Night Log 2013-04-29

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Deon, Simon, Amanda

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Another very productive clear gray night, nearly without
a hitch. The seeing wasn't as good as previous nights, but
the mirror alignment held extremely well. Data for:

2012-2-RSA_OTH-009
2012-2-RSA_DC_OTH-001
2012-2-RSA-002
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-006
2012-2-RSA_OTH-003
2012-2-DC_RSA-001
2012-2-UNC_RSA-001 (x3)
2012-2-GU-002
2012-2-RSA-010
2012-2-DC-001
2013-1-AMNH-002 (x2)
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2013-1-UW-006 (x2)
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014

Night Log 2013-04-28

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Deon

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A photometric night, still bright, with mostly good seeing,
humidity went up for a while, then came down, and up again.
Some engineering and commissioning tests, and science for:

2012-2-UW-006
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-002 (x2)
2012-2-UNC_RSA-001 (x5)
2012-2-GU-002
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (x2)

Night Log 2013-04-27

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: brief visit from various party people

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Same as past few nights: good seeing, dry and warm,
remarkably stable, but lots of cirrus, thick at times
Mostly bright objects observed ...

2012-2-UNC_RSA-001 (x3)
2012-2-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003 (x5)
2012-2-POL-005
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-002 (x2)
2012-2-DC_RSA-001
2013-2-RSA_OTH-014
2013-1-POL-005
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (x4)
2013-1-UKSC-002
2013-1-AMNH-002 (x5)

Thea & Petri have thrown down the gauntlet -
- try beating 24 blocks per night :)

Night Log 2013-04-26

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Deon, Hitesh; David, Sudhanshu visits

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Bright moon with lots of cirrus and good seeing.
Productive night for bright-star programs.
Lost about an hour to clouds, and used up another
2h for engineering. Data for:

2012-2-POL-007 (x2)
2012-2-UNC_RSA-001 (x4)
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014 (x4)
2013-1-UKSC_HET_OTH-001
2013-1-RSA_OTH-006
2013-1-RSA-POL-001 (x3)

End-of-an-era at SALT - good bye Charl du Plessis and thanks!

Night Log 2013-04-25

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Keith, Hitesh in the beginning

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A stable full-moon night with good to average seeing, and
a photometric patch as well. Some technical trouble right
in the beginning but smooth sailing afterwards. Some
commissioning observations, and science data for:

2012-2-RSA_RU-001 (comm.)
2012-2-RSA_UW-002 (MOS)
2012-2-DC_RSA-001 (ToO)
2012-2-RSA_POL-001
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (x3)
2013-1-UKSC_HET_OTH-001
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014
2013-1-UKSC-006
2013-1-UKSC-002 (x2)

Night Log 2013-04-24

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Keith for slitmask work, Amanda too

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Bright moon with cirrus, fairly good seeing and stable
otherwise. Had some technical problems though and
was stuck with one slitmask for most of the night.
Still managed many blocks for:

2012-2-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003
2012-2-UC-OTH-001 (MOS)
2012-2-DC_RSA-001 (ToO)
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014 (x3)
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (x3)
2013-1-POL-005

Night Log 2013-04-23

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others: Petri

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=> Stable night with good seeing and some cirrus.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA-016 (x2)
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014 (x2)
2012-1-UKSC-003
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-002 (x2)
2013-1-UKSC-006
2012-2-UC-003

Night Log 2013-04-22

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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=> Nice and stable night with bright Moon and good seeing.

=> Some data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_UW-002
2012-2-POL-001
2012-2-POL-007 (x2)
2012-2-UC-003
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014 (x2)
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (x2)
2013-1-UKSC-002

Night Log 2013-04-21

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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=> Stable night with average seeing and cirrus.
Wind was very weak.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014
2012-1-PSA_UKSC-005
2012-2-RSA-010
2012-2-RSA-002 (x2)
2012-2-HET_OTH-001
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2012-2-POL-001

Night Log 2013-04-20

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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=> Entire night lost due to humidity

=> Data for new MOS holder stability tests were taken

Night Log 2013-04-19

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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=> Make observations during two hours and were closed by
humidity.

=> Some data were taken for 2012-2-RSA_UKSC-005
=> Standard calibrations during twilight

Night Log 2013-04-18

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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=> Heavy clouds and high humidity. No observations.

=> More data for new MOS holder stability tests.

Night Log 2013-04-17

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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=> Heavy clouds and rain.
Entire night lost.

=> Data for new MOS holder stability tests were taken.

Night Log 2013-04-16

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: alexei

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entire night lost to clouds, wind, and then humidity as well. spent the evening analyzing FP calibration data and then testing the new numbers out. MR is working well with the new calibration in place, though some bugs were encountered in PCON's FP calibration routine. also checked the MR calibration near 5000 A and it appears to not have changed much. the lines i tried appeared where they were supposed to within a few A. calibration parameters for TF were also updated and extended out to 7500 A.

