Night Log 2011-11-29

SA: Tim
SO: Siphelo
Others: petri, sudhanshu, zolisa

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

clear dry night with light passing cirrus and variable seeing ranging from 1" to 2.5". observed CAL_SPST in both evening and morning twilight and got data for several science programs. these included:

2011-3-UNC_RSA_RU-001
2011-3-RU-015
2011-3-RU-007
2011-2-DC-005
2011-3-POL-007
2011-3-RSA_IUCAA_OTH-001
2011-3-RSA_OTH-023

Night Log 2011-11-28

SA: Tim
SO: Patrick
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

dry cirrusy night with variable seeing. acquired science data will working on ox wagon automation software. collected data for the following programs:

2011-3-UNC_RSA_RU-001
2011-3-RSA_IUCAA_OTH-001
2011-3-DC-005
2011-3-RSA_OTH-023

as well as some CAL_SPST data for 2011-3-RSA_OTH-010 and 2011-3-DC_RSA-001.

Night Log 2011-11-27

SA: Tim
SO: Patrick
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

windy, poor seeing, and humid. managed to squeeze in some science observations for 2011-3-RSA_OTH-008 and 2011-3-RSA_OTH-010 in spite of all that. in fact, a grand total of 1838 images.

Night Log 2011-11-26

SA: Tim
SO: Patrick
Others: hitesh

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

clouds all night and high humidity closed us up by midnight. when we were able to observe the seeing was awful, >2.5" and >4" at times. managed to get some spec phot data as well as pointing data in spite of all that.

Night Log 2011-11-25

SA: Tim
SO: Patrick
Others: hitesh

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

all science just about all night. clear, photometric, but with highly variable seeing. acquired data for the following programs:

2011-3-RSA-017
2011-3-UW_OTH-002
2011-3-IUCAA-005
2011-3-UNC_RSA_RU-001

also got some ENG_RSS to look at near-IR flats while doing an alignment and ENG_POINT during evening twilight to verify the changes hitesh made to the tracker config. the pointing is much better now. if anything objects were sometimes too centered on salticam and were sometimes hidden in the gap.

Night Log 2011-11-24

SA: Tim
SO: Patrick
Others: darragh

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

worked on getting some new pointing data as well as some dark sky flats to check the effect of removing the M3 baffle. the initial impression of the pointing data is good in the sense that the star came up in the field every time, though always at the top or top-right quadrant. some static az/el offsets will help considerably. there is also a significant cylical component as a function of azimuth as has been observed previously.

humidity closed us up at 1 AM and the rest of the night was lost.

Night Log 2011-11-23

SA: Tim
SO: Patrick
Others: darragh

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

entire night lost to rain, cloud, and humidity. did closed dome tests to help characterize the behavior of the fringing in RSS redward of 7500 A. it appears to be repeatible after changes in RSS (e.g. park all and then reconfigure). it also appears to be repeatible after changes in rho, though it is strongly rho-dependent. will look at the data more closely tomorrow.

Night Log 2011-11-22

SA: Alexei
SO: Zolisa
Others: David, Darragh, Petri, Tim and the day crew

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

=> Very nice weather during the night.

=> Many tracker test from the evening.

=> Science observations for the rest of the night.
Science data where taken for
2011-3-RSA_OTH-008
2011-3-RSA_OTH-001
2011-3-DC-005
2011-3-POL-006

Night Log 2011-11-21

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

=> All night lost to high humidity

=> Some tracker tests from the evening before closed by humidity

Celebrating the start of full Science Operations!

Apologies for the delay, but a holiday that excluded internet access prevented me posting the pics from this exciting event which took place up at SALT on Monday 7 November 2011.

As for Ockert's wedding, the crew cleaned up amazingly well for the big day & the only regret is that with everyone running around attending to last-minute preparations, we failed to get the whole team together for a photo.  Here are a few of them that I managed to get to stand still for a few seconds...

