LBT OSU/RC Partner Observing Notes Date: 2015 January 24 UTC (Night 7 of 9) Observers: Paul Martini, Suk Sien Tie (OSU) Support Astronomer: Olga Kuhn (remote) Telescope Operator: Steve Allanson SUMMARY: Starting the night with seeing around 1.6 and cloudy sky. Seeing stayed bad. Lost guide star a couple of times. Did OSU_N925 [b-c], had to abort n925 d halfway due to high airmass. Finished all of OSU_MClusters Pra program. Took 2 more exposures of OSU_2014J since we ran out of bad weather programs. Observing Notes: All times are UTC unless otherwise noted 01:20 Pointing and collimating 01:28 Std star g191b2b.acq 01:39 repeat g191b2b.acq (forgot to run execMODS g191b2b-dg.obs before acquiring science target) 01:47 g191b2b-dg.obs 02:00 OSU_N925 b acquisition 02:15 OSU_N925 b observation Seeing 1.3 Sky partly cloudy towards NE Blue spectra crosses over quadrant boundary (but red does not) 03:00 Seeing 1.3, sky clear with clouds towards W 03:23 OSU_N925 c acquisition 03:34 OSU_N925 c observation Seeing 1.3 Sky clear Blue spectra crosses over quadrant boundary (but red does not) 04:00 Seeing improves to 1.1 Sky clear with persistent clouds towards W 04:18 Clouds drifting by, patchy sky Seeing 1.5 Substantial ext on guide star 04:42 Retake 1 exposure of n925 c due to 0.5-1 mag of ext in the past 30 mins Seeing stays at 1.5 04:57 OSU_N925 d acquisition Seeing 1.6 Sky mostly clear Guide star stabilizing 05:17 OSU_N925 d observation Seeing 1.8 4 mag ext on guide star in the last few minutes 05:25 Guide star lost Pause exposure 05:39 Guide star back on Resume exposure Seeing 1.9 06:08 Guide star lost again Exposure paused Seeing 1.7 Sky very cloudy - can't see a single star! 06:30 AM > 2 Aborted n925 d Telescope parked at zenith 06:52 Sky cleared up Can't redo n926d because of elevation 06:52 OSU_MCluster PraC acq Seeing 2 07:22 PA changed to -34.3 and obj coord decreased by 20" due to vignetting of wfs Targets now fall on slit 1 and 5 (instead of 1 and 3) 07:24 OSU_MCluster PraC obs Seeing 1.2 Somewhat patchy sky Guide star stabilizing 07:43 OSU_MCluster PraD acq 07:57 OSU_MCluster PraD obs Seeing 1.4 Sky getting clearer 08:16 OSU_MCluster PraE acq 08:29 Re-align Pra E as top target not centered Seeing 1.7 PA changed to -4.2 to get top target centered 08:50 3rd re-alignment! Slit not actually perfectly straight (so instead of 270 degree, we want 269.5) PA changed to -3.7 09:08 OSU_MCluster PraE obs Seeing 1.64 Clear sky 09:27 OSU_MCluster PraF acq Acq exptime changed from 60 to 30 to expediate acq Slit completely missed both targets after alignment (targets substiantially offset in field image) Targets again substantially offset in second field image and in opposite direction compared to the first field image. Re-aligning 09:51 OSU_MCluster PraF obs Seeing 1.2 10:12 OSU_MCluster PraG acq Acq exptime changed from 60 to 30 PA changed to 132.5 Seeing 2 Sky clear 10:35 OSU_MCluster PraG obs 10:55 OSU_MCluster PraH acq Acq exptime changed from 60 to 30 Seeing 1.2 10:58 Telescope preset error Check telescope pointing 11:00 Re OSU_MCluster PraH acq PA from -45 to -45.5 and re-align 11:17 OSU_MCluster PraH obs Seeing 1.8 Sky clear 11:40 Retake 1 exposure of Pra H due to poorer seeing Seeing 1.8 Sky clear 11:47 OSU_SN2014J HA=2 acq (LST = 12:42) since we're done with all bad weather programs 12:04 OSU_SN2014J obs with nimgs 2 (twi 1-hr away) Seeing 1.6 Sky clear 12:37 Seeing 1.9 Sky still clear 13:11 Std star Feige34 acq Seeing 2 13:18 Std Feige34 dg obs 13:36 Std Feige34 red grating only obs (for MClusters) Seeing 1.7 13:48 Lost guide star, but ok because done with all exposures 13:50 Closing shutter 14:00 Starting calibrations