Date: 2021 Apr 13 UTC LBTO Observer: O. Kuhn (LBTO) Lead Partner Observer: R. Pogge (OSU) Other Partner Observers: N. Rogers (UM) Telescope Operator: D. Gonzalez Huerta Special Assistants: Trim Moon phase: 1d past new moon Summary: A good night overall, photometric conditions as judged by guide stars and satellite. We executed high priority MODS programs from each partner. The seeing was below 1" for most of the night and for long periods held steady at sub-arcsecond levels (0.8" or 0.65" at the end of the night). The exception was an episode of puffy seeing during observation of UM_XMDs. Clear at sunset and all night long though there were some bands of cirrus in the morning. A bit windy. Calibrations: LBC biases at start MODS pixflats (1x1 and 1x2 binning) and lamps, dual grating mode Completed Programs: UVa_FRAGN/J1037-07 OSU_ASASSN/SN2020hvf OSU_XMDs_MODS/HS1442 UM_XMDs/SBS1415 ND_uwcrb Details (All times UT): ---------------------------------- 01:51 sunset 02:05 Enclosure opened. 02:25 pointing check done and collimating now near the first target, Feige 34. Seeing is good - subarcsecond and down to 0.6" on DX. 02:43 12-deg twilight Flux Star Feige34 02:38 acquired Feige 34 02:48 executed dual-grating calibrations Counts in peak of m1r spectrum only ~8000 while they are up to 36000 in m2r spectrum. Focus of telescope (or instrument?). On the blue side, ~10000 for MODS1 and 30000 for MODS2. David tweaked telescope focus on left side, better. UVa_FRAGN/J1037-07 03:10 acqBinoMODS J1037-07.acq GCS chose the wrong guide star (2 stars close together, star chosen was slightly brighter than the chosen guide star), but this actually put the object closer to the target position up along the central slit segment. Seeing is 0.8/0.7" during acq 03:14 18-deg twilight during the acq 03:22 executed J1037-07.obs dual grating 1.2" slit, 3x480s We see continuum but no lines in the red spectrum. Seeing was 0.7-0.8 arcsec OSU_ASASSN/ASASSN20jq 03:55 Rick modified the PA to 90 deg, as we are observing it earlier than the earliest acq script (07UT) Acquired at PA=90. Guide star is same as in February when there were problems guiding & WFSing. There is not much choice - star has B=17.19, R=13.09 (NOMAD). A B-R color of 4.1 is bery red, so either the R mag is bogus in NOMAD or it is a faint red galaxy. WFS not converging despite good seeing. Aborted as no good alternative guide stars in the field. OSU_ASASSN/SN2020hvf 04:07 acquired SN2020hvf.acq 04:20 started science observations. 3x20min exposures, dual grating Seeing 0.9-1-arcsec during observations 05:01 Average FWHM on the guiders is now ~1.08" both sides. 05:08 weird MODS2 GUI exposure control glitch in MODS2R, GUI says exposure start has stalled, but seeing the usual progress messages in the comm traffic monitor showing the exposures started OK and it readout OK. However, had to start the third MODS2R exposure by hand with the GUI. Bizarre, will watch. OSU_XMDs_MODS/HS1442 05:30 acquired target using the 0600 UT script. 05:43 started science observations: dual grating spectra, 3x20min seeing 0.9-1 arcsec during observations recurrence of the exposure control glitch after 1st MODS1R exposure. Rick looking at comm logs for clues. Will restart MODS2 GUI before next target. UM_XMDs/SBS1415 06:51 acquired target using UT0700 script, star is very faint and appears diffuse. appears to be a galaxy (again, thanks NOMAD) 07:04 re-acquired with the UT0730 script (OK), but rotates field 18-deg and uses a different guide star. Better, this looks more like a star. 07:18 started science obs (rotator slew of 180-deg took time) Seeing ~1-arcsec at start, but 400s into first exposure puffed briefly to 1.3-arcsec. Seeing jumping around on guider between sub-arcsec and 1.3-arcsec or worse. Hmm, GUI restart did not clear weird condition, more digging. Flux Star HZ44 08:26 acquiring star. Seeing now 0.8-arcsec 08:37 starting spectra (dual grating). Seeing 0.7-0.8 arcsec 08:42 Weird behavior of exposure control again for MODS2R first noted around 05:08. GUI exposure control glitch on MODS2R again - however this time noticed that low-level system messages from M2.RC (MODS2 Red CCD control computer) are omitting the command string *after* the 1st exposure. Suggests that the problem is in the IC program not the GUI. After the exposures were done, asked David to restart the IC program on M2.RC computer in the rack. Restarted without problems. ND_uwcrb/uwcrb 08:59 acquiring with uwcrb_pa10.acq, seeing during acq was about 0.6-0.7 arcsec 09:17 start of science script: bino dual grating 1x2 binning, 29x200s exposures. This time no MODS2R exp-control glitch after 2nd exposure, no problems any more. M2.RC restart did the trick. Seeing now rock steady at 0.6-0.7-arcsec 09:56 Seeing is still good - 0.63/0.70" on the SX/DX side guiders. 10:52 Seeing is 0.69/0.74" on the SX/DX guiders. 11:28 M2R finished first. Taking one more manually, and another while M1 finishes (had a few of the occasional M1R readout lags) 11:30 M2B finished. Taking one more manually, and another while waiting on M1. 11:37 M1B is finished. 11:38 M1R, M2B+R are finished 11:39 Avg seeing 0.76/0.80" 11:41 David is closing up. ------------------------------ Closed-Dome Calibrations Dual Grating pixflats, unbinned and bin 12 Dual Grating comparison lamps Putting MODS to sleep for the day. The LBCs are off and the LUCIs are in the end-of-night state. 11:26 18-deg twilight 11:57 12-deg twilight 12:49 sunrise ALTA predictions LBTplot The SX (black) and DX (green) guide star FWHM and flux are plotted below. [a]do we report downtime for this? [b]There was no downtime involved in the change of PA as it was done before we slewed. There were about 12 minutes spent on this target which we did not observe, as the guide star was just too faint. [c]We slewed to ASASSN20jq but the guide star was fainter than expected given the NOMAD catalog mag. It would have been tenuous to try to maintain guiding & WFSing on it. [d]machine is listed as M2.RC in the raritan downtime for this? [e]I would say about 10 minutes or less, from about 08:49 - 08:59