LBT/OSURC Observing Notes
Date: 2016 April 09 UT
Observers: Jonathan Brown and Donald Terndrup (at Tucson Remote Facility)
Support: Olga Kuhn
TelOps: Geno Bachetti

Observing mode:
  MODS/Longslit
  
Conditions:
  Clear at sunset, but rising humidity and increasing cloud cover througout
  the night.  Initial seeing 1.0" arcsec degrading to 1.4" by midnight, 
  sometimes worse.  By midnights, winds were 14-18 m/s.

Completed projects:
  UVa_BCD_MODS/J1205
  OSU_BLRqsos/J1122
  OSU_BLRqsos/J1133

Calibration objects:
  Feige 34

Overview:
  
Calibration frames
  mods1b.20160410.0001  Seive Mask
  mods1r.20160410.0001  Seive Mask

UT 0245
  Feige 34, dual mode.  Acquisition and science frames.
  Blue:  images 2-4
  Red:   images 4-6

UT 0305 
  Move to UVa_BCD_MODS/J1205
  UT 0310 Started science observations.  Seeing 1.1 - 1.2" to start, better
  as observations continue.  Started observations at HA = -3.

  Blue frames:  5-8
  Red frames:  10-13

  Clouds are starting to appear on the far western horizon.

  [We're finding that the red side sometimes takes a long time before it begins
  a readout, say a minute or two.]

UT 0420 
  Move to OSU_BLRqsos/J1122
  Seeing getting softer (now 1.2-1.3").
  Clouds rising higher in the west.
  UT 0433   Science script for telluric star
  UT 0453   Science script for target quasar

  Thin clouds passing in front of target at start of science observations.

                  image numbers
                blue         red
  J1122tell     9-11       17-19
  J1122        12-14       23-25

  During these exposures, the guide star counts varied by about 0.3 mag.

UT0545
  Now OSU_BLRqsos/J1133
  UT 0550  Science script for telluric
  UT 0630  Science script for quasar
  
  Acquisition of this object proved troublesome.  We were using the J1133_ut06
  script. It was necessary to modify the script to use a 3k by 3x acquisition
  image in order to see the target on the next slit up from the usual position.

                  image numbers
                blue         red
  J1133tell    15-17       29-31
  J1133        18-20       37-39

  During images 37-39, the wind speed picked up considerably.  

UT 0720
  OSU_BLRqsos/J1126
  Delay before acquisition while telescope pointing is checked.  Wind is now
  > 16 m/s on occasion, with seeing degrading.

  UT 0731  Start science script for telluric
  UT 0755  Start observations of quasar

  During telluric, clouds were thickening and guide star counts dropping.
  Almost certainly more than a magnitude of extinction.  Spectra of
  quasar are quite faint.

                  image numbers
                blue         red
  J1133tell    21-23       46-48
  J1133        24-26       49-51

UT 0845 
  OSU_BLRqsos/J1237

  UT 0850   Science script for telluric
  
  Moved to target, but under the current conditions the guide star chosen 
  for this object is too faint.  So we'll go on to the next object.

UT 0950
  OSU_BLRqsos/J1403

  This object was in the OB directory, but not on the observing queue tool.

  UT 0910  Start science script for telluric
  UT 0928  Start science script for quasar

  Maybe a little clearer for this one.

                 image numbers
                blue         red
  J11403tell    30-32       61-63
  J1403         33-35       67-69

  Thick clouds moving in during this sequence.

Tried to acquire a guide star for BD+32 standard, but clouds were too thick to
see the guide star.

Stop to check for wind speed, since we might be close to the limits.  Max speed is
17-18 m/s.

Close.  Sky is mostly overcast.