way because we tried to "ignore" the timeout instead of aborting and trying over. Lesson learned. Seeing 0.8-arcsec (or better?) For a long while the guide star was an odd almost tri-lobate shape, but the WFS looked pretty good. Odd. Cleared itself up. 09:13 - acquired, but blobby, eye-balled the center. 09:16 - Started obs script. Faint little fuzz ball. Hope it has emission lines as advertised. Seeing is good 0.8-arcsec. QuickLook shows faint emission lines- Ha and [SII] but little or no [NII], in blue H-beta, [O III], and [O II]. Looks like a faint metal-poor galaxy. 09:48 - Seeing puffing up to 1.2 arcsec at end of 2nd exposure, worse during readout, but slowly settling down again. 09:50 - Seeing 1.2 arcsec at start of 3rd exposure, hovering around 1.1 arcsec most of the time, then settled down at the end. 10:07 - ND_COSLLS J1605 - seeing within spec (0.8 arcsec) acquiring - slew took a couple of minutes 10:18 - Started .obs file. Seeing hovering around 0.8-0.9 arcsec, but a little variable. 2x600s. Seeing blew up to ~1.2 arcsec about a quarter of the way into the 1st 600s exposure, then degraded to 1.4 arcsec then very slowly improved. 10:31 - during second exposure, started at around 1-arcsec, then dropped to 0.9 arcsec, then flucutated during the exposure. ***** We are going to complete this script, but the PI should evaluate the spectral quality. ***** ------------------------------ 10:43 - Started acquisition for UM_HSTCa, V339 Del 10:48 - Started guiding. Seeing is ~1.5" 10:53 - Through-slit image shows small offset after correction. Applying second offset (-0.246" in x ). Second through-slit image shows no improvement, so tried applying a third offset (again, -0.246" in x). Again, no change. After fourth offset (same amount), object is finally centered. 10:58 - Started single 60s dual grating mode spectrum. Seeing is puffy, ~1" and greater. Worrying about saturation threshold, so we're playing the exposure time safe. 11:07 - This image isn't saturated, but H-alpha peaks at 27k ADU above bias in 60s. We decide to shoot 5 60s exposures. [OIII] 5007 peaks at 18.8k above bias. 11:09 - Started 5 60s exposures. 11:12 - Seeing is ~1.2" 11:18 - Seeing fluctuating. FWHM now up to 1.5". 11:21 - Seeing still wildly fluctuating. Low is 0.9", high is almost 2" 11:25 - Finished science exposure. ------------------------------ 11:26 - Moving to zenith to do flats. 11:28 - obs2 workstation X server locked up, moved to obs3 11:33 - started Bias calibrations: 5x 3Kx3K 5x 8Kx3K 11:45 - SDSS r imaging flats for OSU_ASASSN. Cts 28-32kADU 11:57 - slitflats for 0.8 and 0.6 arcsec slits, dual grating mode (OSU_ETG and UM_HSTCNe would use these, for example)