Night Log 2013-04-15

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: keith

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a cirrus-filled night with steadily increasing wind and decent seeing. managed to successfully complete blocks for:

2012-2-DC_RSA-001 (P0)
2012-2-RSA-001
2012-2-RSA-015 (BVIT)

tried a P1 block for 2012-2-RSA_OTH-010, but it got too cloudy. used some of the cloudy time to perform pupil mask commissioning test as well as some pointing tests in the north. was not able to reproduce the problems we've had with some north pointings. each star i tried came up at or near the center of the field. tried to get back on sky later in the night when the clouds thinned for a time, but CCAS technical problems prevented that and then the clouds rolled back in for good.

Night Log 2013-04-14

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others:

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yet another productive night with good, very steady seeing throughout. several instances with the guider EE50 at 1.2 or less. some thick mid to high level clouds for the first couple hours and then scattered light cirrus off and on through the night. relatively smooth sailing systems-wise with just a few minor glitches (cable wrap and PCON crash). FP and MOS behaved themselves. had to do three alignments, however, in spite of very stable temperatures and steady west wind. partly because the seeing was so good it wasn't possible to hide any sins.

accepted blocks for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-005 (P0 with parallel 1.0m observation)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-002 (x2 FP)
2012-2-RU-001 (FP)
2012-2-POL-001
2012-2-POL-002

also attempted blocks for 2012-2-RSA_OTH-010 (abandoned due to clouds) and 2012-2-RSA_OTH-002 (abandoned due to poor stack and then PCON crash). also cleared out the calibrations tab of all outstanding entries. whew!

Night Log 2013-04-13

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: keith

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another clear, steady, productive night. the DIMM seeing was steady, if mediocre. when the mirror was good, SALT generally reported somewhat better seeing. at the end the DIMM reported 1.7, but the guider EE50 was 1.5. had one technical glitch pertaining to the 2nd mirror alignment, but once worked out that alignment held up until the end of the night. generally smooth going otherwise. the MOS problems from last night didn't appear tonight so not sure what exactly happened. completed blocks for the following programs:

2012-2-UW-006 (x2)
2012-2-RSA-002
2012-2-RSA_UW-002 (MOS)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015
2012-2-POL-001
2012-2-POL-002
2012-2-HET-001
2012-2-RU-004

Night Log 2013-04-12

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: francois (by phone)

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another clear, photometric night. crazy temperature inversion with 2-4 C difference between 2m and 30m temps all night. this wreaked havoc with the DIMM seeing which ranged from 1" to 4" at times. however, by keeping the louvers closed we were able to mitigate the worst of the dome seeing. mirror alignments held pretty steady considering and we had good IQ at the end of the night with EE50 1.5" or less.

the only glitch was not being able to position the guide probe when setting up for MOS. otherwise a productive night with accepted blocks for the following programs:

2012-2-RSA_DC_OTH-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003
2012-2-GU-002
2012-2-UW-002
2012-2-UW-003
2012-2-RU-001 (x2)
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-002

Night Log 2013-04-11

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others:

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a clear night with mediocre and somewhat unsteady seeing. cut short once again by humidity, but this time only a couple hours were lost. accepted blocks for the following programs:

2012-2-UW-006 (commissioning)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-005 (P0)
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (x2)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015
2012-2-RU-001

discovered that the coarse setting for Z on the MR controller box was set to 0 when it's supposed to be 1. don't notice a huge difference right away, but it may need time to settle down after the change. will check in the afternoon.

Night Log 2013-04-10

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others:

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another night cut short by ridge cloud. managed to squeeze in a couple accepted blocks before that happened, one commissioning for 2012-2-RSA-016 and one science for 2012-2-RSA_OTH-015. determined that the SCAM johnson filters require a 0.5 mm refocus of the telescope. also determined that the MR etalon is still behaving in a strange way even in the absense of encarni...

Night Log 2013-04-09

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Martin at the beginning.

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Cold and humid night. No observations.

Night Log 2013-04-08

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda, Jonathan. and Keith at the beginning

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Cloudy night with high humidity and high winds. No observations.

Night Log 2013-04-07

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Jonathan, Amanda, Eben. Anthony remotely.

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Dark, clear night with high winds (40-60 km/h) and mostly good seeing 1-2"), although the high winds prevented very good image quality.

Unable to take MOS data tonight due to limitations of slitmask magazine on RSS.

Science data for:
2012-2-RSA_DC_OTH-001 (P2)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-005 (P0)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC_RU_UC_OTH-001 (P3)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015 (P3)
2012-2-DC-002 (P3) x4
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (P3)

Night Log 2013-04-06

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda. Amanda Gulbis remotely. Keith and Janus on the phone.

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Non-photometric night with a fair bit of high cirrus and seeing 1-2".
Unfortunately, despite long struggles, PCON was out of action tonight.

Attempted some science with BVIT - two incomplete blocks for:

2012-2-RSA_OTH-021 (P1)
2012-2-RSA-015 (P2)

Night Log 2013-04-05

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda and Jonathan. Hitesh, Francois, Deon, Tim, Deneys, Janus and Anthony also helped out remotely.

