SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl, paul k, dave g, thea
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
windy, cloudy, humid night. no observations performed, but several programming tasks completed. not the greatest run, weather-wise, but i completed my three main objectives for the week:
1) fix the pointing (now +/- 5")
2) revive the MASS turbulence profiler
3) complete initial automation of calibration system procedures
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-29
SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: janus
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
high humidity, high wind, and ridge cloud all night. no observations. thoughts go out to our colleagues at AMNH and RU who are right in the path of hurricane sandy tonight. stay safe and dry!
SO: Fred
Others: janus
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
high humidity, high wind, and ridge cloud all night. no observations. thoughts go out to our colleagues at AMNH and RU who are right in the path of hurricane sandy tonight. stay safe and dry!
Monday, October 29, 2012
SALT Status Update for October
================================================
Recent Papers from SALT
================================================
Apostolos Christou at Armagh Observatory in the UKSC along with Tomek
Kwiatkowski and Magda Butkiewicz from Adam Mickiewicz University from
Poland and Amanda Gulbis from SAAO/SALT (NRF) recently published a
paper on the physical and dynamical characterization of nearby Earth Asteroid
NEA (190491) 2000 FJ10. They used imaging observations from SALT
along with observations from other telescopes to determine the
characteristics of this asteroid. Due to its characteristics, this
object may be a good candidate for future human space missions.
More details can be found here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3486
================================================
Science at the Board meeting
================================================
The SALT board meeting is quickly approaching (5-9 Nov)! The first
two days of the meetings includes workshops on MeerKAT and SALT and
Science with SALT, and then followed by the regular board meeting. We
will try to post as much as we can on the SALT website and blog, but
if you would like anything presented or to share anything with the
community, please send it along either to your board representative,
email it to sa@salt.ac.za, or post it on the SALT Science wiki:
https://sciencewiki.salt.ac.za/ (you can use your WM username and
password to log in). We know there have been many great proposals
observed so far and it would be great to hear updates on how they are
going!
================================================
Phase II deadline
================================================
Just a quick reminder the Phase II deadline is Oct 31! As soon as the
proposals are finalized and reviewed by your SA, they will go directly
into the queue!
================================================
Updates to the PIPT
================================================
If you want to copy blocks from an old proposal to your current
proposal, you should upgrade to version 2.8 of the PIPT, which lets
you do this in an easy manner. See the Phase 2 FAQ for details:
http://www.salt.ac.za/observing/proposing-for-salt-observations/phase-ii-frequently-asked-questions/
You should also consider upgrading if your block lengths exceed 90 %
of the maximum available track length.
However, submitting your proposal with version 2.71 of the PIPT is
still possible.
================================================
Slotmode imaging on RSS
================================================
Despite SALTICAM not being available, high speed imaging can still be
done with RSS. Observers who proposed for SALTICAM slotmode
observations for next semester can switch their configurations to use
slotmode imaging with RSS. This mode was successfully tested out in
September and imaging can be done either with a clear filter or with
any of the existing narrow band filters.
================================================
RSS Slotmode Timing
================================================
A series of experiments were carried out to investigate the absolute
and relative accuracy of timing for RSS slotmode. An LED was placed
into the lightpath and was triggered by an independent GPS. The header
times of the slotmode images were compared with the start time and
pulse interval from the GPS. The results indicated that the relative
timing is good to within the measurable accuracy (half an exposure
time, which was on the order of hundredths of a second) and that the
absolute timing was late by seven exposure times. Previous tests
using SALTICAM slotmode showed the same effect on the header times
were in fact the readout times rather than the exposure times,
effectively neglecting the time required to transfer through the
masked region. A timing correction for slotmode data from both
instruments is available in the nightly build of PySALT.
================================================
Updates to PySALT
================================================
We are starting to prepare for the next major release of PySALT, but
the nightly builds now has much new functionality that will be useful
to test out! This includes reduction tools for SALT multi-object
spectroscopy, fixes for the slotmode timing, new tools for basic CCD
reduction, and general code updates. Please download and try out the
nightly build and let us know of any thoughts. Nightly Build:
http://pysalt.salt.ac.za/versions/pysalt.nightly.tar.gz
Recent Papers from SALT
================================================
Apostolos Christou at Armagh Observatory in the UKSC along with Tomek
Kwiatkowski and Magda Butkiewicz from Adam Mickiewicz University from
Poland and Amanda Gulbis from SAAO/SALT (NRF) recently published a
paper on the physical and dynamical characterization of nearby Earth Asteroid
NEA (190491) 2000 FJ10. They used imaging observations from SALT
along with observations from other telescopes to determine the
characteristics of this asteroid. Due to its characteristics, this
object may be a good candidate for future human space missions.
