Night Log 2013-08-30

SA: Encarni
SO: Fred
Others:

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Summary
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Snowy and foggy. Did not open.

Night Log 2013-08-29

SA: Encarni
SO: Fred
Others:

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Summary
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Humid, snowy, cold. Did not open.

Took some more Fabry-Perot test data and gain calibrations for RSS and SALTICAM.

Night Log 2013-08-28

SA: Encarni
SO: Fred
Others: Keith earlier in the night. Amanda and Henry for a visit later on.

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Cloudy, windy and rainy night. Did not open.

Took some Fabry-Perot calibration data.

Night Log 2013-08-27

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Encarni, Rick, Steve, Laure

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Summary
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- a front moving in made life very difficult. strong winds prevented good mirror alignments and clouds interfered with observations. we closed ~01:30 due to clouds.

- we obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-RU-001
- 2013-1-RSA_UKSC_OTH-001
- 2013-1-UW-002
- 2013-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
- 2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001

Night Log 2013-08-26

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others:

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- struggled with weather conditions tonight even though it was clear. strong winds prevented good mirror alignments and at the end of the night we had very bad seeing conditions. closed a bit early when the seeing went over 3''.

- we obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-UW-007 (P2)
- 2013-1-HET_RU_RSA_OTH-001 (P2)
- 2013-1-RSA_POL-001 (P3)
- 2013-1-HET-004 (P3)
- 2013-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (P2 & 3) (x2)
- 2013-1-RU-001 (P2)
- 2013-1-POL_RSA-001 (P3)

Night Log 2013-08-25

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith

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- lost the first part of the night due to mirror alignment issues. just after we got on sky, clouds came rolling in which forced us to stay closed for the rest of the night.

- obtained data for
- 2013-1-RSA_POL-001

Night Log 2013-08-24

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Johan, Simon, Keith

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- a clear and photometric night with variable seeing which fluctuated between 1'' and 3''. had some technical issues at the beginning of the night, but all ran smoothly afterwards. A 4 degree temperature difference between the 2m and 30m sensors meant bad dome seeing and therefore mirror alignments.

- we obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-RSA_UKSC_OTH-001 (P2)
- 2013-1-RSA_HET_UKSC_OTH-001 (P0) - BVIT
- 2013-1-IUCAA-004 (P3)
- 2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001 (P2)
- 2013-1-UW_OTH-001 (P2)
- 2013-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (P2)
- 2013-1-POL_RSA-001 (P3) (x3)

Night Log 2013-08-23

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith

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- another good night with seeing staying mostly below 1.5''. had some mirror alignment issues which was mostly due to dome seeing.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-DC_RSA-001 (P2)
- 2013-1-RSA_UKSC_OTH-001 (P2)
- 2013-1-AMNH-002 (P4)
- 2013-1-IUCAA-004 (x2) (P3)
- 2013-1-GU-002 (P2)
- 2013-1-RSA-007 (P3)
- 2013-1-IUCAA-002 (P3)
- 2013-1-RSA_OTH-007 (P3)
- 2013-1-HET_OTH-001 (P2)

Final HRS components leaves Durham

Today all of the smaller or more sensitive components of HRS left Durham to be air freighted to Cape Town. These consist of all of the optics, detectors, mechanisms, controllers, etc. They should arrive early next week, ahead of the main shipment which left by ship earlier this month (see blog post on 8 Aug).

The Durham team arrive on 1 Sep and plan to begin reassembly of the instrument at SALT during the first week of Sep.

Night Log 2013-08-22

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Martin, Johnathan, Timmy, Keith

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- good observing conditions during the night. the number bright time targets are diminishing fast. we observed a total of 20 blocks for the evening, most of it was P4 observations.

- we obtained data for the following programs:
-2013-1-AMNH-002 (x14)
-2013-1-RSA-003 (x3)
-2013-1-POL-005
-2013-1-RSA-002
-2013-1-IUCAA-004

Night Log 2013-08-21

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others:

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- entire night lost due to rain and high humidity
- did FP calibrations

Night Log 2013-08-20

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Deneys, Paul

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Full moon with thick cirrus throughout the night, with high winds
preventing fine mirror alignments. Only very bright objects could
be done, mostly P4 science:

2013-1-AMNH-002 (it's christmas for AMNH! - 13 blocks)
2013-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-002
2013-1-RU-001 (ToO)
2013-1-RSA-007 (abort)

Night Log 2013-08-19

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Deneys.

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Weatherwise an extremely stable clear, though bright, night with decent seeing
just above 1.5". Some tech. trouble in the beginning, but smooth after that.
Offset tests, and science for:
2013-1-RSA_POL-001
2013-1-UW-007
2013-1-UW-002
2013-1-UKSC_HET_OTH-001
2013-1-GU-002
2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001
2013-1-UC-002
2013-1-POL_RSA-002
2013-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001

Night Log 2013-08-18

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others: Deneys, Jonathan. Francois & Hitesh on phone.

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Finally back on sky, though was hampered by cirrus+bright moon
and the most horrible dome seeing making alignments long and
very difficult. But managed to get some science done for:
2013-1-HET-004
2013-1-HET-005 (x2)
2013-1-AMNH-002 (x3)
2013-1-POL_RSA-002
2013-1-RSA_OTH-007

Night Log 2013-08-17

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others: Deneys, Johan

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Did not open due to high humidity and clouds, continuing
FP calibrations.

