LBT OSU/RC Partner Observing Notes Date: 2014 November 22 UTC (Night 3 of 8) Observers: Ben Shappee, Rick Pogge (OSU) Support Astronomer: Olga Kuhn Telescope Operator: Steve Allenson SUMMARY: MODS1 Night. Overcast early, so starting with calibrations during the afternoon. Satellite and forecast suggest it may clear later. We will do as much calibration as we can until we are ready to open. Got lucky with weather. Cleared up, seeing was at times good (0.7-0.8"), but later had episodes of up to 1.3". Transparency was good except for occasional wisps. At the very end we had brief periods of 0.6" seeing. Originally forecast to be a dead loss, it was one of our most productive MODS1 nights in a while. Programs Observed: OSU_Z6: DES2242-0124 and DES2259-0124 UM_RMHstars: M31-LBV OSU_MClusters: PleC thru H (all 6) NGC2112 Field A (N2A) OSU_ASASSN: ASASSN14ae Observing Notes: All times are UTC unless otherwise noted UTC 2014 Nov 21 (afternoon) Afternoon Calibrations 21:00 - Imaging flats, r and z, requested by PIs to calibrate r and z acq images (e.g., OSU_ASASSN, OSU_Z6) r flats for OSU_ASASSN, ROI=3Kx3K z flats shot for OSU_Z6, ROI=1Kx1K Also 5x biases for red 1Kx1K for OSU_Z6 21:50 thru 23:59 Dual grating mode Slit flats LS60x6x0.8, 1.0, 1.2 LS60x5 Pixel Flats Comp Lamps Dual prism mode prflats prlamps Evening: 00:39 - Opening chamber doors, vent doors have been open. No threatening weather, but still clouds around us but not over us. Most likely clearing completely by midnight. 01:09 - Feige 110, standard star while heading towards astronomical twilight 30 minutes from now. Seeing 1.3-1.4 arcsec. Appear to be in a light cirrus hole as the guide star counts have been reasonably flat. 01:26 - OSU_AGN, PG2130 (poor seeing, patchy cirrus target). Seeing 1.2" 01:33 - executing science script. Seeing starting to improve but guide star dipped by ~1mag then recovered - definitely stuff rolling past on the all-sky camera. Could be with us for an hour. Seeing now around 1" dipping to 0.9. Shame about the transparency in the middle, better towards the end so we are in another sizeable hole. 02:02 - UVa_MGiants, mgiant16, medium seeing program. Seeing hovering around 1" and cirrus much better now (bits have passed). 02:06 - After initial acq, seeing blew up to 1.3-1.4 but clarity still OK. Aborting as we are now well out of the observing parameters. 02:08 - Going after another OSU_AGN, NGC7469, which is a poor-seeing poor-transparency target. Things are not yet settled, but satellite is improving. Problem - gstar too far off axis at this seeing. Rotated to PA=-90 and got a good R=12.28mag star (n7469_pa90.acq). Old star was a problem for Z10 stability (slow runaway trefoil was starting) at PA=0. 02:20 - starting science script. Slow because of the gstar change and a fumbled abort/modsAlign. Transparency steady, seeing slowly improving w/occasional puffs. 02:49 - OSU_Z6, DES2242-0124. Acquisition. Seeing now 0.9-1", so in range, cirrus mostly gone. Target is faint, guide star counts holding steady. May increase the exptime on the field and confirmatory images to see the target better on later scripts. 02:59 - executing science script, seeing 0.9-1" still. Guide star good. Counts steady and seeing 0.9-1 for whole visit. 03:42 - OSU_Z6, DES2259-0124. Acquisition. Initial LBT pointing was off and it grabbed a fainter guide star. Required a larger offset but acquired OK, got a lock and are able to run active optics given it is dark and 1" seeing. Seeing 0.9-1". 03:55 - executing science script. Guide star steady at start, but a little stuff coming through on guide-star, mostly small wisps. Seeing ~1". Blips are short, mostly steady. 04:39 - UM_RMHstars, M31-LBV_B.acq. Acq failed, Steve stopping to check pointing (see DES2259 above). 