More details can be found here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3486
================================================
Science at the Board meeting
================================================
The SALT board meeting is quickly approaching (5-9 Nov)! The first
two days of the meetings includes workshops on MeerKAT and SALT and
Science with SALT, and then followed by the regular board meeting. We
will try to post as much as we can on the SALT website and blog, but
if you would like anything presented or to share anything with the
community, please send it along either to your board representative,
email it to sa@salt.ac.za, or post it on the SALT Science wiki:
https://sciencewiki.salt.ac.za/ (you can use your WM username and
password to log in). We know there have been many great proposals
observed so far and it would be great to hear updates on how they are
going!
================================================
Phase II deadline
================================================
Just a quick reminder the Phase II deadline is Oct 31! As soon as the
proposals are finalized and reviewed by your SA, they will go directly
into the queue!
================================================
Updates to the PIPT
================================================
If you want to copy blocks from an old proposal to your current
proposal, you should upgrade to version 2.8 of the PIPT, which lets
you do this in an easy manner. See the Phase 2 FAQ for details:
http://www.salt.ac.za/observing/proposing-for-salt-observations/phase-ii-frequently-asked-questions/
You should also consider upgrading if your block lengths exceed 90 %
of the maximum available track length.
However, submitting your proposal with version 2.71 of the PIPT is
still possible.
================================================
Slotmode imaging on RSS
================================================
Despite SALTICAM not being available, high speed imaging can still be
done with RSS. Observers who proposed for SALTICAM slotmode
observations for next semester can switch their configurations to use
slotmode imaging with RSS. This mode was successfully tested out in
September and imaging can be done either with a clear filter or with
any of the existing narrow band filters.
================================================
RSS Slotmode Timing
================================================
A series of experiments were carried out to investigate the absolute
and relative accuracy of timing for RSS slotmode. An LED was placed
into the lightpath and was triggered by an independent GPS. The header
times of the slotmode images were compared with the start time and
pulse interval from the GPS. The results indicated that the relative
timing is good to within the measurable accuracy (half an exposure
time, which was on the order of hundredths of a second) and that the
absolute timing was late by seven exposure times. Previous tests
using SALTICAM slotmode showed the same effect on the header times
were in fact the readout times rather than the exposure times,
effectively neglecting the time required to transfer through the
masked region. A timing correction for slotmode data from both
instruments is available in the nightly build of PySALT.
================================================
Updates to PySALT
================================================
We are starting to prepare for the next major release of PySALT, but
the nightly builds now has much new functionality that will be useful
to test out! This includes reduction tools for SALT multi-object
spectroscopy, fixes for the slotmode timing, new tools for basic CCD
reduction, and general code updates. Please download and try out the
nightly build and let us know of any thoughts. Nightly Build:
http://pysalt.salt.ac.za/versions/pysalt.nightly.tar.gz
Night Log 2012-10-28
SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
fairly smooth night with good weather and decent seeing. accepted blocks for the following programs:
2012-1-UW_OTH-002
2012-1-UKSC_OTH-001 x2
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-RSA-019 x2
observed new type Ia SN in NGC 1365 for 2012-1-RU-005, but didn't complete the block in time. data for 2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005 was impacted by quickly degrading mirror stack so block rejected. attempted block for 2012-1-UW_OTH-002 was aborted due to inability to ID target from provided finder charts.
SO: Fred
Others: charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
fairly smooth night with good weather and decent seeing. accepted blocks for the following programs:
2012-1-UW_OTH-002
2012-1-UKSC_OTH-001 x2
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-RSA-019 x2
observed new type Ia SN in NGC 1365 for 2012-1-RU-005, but didn't complete the block in time. data for 2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005 was impacted by quickly degrading mirror stack so block rejected. attempted block for 2012-1-UW_OTH-002 was aborted due to inability to ID target from provided finder charts.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-27
SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl, simon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
bumpy night weather-wise with highly variable seeing that was awful at times, 4" or worse. worked on fixing the pointing during the first half of the night and made good progress. there was a constant offset in AZ that was nearly an arcminute. that has been fixed and the pointing is at spec at worst and usually better than 10". was able to acquire MOS field without manual offsets in one case. stars came up close enough to boxes for MOSpup to work.
accepted blocks for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001
2012-1-RSA-013
observed, but rejected, block for 2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005 because the seeing blew up terribly during the observation.
