LBT OSU/RC Partner Observing Notes
Date: 2014 November 25 UTC (Night 6 of 8)
Observers: Ben Shappee, Rick Pogge (OSU)
Support Astronomer: D. Thompson (remote)
Telescope Operator: Steve Allenson

SUMMARY:

LUCI1 night.  Open for less than an hour before high winds shut
us down for the rest of the night.

Programs Observed: None

Observing Notes:

All times are UTC unless otherwise noted
23:20 - LUCI darks in a darkened dome

00:20 - Winds out of the NW with gusts below limits for now.  This
        restricts us to targets not in the NW for now.

        On consultation with the PI, the UVa_BCD_LUCI acq scripts have
        been modified to (1) use the N3.75 camera as is the current
        practice and (2) use the J filter.  Last night our acq was in
        K and these blue galaxies are too faint (and the K sky too
        bright) to see readily.  This should remedy that.

        The other suggested change is to use a central wavelength of
        1.17um instead of 1.10um to address the grating tilt stability
        problem we encounterd last night.  There is, however, no clear
        consensus among the support astronomers.


00:30 - clouds on horizon, clear above.  Moon a thin sliver.  Wind and
        seeing are our worries.  Steve getting the telescope setup for
        the night.  Mirror temps are good, but with wind we can't open
        up vent doors to flush air through.


01:00 - DIMM says 2", guider and WFS seeing looks awful.  High-order
        corrections disabled.

01:14 - UVa_BCD_LUCI Telluric HD206736 acquisition...  

01:21 - Wind gusts now over 22m/s limits, closing for now.  Upward
        wind trend the past few hours, but a decline is forecast for
        later tonight.

06:00 - Still too windy to open, gusts topping out near 33 m/s
        (that's 74 mph for the metric impaired). 

09:30 - Still too windy to open.  Peak gust in the past 10min was 29 m/s


10:30 - What is says above.  Hasn't been 20 below 20 all night.

Took the last of the LUCI calibrations (mostly darks), including a
1.17um set for BCD, on the off chance we get time to observe one or
more of those later this run.

12:10 - Calling it a night