Here are some of the more conscientious objectors that Chris didn't send home to smarten up ;)

Before the buses arrived from Cape Town, there was time for our distinguished guests from Rutgers University (Prof Ted Williams, Chairman of the SALT Board & Prof Kathryn Uhrich, the Dean of Math & Physical Sciences) to polish up their routine :)

First to show up were the school kids from Sutherland who were to entertain us with their enthusiastic singing of the national anthem & a number of other songs.

 

Next were the 2 buses from Cape Town bearing the rest of the SALT Board & members of staff from SAAO & SALT.

All the other dignitaries, with appropriate levels of security, made it safely too...

The ushers were strategically stationed to meet the crowd.

& here's one of the superheroes making his way through the guard of honour :)

Entry into the dome was via the side door to the observing floor.

Much chattering & shuffling around as everyone took up their seats.

Master of Ceremonies for the day was the President & CEO of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Dr Albert van Jaarsveld.

Rousing speeches were given by SAAO's Acting Director, Prof Patricia Whitelock...

Prof Ted Williams representing the SALT Board....

Dr Val Munsami, Deputy Director-general for Research, Development & Innovation within the Department of Science & Technology (DST)...

& Ms Grizelda Cjiekella, Acting Premier of the Northern Cape.

With the speeches concluded, it was time to unveil the event's comemorative plaque.

Big smiles all around!

This momento will have pride of place downstairs in the visitors' gallery.

Finally, it was time for SALT to speak for itself...  All the audio-visual equipment was removed to allow safe rotation of the telescope structure & the dome was rotated in the opposite direction to maximise the theatrics!

But not before a word of warning from Tech Ops Manager Chris Coetzee (seen here doing his best impersonation of a politician) regarding the potentially startling sound effects that were to follow...

Even for those that've seen all this before, the novelty never seems to wear off!

Afterwards Patricia invited everyone to offer the telescope a well-deserved round of applause :)

Later still, Darragh set about interrogating John Booth, Chief Engineer at McDonald Observatory (the home of SALT's older twin, the Hobby Eberly Telescope or HET) as to what they were thinking when they started all this trouble in the first place!

All guests were then ferried down the hill to the Recreation Centre where "snacks & drinks" (the official technical term coined by the Green Amanda) were to be enjoyed.

Somewhat disappointingly, no one actually made use of the climbing wall during this time...

After lunch the buses were loaded up again & made the return trek to Cape Town - a great time to be a local!

A memorable day & congratulations to all for their huge efforts to ensure that everything ran so smoothly :)

RSS Fabry Perot Commissioning Status

Report from Ted Williams on the commissioning status of the RSS Fabry-Perot.


1.  The single-etalon modes that are ready for shared-risk science observations are:

TF
650-690 nm

LR
480-510 nm
650-690 nm
820-870 nm

These modes need further work on flat fielding, throughput determination, and stability characterization in order to be considered fully commissioned and ready for routine science observations.  Additional wavelength regions need to be calibrated as resources become available; priorities should include 580-610 nm in both TF and LR, and 480-510 nm, and 820-870 nm in TF.

2. Dual-etalons modes (MR and HR) have a serious reflection problem between the two etalons that introduces a series of ghost images and significantly degrades throughput.  Rectification of this problem is underway, but may take several months to complete.  In the interim, the original MR and HR modes are not available.   There are two alternatives that can be used:

a) Inserting a circular polarizer between the etalons has been demonstrated to eliminate the ghost.   There is more than a factor of 2 throughput loss with the polarizer.  The wavelength range will be restricted to short-wards of approximately 720 nm.  No polarimetry measurements are possible.   We have polarizing material on hand and both MR and HR dual-etalon observations can be carried out subject to the limitations noted above.

b) Single-etalon MR observations can be done.  This non-standard mode is available and has been used successfully for several science programs so far.   In addition to the desired order, the blocking filter will transmit 1 or 2 additional orders.   This will increase the parasitic light, allowing 2 or 3 times as much light from the night sky and from the object's continuum, thus decreasing the expected signal/noise ratio, and possible confusing the spectra because of unwanted spectral lines in the other orders.  Emission line programs are probably ok in this mode, but absorption line programs are probably not.  Observers should use the tables of etalon free spectral range and the blocking filter curves to estimate the effects on their particular program.  Because of the small free spectral range of the HR etalon, single-etalon mode HR is probably not usable.

