Night Log 2013-06-29

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Garith

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Summary
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- thin clouds for the beginning of the night which got thicker and forced us to close just before 01:00.

- obtained science data for the follwing programs:
- 2013-1-RSA_UKSC_RU_UC_OTH-001
- 2013-1-DC-003
- 2013-1-UC-001
- 2013-1-GU-002
- 2013-1-RU-003

Night Log 2013-06-28

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith

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Summary
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- after a late start to the night we managed to get some science done. we had clouds for most of night which interfered with observations quite a bit.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-UC-001
- 2013-1-AMNH-001 x2
- 2013-1-UC-002
- 2013-1-POL_RSA-001

Night Log 2013-06-27

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith, Garith

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Summary
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- another humid night kept us from opening the telescope.

Night Log 2013-06-26

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith for a callout

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Summary
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- very humid and cold night, did not open.

Night Log 2013-06-25

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Paul K., Keith, et al.

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Summary
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. Stormy weather. Did not open.

Night Log 2013-06-24

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Simon, Tim, Rebecca, Carl, Dave dB

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Summary
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. Bright night with high wind, high humidity, and cloud. Opened only to try standard stars at night start, but it was too windy to even get a coarse alignment. Took some calibration data.

Night Log 2013-06-23

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Simon + a crowd, Tim-Oliver, Rebecca, and Eiji (IRSF observer)

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Summary
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. Bright night with high wind. Closed at midnight.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2013-1-HET_OTH-001
2013-1-IUCAA-004
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2013-1- UKSC_KET_OTH-001

Night Log 2013-06-22

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: David d.B., AVG

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Summary
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. Bright night with thin cloud and good seeing at the start (1-1.5"); closed after 21:30 due to clouds.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2013-1-HET-005 (x4)
2013-1-DC_RSA-001
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014

Night Log 2013-06-21

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Simon

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Summary
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. Closed the entire night due to high wind and high humidity.

Night Log 2013-06-20

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Simon

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Summary
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. Bright night. Data taken for the following programs:
2013-1-IUCAA-004 (x2)
2013-1-DC_RSA-001 (rejected, too close to Moon)
2013-1-UW-002
2013-1-RSA_OTH-006
2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (x3)
2013-1-POL-001
2013-1-RSA-003
2013-1-RSA-002
2013-1-POL-005
2013-2-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (aborted, conditions not met)
2013-1-RSA-011

Night Log 2013-06-19

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others:

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Summary
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. Mostly bright-gray night, closed due to high humidity for the first few hours.

. Data for the following programs:
2013-1-POL-001
2013-1-RU-001
2013-1-POL-005
2013-1-RSA_OTH-006
2013-1-UW-004
2013-1-UKSC-002
2013-1-HET-004
2013-1-UKSC-006

Night Log 2013-06-18

SA: Brent
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda Gulbis, Hamish, Michael, Keith, Tim-Oliver+colleague, Amanda Green + candidates

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Summary
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Difficult Grey/Bright night with mostly poor seeing and high winds preventing a good alignment. Closed due to high winds around 00:30, followed by ridge cloud and heaver thicker cloud.

Data taken for
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014
2013-1-HET-005
2013-1-DC_RSA-001
2013-1-UW-002
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2013-1-RSA_OTH-014
2013-1-AMNH-002

Night Log 2013-06-17

SA: Brent
SO: Siphelo
Others: Michael, Keith for a bit

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Summary
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A long productive night with somewhat worse seeing than last night. Data taken for the following programs:

2013-1-UKSC_HET_OTH-001
2013-1-DC-001
2013-1-DC_RSA-001
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2013-1-POL-002
2013-1-RSA-006
2013-1-AMNH-002
2013-1-UW-004 (x2)
2013-1-UW-002
2013-1-UKSC-002
2013-1-UKSC-006

Night Log 2013-06-16

SA: Brent
SO: Siphelo
Others: Michael, Hamish and friends briefly at start of night

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Summary
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Long photometric night with stretches of very good seeing.

Data taken for

2013-1-RSA_UKSC_RU_OTH-001
2013-1-UW-005
2013-1-UW-002 x2
2013-1-UW_OTH-001
2013-1-GU-002
2013-1-UKSC_HET_OTH-001
2013-1-AMNH-002x2
2013-1-RU-001
2013-1-POL-001
2013-1-HET_RU_RSA_OTH-001
2013-1-IUCAA-004
2013-1-UKSC-006

Night Log 2013-06-15

SA: Brent
SO: Siphelo
Others: Paul R on phone, Michael, Hamish and friends for a visit

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Summary
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Long clear photometric night but plauged by a difficult to diagnose interferometer problem which took about 4 hours out of the night.

Accepted blocks for
2013-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-002
2013-1-RU-001x3
2013-1-UKSC-005
2013-1-UKSC-002
2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001

Night Log 2013-06-14

SA: Brent
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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Summary
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High humidity and thick cloud all night.

