Night Log 2012-08-30

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke h

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Summary
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first half of the night was breezy with come and go cirrus. winds picked up in the 2nd half and closed us down eventually shortly after 0300. only successful science data was FT spectroscopy of V2301 Oph for DoD. attempted a couple of FP targets, but bright moon and poor IQ scuttled them. got full sets of FP calibration data for the entire H-alpha region.

mirror alignment was once again a struggle and sucked up significant time during both attempts tonight.

the timdimm is working now, but only the dimm portion. still need to sort out a computer to run the mass.

Night Log 2012-08-29

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke h, jonathan

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Summary
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clear, bright, fairly smooth productive night. some struggles with mirror alignment and focus drifts/jumps, but otherwise mostly trouble-free. acquired data for the following programs:

2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-RSA-015
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RU_UNC-001 (several blocks torpedoed by focus drifts/jumps)
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005

Night Log 2012-08-28

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Keith at the beginning. Tim (all night!), Luke. Lisa and Chris for a while. Brent, Christina and Rajeev for a quick visit around 12:30pm

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Summary
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Mostly clear but windy night with ~1.7-2.8" seeing.

Science data for:
2012-1-POL-001 (x3)
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RSA-010
2012-1-UNC-001 (x3)
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-006 (x2)

Night Log 2012-08-27

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others:

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Summary
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Clear, stable night with low humdity and seeing 1.2"-2".

Science data for:

2012-POL-001 (x4)
2012-1-RSA-005
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RSA_OTH-011
2012-1-UKSC-006

Night Log 2012-08-26

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda and Paul at the beginning to help sort out the multiple problems. Jonathan over the phone.

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


Clear night with rollercoaster humidity at the beginning and 1.5" seeing

Science data for:
2012-1-HET_OTH-001
2012-1-POL-003
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RSA-011
2012-1-UW_OTH-002
2012-1-UW-005
2012-1-RSA-019

Night Log 2012-08-25

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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Summary
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Cold, rainy, windy night. Did not open.

Night Log 2012-08-24

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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Summary
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Cloudy and windy night. No observations.

Night Log 2012-08-23

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda to fix interlock panel issue. Brent to cover for Encarni from around 00:30

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Summary
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Clear, photometric night with seeing ~1.5" ish.

Data for:
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-RSA_OTH-021
2012-1-IUCAA-002
2012-1-POL-007
2012-1-UW-004

Night Log 2012-08-22

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Hitesh, Francois, Martin at the beginning

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Summary
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Clear, nearly photometric night with 2-3" seeing.

Data for:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-POL-007 x3
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-UW_RSA_OTH-001 x2
2012-1-POL-003
2012-1-RSA_OTH-013 x5
2012-1-RSA_OTH-022

Night Log 2012-08-21

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Encarni, Siphelo, Hitesh, Francois, Brent

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


. Dark, clear night with some cirrus at the start.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-POL-007 (x2)
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-UW_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-POL-010
2012-1-RSA_OTH-032
2012-1-RSA_OTH-013 (x6)
2012-1-RU-005
2012-1-RSA_OTH_022

Night Log 2012-08-20

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Charl

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


. Thick clouds and high humidity. No observations.

SALT Status Update for August 2012

=======================
Recent Science Results
=======================

SALT science results are starting to show up on the arXiv, and here
are some of the most recent:

In http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.2152, Dan Milisavljevic et al. monitor
the time evolution of SN 2011ei, one of the least luminous SNe IIb or
Ib observed to date.

In http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.4357, M. Sharina et al. report the
discovery of a new carbon star near the center of the low-metallicity
globular cluster NGC 6426.

In http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.1347, Brian van Soelen et al. use SALT
data to help model the properties of PSR B1259-63, a gamay-ray binary
system consiting of a 48 ms pulsar obiting a Be star.