SO: Fred
Others: charl, simon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
bumpy night weather-wise with highly variable seeing that was awful at times, 4" or worse. worked on fixing the pointing during the first half of the night and made good progress. there was a constant offset in AZ that was nearly an arcminute. that has been fixed and the pointing is at spec at worst and usually better than 10". was able to acquire MOS field without manual offsets in one case. stars came up close enough to boxes for MOSpup to work.
accepted blocks for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001
2012-1-RSA-013
observed, but rejected, block for 2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005 because the seeing blew up terribly during the observation.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-26
SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
snuck in one lonely block for 2012-1-GU-003 before humidity closed us up at 20:30. RIDGE CLOUD settled in by midnight and the rest of the night was lost in the fog. managed to finally resuscitate the MASS turbulence profiler instrument and update its software so the night was put to some good use.
SO: Fred
Others: charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
snuck in one lonely block for 2012-1-GU-003 before humidity closed us up at 20:30. RIDGE CLOUD settled in by midnight and the rest of the night was lost in the fog. managed to finally resuscitate the MASS turbulence profiler instrument and update its software so the night was put to some good use.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-25
SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
cirussy night that started off very windy, but once the wind died suddenly, the seeing was decent to good most of the night. under 1" for a while and only over 2" on a few occasions. relatively smooth sailing systems-wise with the only slowdowns due to cable wrap problem and mirror stacks that fell apart quickly due to changing conditions. five blocks accepted and another three observed, but rejected.
SO: Fred
Others: charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
cirussy night that started off very windy, but once the wind died suddenly, the seeing was decent to good most of the night. under 1" for a while and only over 2" on a few occasions. relatively smooth sailing systems-wise with the only slowdowns due to cable wrap problem and mirror stacks that fell apart quickly due to changing conditions. five blocks accepted and another three observed, but rejected.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-24
SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
frustrating night with only one block accepted. abysmal seeing during the first half gave way to steady seeing that was at least mediocre in the 2nd half. however, a slew of technical problems slowed things down considerably. first the primary mirror and then the RSS slitmask mechanism. several PCON lockups happened over the course of the night, sometimes at very inconvenent times.
on the bright side, my calsys script was fleshed out and tested further. it can now query RSS and configure calsys for flats automatically based on my recipe from the wiki. selecting a lamp will coordinate insertion of cal screen, selection of stage, and turning on of lamp into one command.
SO: Fred
Others: charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
frustrating night with only one block accepted. abysmal seeing during the first half gave way to steady seeing that was at least mediocre in the 2nd half. however, a slew of technical problems slowed things down considerably. first the primary mirror and then the RSS slitmask mechanism. several PCON lockups happened over the course of the night, sometimes at very inconvenent times.
on the bright side, my calsys script was fleshed out and tested further. it can now query RSS and configure calsys for flats automatically based on my recipe from the wiki. selecting a lamp will coordinate insertion of cal screen, selection of stage, and turning on of lamp into one command.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-23
SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Tim, Fred, Hitesh, Keith.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clear night with a SE wind that forced us to close due to humidity at around midnight.
Science data for:
2012-1-RU-001 (P1)
2012-1-DC_RSA-001 (P0)
2012-1-UW_OTH-002 (P1)
SO: Siphelo
Others: Tim, Fred, Hitesh, Keith.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clear night with a SE wind that forced us to close due to humidity at around midnight.
Science data for:
2012-1-RU-001 (P1)
2012-1-DC_RSA-001 (P0)
2012-1-UW_OTH-002 (P1)
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-22
SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl. Hitesh at the beginning.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A beautiful afternoon that turned foggy waaay too early, at around 9:30pm.
Attempted an incomplete observation for 2012-1-RU-001 (P1)
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl. Hitesh at the beginning.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A beautiful afternoon that turned foggy waaay too early, at around 9:30pm.