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We're finally back in action! :)

Cirrusy start to the night that quickly cleared. Very low humidity, Seeing ~1.5"-2"
Some technical problems until just after midnight.

Science data for:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015 x2 (P3)
2012-2-HET_OTH-001 (P0)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-005 (P0)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-002 (P3)
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (P3)

Night Log 2013-04-04

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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TELESCOPE STILL OUT OF ACTION.

Night Log 2013-04-03

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Francois

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Clear night with average seeing. No observations taken due to telescope lightning damage.

Night Log 2013-04-02

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others:

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Telescope out of action. No observations possible tonight.

Night Log 2013-04-01

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others: BBC Travel Channel film crew and later some czech astronomers from small telescopes

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On a wind swept and squally night deep in the dark Karoo desert, a BBC film crew emerged from the ridge cloud to interview the SALT astronomer (SA) on duty. After a lovely chat the crew left for the warm beds awating them at their guesthouse in town. Just as the SA was leaving he noticed a small business card on the SALT kitchen benchtop. He swore he didn't see the card there before while making a cup of the finest aromatic chai. It was a most curious thing with an iridescent sheen of green, purple and black, all at the same time, like those paint jobs on doof-doof cars rich people's teenagers have but somewhat more appealing to the eye. On the business card were a set of coordinates on the sky and a strange set of pictograms that included some stick figures with very large eyes and long fingers. These pictograms looked befitting of some cheap C-grade movie prop, so their meaning was not immediately obvious. The SA made another cup of tea and played with the card in the light
, dazzled by the pretty colours, for at least 20 minutes. After losing track of time, it came to him. Aha! The pictograms suggest a changing beacon of light...a lighthouse! This didn't make sense. Not only were we hundreds of kilometres from the ocean, we also didn't have a lighthouse. This puzzled the SA considerably. After conversing with his trusty sidekick SO, the SA decided to simulate a lighthouse with SALT. Even though it was too windy outside and raining, the SA thought it was really important to open the dome and spin it like a lighthouse. After all, those colours were really amazing! Almost like nothing on Earth could have made them. With the lights on, the SALT dome was spun up to an amazing 2.5 times its nominal speed to simulate a light house. Nothing happened for at least 10 minutes, but something was telling the SO that she had to keep going. Just when they were both getting a bit bored with playing with the pretty business card again, the SA could hear a low
frequency humming sound. Kind of like what The Doctor might have acc
ompanying him in the TARDIS. No, The Doctor was not visiting SALT, that would be ridiculous. In fact, it was a large UFO, of the saucer variety, rotating very slowly to create the low hum in a most majestic fashion. At this point both the SO and SA were blinded by a white flash and slept as good as anyone might sleep on a long haul economy flight to whoop whoop. Some time later both awoke to find everything back to normal. The telescope power cables that had earlier been struck by lightening were fixed and the dome nice and dry again. How could this be they thought? Astonishingly the ridge cloud, and indeed all clouds, had also vanished. The SA remarked upon the serious voodoo that must have went down earlier to bring about such a drastic change in the weather. The SA was heard saying "Nobody messes with the ridge cloud, that is, unless they were...not of this planet!". They both check if the telescope was operational again and astonishingly the mirror was already aligned. Th
e aliens must have used some advanced mirror alignment algorithm, the likes of we had never seen before, since the seeing was 0.3" (FWHM) on RSS. While fetching another cup of tea the SA came across the shiny coloured card again. Twenty minutes later after playing with it in the light again, he came up with the idea of pointing the telescope to those coordinates on the card. Obviously the dynamic duo didn't point the telescope to these coordinates, as we all know that headphones are the most sensitive means to pick up alien civilizations. As the SKA didn't exist yet, the Meerkat commissioning team were asked to check it out. Unfortunately, that night, the coordinates happened to lie directly behind the moon and no observations could be taken. Earth's only chance of discovering other life in the universe, and most importantly, life that could create such pretty colours on a bit of cardboard, was thwarted by our only natural satellite. THE END.

Night Log 2013-03-31

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others:

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A tempestuous, squally day and night of 100.3% humidity and rain. The stars are veiled.

Happy Easter!

It's Easter time and all throughout the land people are thinking of rabbits and eggs and chocolate. Generally, such things are hard to find at SALT. We have no chickens on site to produce organic eggs for omelettes or meringue. What little chocolate may be around is quickly devoured to give the local Astronomers that 3 am kick to finish a long night. We do, however, seem to have rabbits. Like this little critter (left) that magically showed up in the SALT control room one day. Rumour has it this loveable fluffy bunny has been working very hard the last few weeks. We didn't quite catch its name, but we suspect it may have been the result of an unfortunate genetic mutation. You see, there are local rabbits around SALT, or rather "hares", and they do indeed possess cotton tails (below). Could this cotton mutation spread to the rest of their bodies? Surely, then, a yellow tummy, purple ears and eyebrows are also a distinct possibility! Such mutations must also affect their teeny brains, but as we're Astronomers and not biologists, I guess we'll never know...