=======================
SALTICAM UPDATE
=======================

SALTICAM is currently suffering from an array of maladies that almost
completely preclude it from doing any useful science.  It is still
useful as an acquisition camera, but even that is significantly
degraded.  Its filter magazine system is still unreliable and prone to
jamming.  Work is ongoing to design a long-term fix, but in the
meantime a single filter is pre-selected for a given night with no
further filter changes attempted unless absolutely necessary.  The
SALTICAM shutter is similarly unreliable and may fail completely at
any time.  The SALTICAM software is being updated to provide an
acquisition mode where the shutter is left open while exposures are
repeatedly taken.  This may result in streaking of bright sources
across the field during readouts, but this can be largely mitigated by
binning by 4x4 or more.  Being able to leave the shutter open during
acquisition and slit viewing will significantly extend the lifespan of
this and future shutters.  Lastly, some oil or other contaminant has
worked its way into the cryo-cooler system which prevents SALTICAM
from reaching its nominal operating temperature.  The temperature it
does manage to reach seems to vary with time and is often warm enough
that the thermal noise seriously impacts our ability to acquire faint
targets.

A decision has been made to move forward with plans to completely
re-plumb the SALTICAM cooling system and replace the coolant.
However, there may be significant lead time required to source the
necessary parts and materials.  In the meantime work is ongoing to
port some of SALTICAM's acquisition capabilities to the RSS camera
control software.  The most important bit is the ability to select
guide stars to position the RSS guide probe.  Work is also ongoing to
prepare our spare acquisition camera, called BCAM, so that it's ready
to go should SALTICAM fail completely.  SALTICAM will have to be
removed to perform the re-plumbing so BCAM will be needed to fill in
then as well.  It is hoped that fixes to the shutter and filter
mechanisms can be effected at the same time as the re-plumbing.

=======================
Semester 2012-2 Summary
=======================

A summary of the results of the recent proposal deadline have been
posted on the SALT Astronomy blog:
http://saltastro.blogspot.com/2012/08/2012-2-proposal-statistics.html

102 proposals were submitted with an average oversubscription rate of
1.9, but a full break down of the proposals are given on the blog
post.


=======================
Science WIKI
=======================

To provide a common area for the SALT community to share information
about SALT data and SALT science, we have set up the SALT science
wiki: https://sciencewiki.salt.ac.za/index.php/SALT_Wiki.

The science wiki is accessible with your WebManager login.  Please
feel free to contribute information to the Wiki and share your
experience with SALT.

=======================
SALT Sandbox
=======================

To support and provide a place for the addition of new tools and
scripts related to the processing of SALT data, we have started the
SALTSandbox repository on github:
https://github.com/saltastro/SALTsandbox.

In particular, this repository provides a place to share code that
others might find useful, but might not have a place yet in the PySALT
package.  So if you have developed some code that might be useful to
others, please fork the code and contribute to it!

=======================
PySALT Update
=======================

A new version of the PySALT software has been released.  There are no
major changes in this version, but it does include some critical bug
fixes required for the performance of different packages. New versions
of the software can be downloaded from http://pysalt.salt.ac.za/


=======================
PIPT Update
=======================

New versions have been released for the Salticam and RSS Simulator as
well as for the PIPT.

The new Simulator versions let you select the filter (U, B, V, R or I)
to use for normalizing a generated spectrum. In case of a
user-supplied spectrum you may choose whether to supply actual flux
values or to normalize the spectrum with one of the above filters. In
addition, you may save and load simulation setups.

When using the new version of the PIPT, you may attach saved
simulation setups to a phase 1 proposal. This not only facilitates
checking your proposal, but also allows you to reuse the setup in a
subsequent phase 2 proposal. The new PIPT version also lets you add
information about the status of previous proposals and to flag a
proposal as a priority 4 one.

While you may still submit proposals with the existing PIPT, you are
strongly encouraged to update your software and make use of the new
features.

Links to the new versions can be found at:
http://www.salt.ac.za/observing/proposing-for-salt-observations/observation-planning-tools/

Night Log 2012-08-19

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: charl

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


. Dark night, practially all lost to high humidity and clouds.

. Data taken just at the start of the night for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-POL-001

Night Log 2012-08-18

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Charl

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


. Dark, clear night with moderate seeing (~2").

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-RU-002
2012-1-RSA_OTH-032 (x2)
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-POL-009
2012-1-RSA_OTH-013
2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
2012-1-RU-001

Night Log 2012-08-17

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Chris, Charl

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


. Dark night, with thin to thick cloud, and moderate seeing (~2").