Attempted an incomplete observation for 2012-1-RU-001 (P1)
Monday, October 22, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-21
SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Entire night lost to fog and rain.
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Entire night lost to fog and rain.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-20
SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Buzani, Nic and Keith for a while.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainy and foggy night. No observations.
SO: Siphelo
Others: Buzani, Nic and Keith for a while.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainy and foggy night. No observations.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-19
SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl for a while.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cold, high humidity night ended with some snow... in October!!! No data taken.
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl for a while.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cold, high humidity night ended with some snow... in October!!! No data taken.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-18
SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl and Chris. Nicola for a brief visit.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Highly humid night with clouds coming and going and some rain from around 03:25.
Science data for:
2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (P3)
2012-1-RSA-016 (P3)
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl and Chris. Nicola for a brief visit.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Highly humid night with clouds coming and going and some rain from around 03:25.
Science data for:
2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (P3)
2012-1-RSA-016 (P3)
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-17
SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl at the beginning, Chris briefly, Bruno
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cloudy and humid start, clearing and drying up at about midnight and closing up again at 2:30.
*Science data for 2012-1-RU-005 (ToO)
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl at the beginning, Chris briefly, Bruno
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cloudy and humid start, clearing and drying up at about midnight and closing up again at 2:30.
*Science data for 2012-1-RU-005 (ToO)
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-16
SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Encarni, Siphelo, Amanda, Charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All night lost to rain and clouds.
SO: Thea
Others: Encarni, Siphelo, Amanda, Charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All night lost to rain and clouds.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-15
SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Francois, Hitesh, David, Bruno
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The whole night lost to clouds and high humidity.
SO: Thea
Others: Francois, Hitesh, David, Bruno
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The whole night lost to clouds and high humidity.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-14
SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Hitesh, Francois, Bruno
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
String of good weather ended, night lost to clouds. Only one
block attempted, unsuccessfully.
SO: Thea
Others: Hitesh, Francois, Bruno
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
String of good weather ended, night lost to clouds. Only one
block attempted, unsuccessfully.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-13
SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fourth photometric night in a row, dark and beautiful. Seeing
started out excellent at sub-arcsec but then blew up later.
Temperature went UP many degrees at end of night. Science for:
2012-1-RSA_OTH-010 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC-004 (2xLS)
2012-1-RU-005 (TOO)
2012-1-UW-004 (LS)
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-003 (TOO)
2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (LS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003 (LS)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)
SO: Thea
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fourth photometric night in a row, dark and beautiful. Seeing
started out excellent at sub-arcsec but then blew up later.
Temperature went UP many degrees at end of night. Science for:
2012-1-RSA_OTH-010 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC-004 (2xLS)
2012-1-RU-005 (TOO)
2012-1-UW-004 (LS)
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-003 (TOO)
2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (LS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003 (LS)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-12
SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And one more fully successful dark photometric night. Seeing was good
in the beginning, but got worse and variable later. Science for:
2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-032 (LSx2)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-028 (MOS)
2012-1-RU_RSA_OTH-002 (MOS)
2012-1-HET_OTH-001 (TOO)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003 (LS)
2012-1-RSA-016 (LS)
SO: Thea
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And one more fully successful dark photometric night. Seeing was good
in the beginning, but got worse and variable later. Science for:
2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-032 (LSx2)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-028 (MOS)
2012-1-RU_RSA_OTH-002 (MOS)
2012-1-HET_OTH-001 (TOO)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003 (LS)
2012-1-RSA-016 (LS)
Friday, October 12, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-11
SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dark photometric night with more variable seeing than previously with
otherwise identical wind pattern. Very productive nevertheless, science:
2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-010 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC_OTH-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003 (NB)
2012-1-HET_OTH-001 (ToO)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-030 (LS)
2012-1-UKSC-003 (LS)
2012-1-UKSC-002 (LS)
SO: Thea
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dark photometric night with more variable seeing than previously with
otherwise identical wind pattern. Very productive nevertheless, science:
2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-010 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC_OTH-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003 (NB)
2012-1-HET_OTH-001 (ToO)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-030 (LS)
2012-1-UKSC-003 (LS)
2012-1-UKSC-002 (LS)
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-10
SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Surprising night - wind from the dreaded SE but seeing was good
all night and humidty crept too high only at 4am. Got many
high-priority blocks done, especially on the MOS side:
2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-IUCAA-003 (2xMOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-028 (MOS)
2012-1-POL-010 (LS)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC-009 (MOS)
SO: Thea
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Surprising night - wind from the dreaded SE but seeing was good
all night and humidty crept too high only at 4am. Got many
high-priority blocks done, especially on the MOS side:
2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-IUCAA-003 (2xMOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-028 (MOS)
2012-1-POL-010 (LS)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC-009 (MOS)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-09
SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Simon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- night lost to high humidity
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Simon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- night lost to high humidity
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-08
SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* short night. closed just before 23:00 due to rising humidity.