The calibrated wavelength regions for the etalons are:

MR
480-510 nm
650-690 nm

HR
485-500 nm
650-677 nm

Additional wavelength regions can be calibrated as needs develop and resources permit.  Until the dual-etalon reflection problem is solved, all MR and HR observations must be considered shared-risk science.

3.  Several of the Semester 3 FP proposals seem to be specifying higher spectral resolution than the stated science goals require.  Especially in light of the limitations on the higher resolution modes, PI's should consider carefully the spectral resolution required.   For example, the MR etalon should routinely yield velocity measurements accurate to +/- 10 km/sec.

Night Log 2011-11-20

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

=> Entire night lost to high humidiy, heavy clouds and strong wind.

Night Log 2011-11-19

SA: Alexei
SO: Patrick
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

=> Very unstable weather conditions during the night.
Finally, were closed by heavy clouds.

=> Some Lick standards were observed.

=> Finally, observations for 2011-3-UC-003 were done.

Night Log 2011-11-18

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

=> Tracker problem were fixed finally.
Thanks a lot to all people

=> New optimal Phi and Theta values were found to minimize coma
and tracker was adjusted.

=> Were closed by high humidity.

Night Log 2011-11-17

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Denis, Janus, Ken

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

=> Tracker problems. No observations tonight.

=> Some calibrations and different tests

Night Log 2011-11-16

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Anthony, Denis, Janus, Ken. Steve P.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

=> Nice weather from the evening, but after wind changes to SE,
humidity jumped up.

=>Tracker problems.

=> Some MOS tests.

Night Log 2011-11-15

SA: Paul
SO: Siphelo
Others: Ken, Steve, Janus, Deneys, Antony, Alexei

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

- night started off with good seeing, but changed with the wind direction.
- attempted MOS and circular polarization commisioning but were foiled by technical issues.
2011-2-RSA-007 (astrometric field)
got science data for the following programs:
2011-3-DC_RSA-001
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-001
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-007 (ToO)
2011-3-RSA-029

Night Log 2011-11-14

SA: Paul
SO: Siphelo
Others: Ken, Anthony, Janus, Deneys

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

- a busy night, got useful engineering and science done. weather was good with seeing below 1.3'' for most of the night.
commissioning data for:
2011-2-RSA-007 (MOS)
2011-2-UW_UKSC-001 (polarimetry)
science:
2011-3-DC_RSA-001
2011-3-POL-002
2011-3-POL-005
more science targets were attempted but we had some technical issues.

Night Log 2011-11-12

SA: Paul
SO: Patrick
Others: Ken, Anthony, Keith, Johan

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

- had very good seeing for most of the night. unfortunately is it was interrupted by technical issues at the end.
- got MOS commisioning data in good seeing:
2011-2-RSA-007
2011-2-RSA-014
- more polarimetric data:
2011-2-UW-010
- attempted science for a few programs and obtained data for:
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-001
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-002
2011-3-RSA_UKSC_OTH-002

Night Log 2011-11-11

SA: Paul
SO: Patrick
Others: Ken, Anthony, Johan

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

- We closed just after midnight due to high humidity
- got more MOS observations done:
2011-2-RSA-007
- Ken worked on getting linear polarization observations working
2011-2-UW-010
- got science data for the following proposals:
2011-3-UKSC-003
2011-3-POL-005

Night Log 2011-11-10

SA: Paul
SO: Zolisa
Others: Ken

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

- lost the first few hours of the night to cloud. opened up around 22:30 to >3'' seeing. attempted a few science observations. obtained data for:
2011-3-POL-005
- had some technical issues during the night.
- closed ~02:30 due to high humidity

Night Log 2011-11-09

SA: Paul
SO: Zolisa
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

High winds hampered good mirror alignments, got swamped by high humidity and clouds just before midnight.

