Date: 2018 May 18 (UT) Observers: Brown, Vallely TO: Geno Bechetti SA: Olga Kuhn Moon phase: Summary: Winds were over the limits at the start of the night. Minor technical issues: There was an issue with the slitmasks in MODS2, but it seemed to be sorted out before we ran everything up. There were a few minor AGW/pointing issues at the very start, but essentially no time was lost. I've noticed that on the OSURC page, the bar chart visibility/color coding is often not in agreement with the visibility plot for that object (e.g., J104457, J141851, PS18kh). I think the issue is with the bar chart, rather than the individual visibility plots. Completed Programs: MODSPhotCal/feige34 OSU_M82/m82c OSU_EHIGalaxies/J141851 (maybe...probably not) OSU_ASASSN/ASASSN18am MODSPhotCal/bd284211 MODSPhotCal/bd332642 Details (All times UT): ---------------------------------- Plan: Winds are a little high at start, but expected to calm. Plan is MODS all night. There are big issues with MODS2r (1-2 quandrants essentially not detecting light, some horizontal striping across the chip). This is a known issue, but for posterity's sake, the MODS2r data is not good. 02:00 - sunset 03:00 - We're going to try collimating near OSU_M82, winds aren't so bad if we're facing North. MODS2 AGW/pointing model is having some issues, but there should be an issue track already open about this, and it seems to be a fairly trivial fix. 03:20 - Moving to do standard star, as the sky is still too bright for the M82 program, and other early night programs are into the wind. We took an acq image for OSU_M82, and the upper right quadrant of MODS2r also seems to have failed... We may need to convert all the MODS2 acq scripts to use blue. 03:35 - Indeed, the upper right quadrant is only reading bias levels. Started Feige34_dualgrating.obs. 03:55 - Moving back to OSU_M82. Moon has not set yet, but by the time We get set up, it will be close to down, and it looks like this will be as good as it gets for this object on this run. 04:05 - Started OSU_M82/m82c.obs. I'm switching all our acq scripts to use the blue channel, given the problems with MODS2r. So Camera -> Blue and Filter -> g_sdss. We haulted the acqMODS task after the field image was taken, since there's no explicit alignment for this object. 05:00 - Everything looking fine, seeing is ~1.5". 06:10 - Last mods2b file (mods2b.20180518.0015) is not good, Olga said its a rare issue related to the sequencer on the MODS2b computer. 06:15 - Moving to OSU_EHIGalaxies/J141851. We're starting this a little early, but it is a very long slew, and we can run an additional exposure at the end if the parallactic angle is an issue for the first exposure (it shouldn't be bad). Again, we switched to a blue channel acquisition. Target is within a couple degrees of Arcturus, and it's causing a bright pupil streak across the field. Trying with a flipped rotator angle on the off chance it works, but it probably won't. Ok, it appeared to fix the MODS1 image, but there's clearly something wonky with the MODS2 field (but this is not really a concern). We're going to assume this won't become an issue mid-way throught the observation, but that may not be the case (we'll take a field image at the end). 06:50 - Starting OSU_EHIGalaxies/J141851. Conditions are improving (very clear, seeing ~0.8"). We're not facing a good direction for the wind, so hopefully the gusts hold off... Ok, first images came in and the news is not good. The red channel spectrum is pretty significantly affected by this stray light issue. We took field images afterword just for reference. 07:55 - Moving to OSU_ASASSN/ASASSN18am Conditions holding steady, seeing subarcsecond. 08:15 - Starting OSU_ASASSN/ASASSN18am. There is also a bright star pupil effect, but nothing like the last target, and not near the target in the image. 10:30 - Running a couple twilight standards. 10:45 - Starting MODSPhotCal/bd284211. 11:10 - Starting MODSPhotCal/bd332642. 11:30 - Running pixel flats and arcs.