04:43 - Resent after re-zeroing pointing. Seeing 0.8-0.9". Target is well-centered in the slit. 04:53 - Executing science script. Seeing 0.8-0.9", guide star counts steady (no sign of cirrus near us on the satellite or all-sky camera). 3x600s. Seeing up to 1" in last 180s of last exposure. All spectra look good. 05:30 - OSU_MClusters, Pleiades C. Acquisition grabbed the bright pair to the west, luckily the fainter of the two is not inside the S-H aperture. Good S-H image on the WFS camera. Seeing 0.8-0.9" - Tweaking rotator, which is not easy 05:56 - Starting science script. Needed a -0.5-deg rotation to align, plus a small (0.25") dX offset. Would have helped if the PI had provided better astronometry. 06:16 - OSU_MClusters, Pleiades D. Hopefully better process next time for rotator offsets. Pointing failed, Steve adjusting pointing (off in opposite direction than before). Better. 06:22 - Re-ran acq script (note, we picked a new guide star, NOMAD11135-0042862) Seeing 0.8-0.9 arcsec. dPA=-0.45, dX=+0.40 06:37 - Executing science script - 0.7-0.8" seeing, 3x300s. Guide star showing some dip, cirrus scrap rolling thru. By 2nd of 3 guide star counts stable. 06:59 - OSU_MClusters, Pleiades E. 07:04 - GCS stopped and a shell rip. Field image compromised. Recovering... 07:07 - resent preset... 07:08 - re-taking field image... no dPA or dX needed 07:13 - Executing science script. Seeing 0.9", but occasional puffs to 1". guide star counts steady, no cirrus on satellite or all-sky camera. 07:35 - OSU_MClusters, Pleiades F. Acquisition slowed by rotator unwrap. Seeing 1" but puffy, dPA=-0.11 dX=-0.15 07:49 - Executing science script. Seeing 1" and variable. Spectra look good. 08:10 - OSU_MClusters, Pleiades G. Acquisition. Seeing 1" w/some puffs. no dPA or dX required. 08:22 - Executing science script. Seeing 0.9-1". Guide star counts steady. 08:42 - OSU_MClusters, Pleiades H. Acquisition. Picked a new guide star not as far off axis: NOMAD1 1139-0043057. Seeing 0.9", clear skies. dPA=+0.13 dX=+0.125 08:56 - Executing science script. Seeing 1", but puffy. Humidity rose 10% in past hour, now 68%. Seeing settled into 0.8-0.9 during the 2nd of 3 exposures. 09:17 - OSU_MClusters, NGC2112 Field A MOS (N2A). Acquisition w/modsAlign. Seeing 1-1.1", humidity still around 68% but no longer rising. Guide star counts steady. Shift dY=-0.5" after modsAlign. 09:33 - Executing science script. Seeing 1-1.1", 3x240s. Seeing up to 1.2" at times. Clear w/o cirrus. We have extra time until the next target observing window, so taking a 4th 240s exposure. 10:00 - OSU_ASASSN, ASASSN14ae acquisition. Target and its guidestar are bright. Seeing ~1.2". 10:11 - Executing science script. Seeing started out ~1.1-1.2". Running 3x1200s. Guide star counts are steady. Seeing ~1" starting with exposure 2. Improved to 0.9" during exposure 3. Humidity now down to ~44%, the bad seeing episode correlating with the bubble of moist air blowing over. 11:19 - Started another 3x1200s sequence. Seeing 0.9", no cirrus, skies still dark. Seeing sometimes as good as 0.7". This sequence finished just before twilight. 12:24 - MODSPhotCal, Feige 34 dual grating and red-only grating mode. 12:31 - Executing calibration script, pushing into twilight. Finished Observing at UTC 12:56. 13:05 - Telescope closed and parked at Zenith, red-only grating calibrations grpixflats_r.cal grlamps_r.cal These support OSU_MCluster Pleiades spectra in red-only grating mode Daytime Dark-Enclosure Calibrations Files continue names mods1x.20141122.####.fits 19:21 - MOS mask calibrations - all 7 masks currently loaded: OSU_MClusters (red-only grating mode) N2A.cal Mask ID502938 N2B.cal Mask ID544945 N2C.cal Mask ID533330 N7B.cal Mask ID554621 N7C.cal Mask ID560143 N6C.cal Mask ID OSU_SXDF (dual grating mode) SXDF.cal Mask ID531725