- obtained science data for the following proposals:
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-001
2011-3-POL-005
- commissioning data for:
2011-2-RSA-007 (mos tests)
CAL_BLANK (flat field data)

Night Log 2011-11-08

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Paul, Keith, Dave C., Jonathan, Zolisa

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

. Bright night with high wind, some issues due to power loss, and closing early due to high humidity.

.Data taken for the following programs:
ENG_POINT
ENG_SCAM
2011-2-RSA-007 (MOS acq. only)
2010-1-RSA_OTH-008 (nonsidereal tracking test)

Night Log 2011-11-07

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Paul, Dave C., Jonathan, Keith, Chris

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

. Very nice celebration today for the "start of science observations". Great effort on the part of the staff for getting everything ready and making sure it ran smoothly.

. Bright night, had some issues due to power loss and closed early due to high wind.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-001
2011-2-RSA-014 & 2011-2-RSA-007 (MOS testing)
ENG_POINT
2011-3-POL-005
2010-1-RSA_OTH-008 (non-sidereal tracking test)
2011-2-RSA-001 (field capture only)

Night Log 2011-11-06

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Dave C., Daniel Adams & Madeline (DST), Patricia, Ted, and Rutgers Dean of Science

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

. Bright/gray night, with mostly cirrus (excellent seeing) to mostly clear (moderate to good seeing).

. Data taken for the following programs:
2011-2-RSA-007 (MOS testing)
2010-1-RSA_UKSC-003
2011-2-RSA-002 (subarcsec images)
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-007
2011-3-RSA-014
2011-3-RSA_OTH-006
2011-3-POL-007
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-008
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-006
2011-3-GU-003

Night Log 2011-11-05

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

. Gray/bright night with thin turning into thick turning back into thin clouds.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-002
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-001
2011-3-RSA_UKSC-007
2011-3-RSA-020 (standard only)
2010-1-RSA_OTH-008 (nonsidereal tracking test)
ENG_POINT
2011-2-UW_RU-002 (focus tests)
2011-3-RSA-008

Night Log 2011-11-04

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Eben, Wouter + friend

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

. Lost nearly the entire night to high humidity and high wind.

. Data taken for the following programs:
ENG_SCAM
ENG_POINT
2011-2-UW_RU-002

Night Log 2011-11-03

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Peter, Jonathan

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

. Mostly gray night with thin clouds, high wind, and moderate to bad seeing. Some instrument issues.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2011-2-UW_RU-002 (remainder of eng. test 13b)
2011-3-RSA_OTH-006
2011-3-RSA_UKASC-001
2011-3-RSA-020 (fringing tests)
2011-3-RSA-014
ENG_POINT
ENG_SCAM

Night Log 2011-11-02

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Jonathan, Peter

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

. Photometric, mostly bright/gray night with some instrument and mirror alignment problems.

. Attempted MOS tests, but didn't get far. Data taken for the following programs:
2011-3-POL-008
2011-3-GU-001
2011-2-UW_RU-002 (eng test 13)

Night Log 2011-11-01

SA: Tim
SO: Siphelo
Others: amanda, hamish

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

beautiful, clear, steady night. seeing a bit variable, but excellent at times. got lots of fabry-perot data plus an eclipsing binary co-observed with the 74" to check timing consistency. got data for the following programs:

2011-3-RU-003
2011-3-RU-013
2011-3-UW-008

in addition to some ENG_RSS and ENG_SCAM.

and thus ends my week-long fabry-perot-a-palooza. back again in three weeks...

Night Log 2011-10-31

SA: Tim
SO: Siphelo
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------

got a couple of F-P scans at [S II] for Eriksen (2011-3-RU-013) before humidity shut us down for the rest of the night. took some etalon rings through the night to monitor stability, did a test to see if flats from last night could fix fringing tonight (no, not even close), and put my QTH recipes from last night into the wiki. so mostly trick and very little treat....