Night Log 2013-06-13

SA: Brent
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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Summary
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Night lost to high humidity and heavy cloud.

Night Log 2013-06-12

SA: Brent
SO: Siphelo
Others: Martin, David B, Michael, Jonathan, Pierre

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A windy night, precluding any decent alignment. With coarse alignment we observed blocks for 2013-1-RSA_OTH-019, 2013-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001 and 2013-1-AMNH-002 when not closed due to high winds and humidity. Closed for 2nd time at 01:30 ish.

Night Log 2013-06-11

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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=> Another night with mediocre seeing.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2013-1-RSA_OTH-019
2013-1-IUCAA-001
2013-1-RSA_OTH-010
2013-RSA_OTH-024
2013-1-GU-002
2013-1-RU-003
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2013-1-RSA_OTH-011
2013-1-IUCAA-001
2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001

Night Log 2013-06-10

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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=> Stable night with mediocre, but steady, seeing.
Some cirrus from the evening, but clear after that.

=> Data taken for the following programs:
2013-1-RSA_OTH-019
2013-1-RSA_OTH-010 (x2)
2013-1-RSA_UKSC_RU_UC_OTH-001
2013-1-HET_OTH-001
2013-1-UW_OTH-001
2013-HET_RU_RSA_OTH-001
2013-1-IUCAA-004 (x2)

=> Requested tests for SALTICAM

=>Throughput test for both SALTICAM and RSS

Night Log 2013-06-09

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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=> Unstable night with high humidity. Were able to observe only one hour from the evening.

=> Data were taken for 2013-1-RSA_OTH-019

=> Gain calibrations.

=> Standard calibrations for Lick standards.

Night Log 2013-06-08

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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=> No observation because bad weather: rain, snow, strong wind and heavy clouds.

Night Log 2013-06-07

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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=> Very unstable weather with a lot of heavy clouds and high speed wind.

=> We were able to observe few blocks for the bright time in between of clouds.
Data were taken for the following programs:
2013-1-HET-005
2013-1-UKSC_HET_OTH-001
2013-1-RSA_UKSC_RU_UC_OTH-001
2013-1-UW-002
2013-1-UKSC-002 (x2)

=> Data were taken for the gain calibrations

=> Data were taken for the pupil map test

=> User-requested non-charged calibrations were taken

Recent Science Results

Alexei Kniazev et al. (RSA) reported SALT observations of the third closest
star to the Solar System: the brown dwarf pair known as WISE
J104915.57-531906.1.  These observations spectroscopically confirm the
binary nature of the system through measurements of the radial
velocity of both components, which indicate that they are a
gravitationally bound system.  For more details, please see:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.7171

Brent Miszalski (RSA), Joanna Mikolajewska (Pol), and Andrzej Udalski
(Pol) use SALT spectra of a high density (symbiotic-like) nucleus of
the planetary nebula K2-17 to indicate that a binary system might be
present. This discovery adds to a handful of other similar systems
presented in this paper and elsewhere whose nature is poorly
understood at present.  For more details, please see:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1305.4863v1.pdf

Childress et al. include a SALT spectrum in their 65 spectroscopic
observations of a luminous Type Ia supernova.  In this work, done in
collaboration with Saurabh Jha (RU) and Curtis McCully (RU), the
spectra show clear evidence for high velocity features at early
times. The SALT spectrum was obtained 14 days before maximum and is
the second earliest spectra by only a few hours.  The observations
were obtained only 5 hours after the target was submitted to the
queue.  For more details, please see: http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.2926

Night Log 2013-06-06

SA: Alexei
SO: Thea
Others:

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Summary
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=> Unstable night with many havy clouds and variable conditions.

=> Some data were taken for the following programs:
2013-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2013-1-GU-002
2013-1-RSA_OTH-011
2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001
2013-1-UKSC-002

Night Log 2013-06-05

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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=> Night with variable humidity and decent seeing (1.5-2.5")

=> Lost some time with techical problems, but data were taken for
the following programs:
2013-1-RSA_OTH-019
2013-1-RSA_OTH-010
2013-1-RSA_OTH-024
2013-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001

=> Many standard calibrations were done during twilight time

Night Log 2013-06-04

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others:

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Summary
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Cloudy and humid. Did not open.

Night Log 2013-06-03

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others:

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Storm is over, but lots of leftover snow around and ridge cloud all night. Could not open.

Night Log 2013-06-02

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others:

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Summary
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The snow storm continues. No data tonight

Night Log 2013-06-01

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others:

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Cold, snowy night. Did not open.

Night Log 2013-05-31

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Tim fixing TimDimm and the sky cam.

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Summary
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Beautiful clear start to the night with sub-arcsec seeing up to ~22:30 when we were forced to close due to high humidity.

Science data for:
2013-1-RU-003 (P1)
2013-1-IUCAA-001 (P2)