LBT OSU/RC Observing Notes
Date: 2015 May 21
Observers-- Fausnaugh, Garnavich, Villanueva
SA-- Olga Kuhn (on-call)
TO-- David G.

Summary: Very good LBC night.  Cirrus clouds throughout the night,
	 with occasionally significant extinction.  Sub-arcsecond
	 seeing for much of the night (except when pushing to higher
	 airmass), average ~1.0 arcseconds.  Observed 13 monitor
	 targets.  A technical issue required us to disconnect and
	 power down the LBCs (twice)--we lost <0.5 hours because
	 of this.


Programs:  OSU_monitor all night 

Observed Targets: N4258, N5194, M101,  M81,   M82, 
	 	  N3077, I2574, N4449, N4736,  
		  N4826, N5474, N6503, N6946

Details (All times in UT.  Seeing is estimated from science images,
unless otherwise noted.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1:40-- Power up LBCs, took biases.
2:00-- Thick, patchy cirrus, with clouds to the west.
2:20-- Sunset

2:31-- Running flats.  Many thick clouds, so usefulness of the 
       flats is questionable.

3:06-- Going to focus on targets at low airmass.  At N4258 focus, 
       running dofpia
3:22-- Converged on both sides.  
       Resuming copointing script.
       Thick cirrus.
       DIMM reads ~1.0 arcsecond seeing.
       seeing ~1.20
3:29-- Rerunning dofpia, just in case       

3:37-- N4258 observation
       cirrus clouds (but better than before)
       seeing: ~1.0 from red side, 
       blue quality is noticeably worse (~1.2, slightly elongated)
3:50-- 18 degree twilight.
4:11-- Blue-side elongation has been getting worse, V-band is pretty bad
       but we've completed most of the exposures, so moving on 
       (V exp 2 and 3 are probably useless)

4:15-- N5194 focus preset, dofpia
4:25-- N5194 observation
       layer of cirrus holding steady
       seeing: 0.81 (confirmed by DIMM agrees)
       Blue-side PSF is excellent (0.81, very round)
5:01-- PSF has stayed well behaved
       seeing: ~0.9

5:08-- M101 focus, dofpia
5:16-- M101 observation
       skies are clear, cirrus clouds are less than before
       seeing: ~0.85, both sides look great
5:41-- seeing: ~0.85

5:47-- M81 focus, dofpia
5:53-- M81 observation
       skies are clear, some clouds along north horizon, light layer of cirrus
       seeing: ~1.1
       some thicker cirrus may have passed through the last few images

6:05-- M82 observation (focus seems stable, will confirm on first image)
       seeing: ~1.0, Red and Blue PSF are tight and round

6:17-- N3077 focus, dofpia
6:21-- N3077 observation
       skies are clear, some clouds in the north, but they are moving away
       seeing: ~0.95
       Blue exp 2 has a slight elongation

6:32-- I2574 focus, dofpia
       Clouds are moving in from the south
6:36-- I2574 observation
       cirrus clouds are noticeably thicker
       seeing: ~0.90
       some elongation in blue

6:49-- N4449 focus, dofpia, copoint
7:04-- N4449 observation       
       cirrus clouds moving in from the west
       seeing: ~0.81

7:17-- N4736 focus, dofpia
7:22-- N4736 observation
       layer of cirrus clouds
       seeing: ~0.81
7:42-- The Red side LBC froze after half the images, but
       blue side finished.  As per the cookbook, stopping and
       restarting LBC in the power control UI.  The last red image was
       7:29

7:52-- TO has restarted one of the systems.  Moving to N4826 focus, dofpia.
       (slew had to unwrap).
8:02-- dofpia did not take any exposures.  Disconnect, poweroff, poweron, 
       reconnect on LBCs (again).

8:06-- dofpia (N4826).  Problem appears to be solved.
8:13-- N4826 observation
       cirrus as substantially cleared, down to a thin layer
       seeing: ~1.1
8:32-- Fairly significant extinction
       seeing: ~1.2

8:52-- N5474 focus, dofpia
8:56-- N5474 observation
       sky is mostly clear, still has layer of cirrus
       seeing: ~1.0
9:05-- guiding error in Blue exp 1, left-right elongation (we
       saw the guide star move in streaks across the technical chip 
       thumbnail).  Guiding looks fine for exp 2.

9:32-- N6503 focus, dofpia
9:37-- N6503 observation
       sky is mostly clear, layer of cirrus persists
       seeing: ~0.92

9:52-- N6946 focus, dofpia
9:57-- N6946 observation
       cirrus are somewhat thicker, otherwise, mostly clear
       seeing:  ~1.1

10:33-- OB is finished, but only 10 minutes to twilight.  Rerunning OB
	until the sky gets bright.
	seeing: ~1.2       

10:43-- 18 degree twilight