Night Log 2013-05-22

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others: Eben, Nimrod, Amanda, Paul

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Summary
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Difficult night with a cloudy beginning and a string of technical issues
once it partially cleared up, with bright Moon. Managed only two
blocks for 2013-1-RSA_POL-001 before the morning.

Night Log 2013-05-21

SA: Tim
SO: Siphelo
Others: petri, kai

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Summary
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highly variable night mostly lost to clouds and some light rain. managed to squeeze in a couple of P4 blocks for 2013-1-RSA_POL-001 and an attempt at a P3 block for 2013-1-UKSC-010. also caught up on almost all outstanding CAL_SPST request.

Night Log 2013-05-20

SA: Tim
SO: Siphelo
Others: amanda gr., keith, dave c (phone), kai

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Summary
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another night with a very rocky start that settled into smooth sailing under good weather. the RSS detector repair during the day had some very bad side effects. keith and amanda sorted it out, though, and it behaved well the rest of the night. fairly steady seeing ranging from 1.1 to 1.8 and photometric for much of the 2nd half of the night. successfully acquired data for the following programs:

2013-1-UKSC-010
2013-1-UW-002
2013-1-RSA_OTH-006
2013-1-UW_OTH-001 (x2)
2013-1-UKSC_HET_OTH-001
2013-1-UW-005
2013-1-POL-001
2013-1-AMNH-002
2013-1-DC-001
2013-1-HEC_RU_RSA_OTH_001

got a little more burst data for thruput measurements, but it was left a bit late and the sun got too bright before i could finish everything. tough to find the right star for doing this. feige 110 was the best bet and it's not available until 05:40 or so.

Night Log 2013-05-19

SA: Tim
SO: Siphelo
Others: amanda gr.

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Summary
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a night that started off with a bang in the form of a fairly hectic thunder and hail storm settled into a relatively routine second half. only significant technical issue was a cable wrap limit. managed to complete 6 blocks in spite of some clouds, haze, and 1.7-2" seeing plus two more that were rejected due to too much cloudiness. got data for the following programs:

2013-1-GU-003 (P1; rejected due to clouds)
2013-1-UW-005 (P2; rejected due to clouds)
2013-1-POL-001 (P2)
2013-1-RU-001 (P0 SN folllow-up)
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (P4)
2013-1-UW-008 (P3)
2013-1-HET_RU_RSA_OTH-001 (P1)
2013-1-RSA_OTH-011 (P1)

High Resolution Spectrograph: Red Arm Lab first-light

Following on from the HRS blue-arm laboratory first-light, this week also saw the red-arm achieving the same milestone.  The photo below shows a red solar echellogram covering orders from n=52 (~890 nm) to n=82 (~560nm).

Night Log 2013-05-18

SA: Tim
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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Summary
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smooth, productive night with mediocre, but steady, seeing until the clouds arrived after 0300 and brought raindrops after 0430. accepted a total of 13 blocks and rejected two others. data were acquired for the following programs:

2013-1-HET_OTH-001 (x2; P0)
2013-1-IUCAA-004 (x2)
2013-1-HET-005 (x2)
2013-1-UW-007
2013-1-UW-002
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2013-1-GU-002
2013-1-UW-005
2013-1-RU-003
2013-2-AMNH

Night Log 2013-05-17

SA: Tim
SO: Siphelo
Others: amanda gr.

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Summary
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managed to be open long enough to get sets up burst mirror throughput data for SCAM and RSS. however, the humidity limit was reached at 20:45 and the dampness persisted through the rest of the night. took FP calibration data to check stability of MR and calibrate TF in the region from 6700 to 7200 A.