* obtained data for the following programs:
- 2012-1-GU-003
- 2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
SO: Fred
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* short night. closed just before 23:00 due to rising humidity.
* obtained data for the following programs:
- 2012-1-GU-003
- 2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
Monday, October 8, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-07
SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- entire night lost to bad weather
SO: Fred
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- entire night lost to bad weather
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-06
SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others: Simon for a while
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- cloudy night, had one clear patch and obtained data for:
- 2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
SO: Fred
Others: Simon for a while
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- cloudy night, had one clear patch and obtained data for:
- 2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-05
SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- frustrating night with a few technical issues. still getting the hang of the new observing setup. closed just before one due to cloud.
* obtained data for:
- 2012-1-RSA_OTH-030
SO: Fred
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- frustrating night with a few technical issues. still getting the hang of the new observing setup. closed just before one due to cloud.
* obtained data for:
- 2012-1-RSA_OTH-030
Friday, October 5, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-04
SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others: Janus, Deneys, Anthony
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- not a very productive night. had some technical issues during the night. closed right after 02:00 due to rising humidity.
- did some more BCAM testing and its looking good for now. have not tried very faint targets yet.
* obtained data for the following programs:
- 2012-1-GU-003
- 2012-1-RSA-014
- 2012-1-UNC-001
SO: Fred
Others: Janus, Deneys, Anthony
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- not a very productive night. had some technical issues during the night. closed right after 02:00 due to rising humidity.
- did some more BCAM testing and its looking good for now. have not tried very faint targets yet.
* obtained data for the following programs:
- 2012-1-GU-003
- 2012-1-RSA-014
- 2012-1-UNC-001
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-03
SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- no observations tonight due to strong winds and high humidity.
SO: Fred
Others:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- no observations tonight due to strong winds and high humidity.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Night Log 2012-10-02
SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others: Software team: Janus, Anthony, Denyes
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- BCAM was tested for slit viewing tonight. From the one observation we did, all looked good for a fairly bright target. Bright moon and cloudy conditions did not allow us to test the BCAM performance on fainter targets.
- The functionality to move the guide probe from BCAM has also been implemented and guide probe movements from PDET are spot on.
- Anthony implemented sound on PCON with R2D2 announcing the end of a procedure... cool...
* accepted observations for the following program:
- 2012-1-IUCAA_RSA_OTH-001
SO: Fred
Others: Software team: Janus, Anthony, Denyes
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- BCAM was tested for slit viewing tonight. From the one observation we did, all looked good for a fairly bright target. Bright moon and cloudy conditions did not allow us to test the BCAM performance on fainter targets.
- The functionality to move the guide probe from BCAM has also been implemented and guide probe movements from PDET are spot on.
- Anthony implemented sound on PCON with R2D2 announcing the end of a procedure... cool...
* accepted observations for the following program:
- 2012-1-IUCAA_RSA_OTH-001
Monday, October 1, 2012
Night Log 2012-09-30
SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Excellent seeing until midnight, but thin and thick cirrus all
night with the bright moon made things a bit challenging,
with some gaps in observing. Science for:
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RSA-010 (x3)
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RU_UNC-001 (FP x2)
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-RSA-014
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005
2012-1-RU-008 (FP)
The next few nights will be engineering.
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Excellent seeing until midnight, but thin and thick cirrus all
night with the bright moon made things a bit challenging,
with some gaps in observing. Science for:
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RSA-010 (x3)
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RU_UNC-001 (FP x2)
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-RSA-014
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005
2012-1-RU-008 (FP)
The next few nights will be engineering.
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