Night Log 2013-08-16

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others:

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More FP cals, but no on-sky observations.
Denied first by high winds and then by humidity.

Night Log 2013-08-15

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Night lost to cloulds,high humidity. Did not open. More FP calibrations taken.

Night Log 2013-08-14

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others: Deneys, Ted on skype.

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No observations, thick clouds and high humidity. Ran FP calibrations sequences.

Night Log 2013-08-13

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others: Martin, Petri

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. Stormy, icy night. We did not open.

Night Log 2013-08-12

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others: Martin, 40" observer V. Batista (to record telescope "music")

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. Closed by the end of evening twilight due to high humidity. Stayed closed because of humidity, high wind, and then clouds.

. Took a few frames at the night start to test the new focus model: 2011-2-RSA-001.

Night Log 2013-08-11

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others:

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. Cloudy and wet night. Did not open.

Night Log 2013-08-10

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others:

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. Dark night with moderate wind and clouds at the very end. We spent most of the first half of the night gaining knowledge on how to observe without an interferometer.

. Lots of focus testing, under propID 2011-2-RSA-001.

. Science data taken for the following programs:
2013-1-DC_RSA-001 (P2)
2013-1-GU-002 (P2)
2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001 (P2)
2013-1-UW-006 (P1)
2013-1-POL_RSA-001 (P2)
2013-1-RSA_OTH-008 (P3)

Night Log 2013-08-09

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others:

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. Dark night, but we could not take science data because of a broken interferometer.

. Test frames taken for 2011-2-RSA-001 (an old SCAM commissioning code).

Night Log 2013-08-08

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others: Keith

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. Humidity above limits the entire night. We did not open.

HRS is on its way!

The bulkier components (e.g vacuum tank, optical bench) of HRS are now on the high seas! The cargo freighter "Atacama" is on its way to Cape Town with the precious cargo, due to arrive on 29 August.

The map here shows its progress from the Bay of Biscay to its first port of call, Lisbon.

You can following its progress at:
HRS track


Its current position (at ~13:00 UT on 8 Aug) it is off the north coast of Spain, as shown in the following map:

Here's a photo of the ship:

 

Night Log 2013-08-06

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Amanda, Keith, Hamish, Simon, Pierre

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- the stretch of good weather we've had has come to a cold and wet end. no observations taken tonight.

Night Log 2013-08-05

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Simon

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- great observing weather for the eighth night in a row. it was clear and photometric for most of the night with seeing varying between 1.5'' and 2''. a perfect night was spoiled by tracker issues an hour before twilight.

- we obtained data for the following programs.
- 2013-1-RSA_OTH-021
- 2013-1-UC-001
- 2013-1-UNC_RSA-002
- 2013-1-HET_RU_RSA_OTH-001
- 2013-1-UKSC_HET_OTH-001
- 2013-1-IUCAA-003
- 2013-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
- 2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001
- 2013-1-POL_RSA-001

Night Log 2013-08-04

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith to fix the slitmask magazine

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- another beautiful night in Sutherland. we had ok seeing for most of the night, an average of around 1.4''. had some tech issues during the night where we lost a couple of hours.

- we obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-RSA_RU-002
- 2013-1-HET_RU_RSA_OTH-001
- 2013-1-POL-002
- 2013-1-UW-004
- 2013-1-POL_RSA-001
- 2013-1-POL_RSA-002

Night Log 2013-08-03

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Meera, Pat, Rudi, Keith, Simon

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- yet another night with very stable conditions. got two P0 targets done, otherwise it's been a very productive night.
- we did only one mirror alignment. IQ was good, had sub 2'' on the guide probe for the whole evening.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-HET_OTH-001 (P0)
- 2013-1-GU-002
- 2013-1-DC_RSA-001 (P0)
- 2013-1-DC-003
- 2013-1-RSA_POL-001
- 2013-1-IUCAA-001 (x2)
- 2013-1-UKSC-004
- 2013-1-RSA-011
- 2013-1-RSA_OTH-008

Night Log 2013-08-02

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith and David when I came in. Simon

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- very good observing conditions tonight. it was clear, low wind and photometric with an average seeing of around 1.5''. only two mirror alignments for the night which held up very well. EE50 on the guide probe matched the timdimm seeing for the whole night.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-DC-003 (x3)
- 2013-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-002
- 2013-1-UW-002
- 2013-1-POL-002
- 2013-1-HET-004
- 2013-1-IUCAA-004
- 2013-1-RSA-011
- 2013-1-POL_RSA-001

Night Log 2013-08-01

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Hitesh, Francois, Veronica, Keith @05:00

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- a long productive night with mediocre seeing. our night got cut short by an hour due to a TCS comms problem that we could not recover from.

- we obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-1-DC-003 (x4)
- 2013-1-UW-004
- 2013-1-RSA_DC_OTH-001
- 2013-1-RSA_OTH-008

Night Log 2013-07-31

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Hitesh, Francois, Simon

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- long productive night with decent seeing.

- we obtained data for the following programs
- 2013-1-RSA_006
- 2013-1-DC-003
- 2013-1-UW_OTH-001
- 2013-1-IUCAA-004 (x2)
- 2013-1-IUCAA-001
- 2013-1-RSA-011
- 2013-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
- 2013-1-RSA_OTH-008