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-RSA-014 (x2)
2012-1-POL-003
2012-1-RSA_OTH-011
2012-1-UW-004
2012-1-RU-005

Night Log 2012-08-16

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Charl

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


. Cloudy, cold, high-humidity night. No observations taken.

Night Log 2012-08-14

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda

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


=> High wind speed, high humidity and heavy clouds finally.
No any observations tonight.

2012-2 Proposal Statistics

For the second semester of 2012, 102 proposals were submitted from the SALT partners for observations.    The first one submitted was by Daniel Holdsworth of Keele University and the last one submitted was by Mickael Coriat of University of Cape Town.  A total of 1413 hours were requested from 739 hours available to observe almost 900 different targets.   12% of the proposal request SALTICAM observations and 95% of the proposal request some RSS observations.    Over 78 different principle investigators submitted proposals with 260 co-investigators from 83 different institutions, including 8 different South African institutes.  

In these proposals, a wide range of different objects are targeted including  538 different galaxies, 244 stars, 60 planetary nebula, 8 clusters of galaxies, and 30 objects of unknown nature.

The proposals are currently under technical review by the SALT staff.   They will then move to the
telescope allocation committees at each partner for scientific review.   The allocations of times
should be announced around the 1st of October with the semester beginning on the 1st of Novemeber.  

Night Log 2012-08-13

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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Summary
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=> Unstable night with strong wind and from moderate to bad seeing.
Were closed by strong wind.

=> Some data were taken for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-1-RSA-021
2012-1-RSA-014

=> Calibration through-slit images with QTH2 lamp were taken

Night Log 2012-08-12

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


=> High humidity and a lot of snow around. No observations tonight.

Night Log 2012-08-11

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


=> Snowfall. High wind speed. High humidity.
Now observations tonight.

Night Log 2012-08-10

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


=> Unstable night with strong wind and bad seeing. Were closed by strong wind
and heavy clouds came later.

=> Some data were taken for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003

Night Log 2012-08-09

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl from the evening

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


=> Stable night with strong wind and from moderate to bad seeing.

=> Data were obtained for the following programs:
2012-1-RSA-014 (x2)
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-RSA-018
2012-1-UNC-001 (x6)

Night Log 2012-08-08

SA: Alexei
SO: Patrick
Others: Charl, Eben and Keith for some time, David

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


=> High humidity from the evening. No observations tonight.

Night Log 2012-08-07

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others:

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


- entire night loat to bad weather.

Night Log 2012-08-06

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others:

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Summary
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- entire night lost to bad weather. sub-zero temperatures, rain and snow.

Night Log 2012-08-05

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Charl

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


- a cold front brought rain and snow in late this afternoon. did not open

Night Log 2012-08-04

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Charl, Johathan later the evening

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


* long and frustrating night
* most of the night was lost due to technical issues.
* tried to get some work done in the second half of the night but we weren't very successful.
* closed up at 04:00 due to high humidity.

Night Log 2012-08-03

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Charl

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


* cirrus for the whole night. seeing was moderate for most of the night, 1.4'' -- 1.8''
* had to reject some observations due to observational requirements not met.

* obtained data for the following programs:
- 2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
- 2012-1-POL-001 x2
- 2012-1-UKSC-007
- 2012-1-UNC-001 (very faint source, not sure if conditions were met)
- 2012-1-POL-007
- 2012-1-RSA-019
- 2012-1-RSA_UKSC-006

* spent some time trying to get FP to work, but wasn't successful. I suspect that the etalon needed more time to settle.

Night Log 2012-08-02

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Charl

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


* closed for most of the night due to cloud. opened sometime after 02:00 for a quick science run. the rest of the night was spent on engineering observations.

* data obtained for:
- 2012-1-RSA-019

Night Log 2012-08-01

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Charl to help out with the CCAS computer

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


* full moon, clear stable night with good to moderate seeing.

* obained data for the following programs:
- 2012-1-POL-001
- 2012-1-RSA-009
- 2012-1-POL-011
- 2012-1-UKSC-007
- 2012-1-UNC-001
- 2012-1-RSA_UKSC-006 x2

Night Log 2012-07-31

SA: Alexei
SO: Patrick
Others: Paul, Thea

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


=> Heavy clouds and high humidity.
No any observations.