Night Log 2013-12-30

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Cara, Rudi, Hitesh, Bruno

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- a clear night with mediocre seeing.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-018 (P0)
- 2013-2-RSA_RU-002 (P1)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-016 (P2)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-006 (P1)
- 2013-2-RSA_POL-001 (P2)

Night Log 2013-12-29

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Cara, Hitesh to help with the first alignment

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- full night of observing with one or two technical issues. seeing was good for most of the night.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-018 (P0)
- 2013-2-RSA_RU-002 (P1)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-016 (P2)
- 2013-2-RSA_DC_OTH-001 (P1)
- 2013-2-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (P2)

Night Log 2013-12-28

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Cara, Rudi+friends

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- had decent conditions for the first half of the evening. conditions got worse during the second half. closed up just before 03:00 due to high humidity.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-2-UW-002 (P1)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-017 (P2)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-005 (P3)
- 2013-2-UKSC-008 (P3)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-016 (P2)

Night Log 2013-12-27

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Cara, Rudi + friends

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- a productive night with moderate seeing and clear skies.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-2-RSA_RU_UKSC_OTH-001 (P1)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-016 (P2)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-006 (P1)
- 2013-2-UW-005 (P1)
- 2013-2-RSA_POL-001 (P2)
- 2013-2-UW_RSA-001 (P2)

Night Log 2013-12-26

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Cara, Hitesh for a short visit

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- mediocre seeing tonight. closed just before 02:00 due to high humidity.

- obtained data for the follwing programs:
- 2013-2-RU-001 (P0)
- 2013-2-POL_OTH-001 (P1)
- 2013-2-RSA_POL-001 (P3)
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH-017 (P2)
- 2013-2-GU-001 (P1)

Night Log 2013-12-25

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Cara

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- HO HO HO, merry xmas! was a fairly productive night with good seeing. had to align a couple of times due to conditioning issues during the afternoon. closed a bit earlier than expected due to high humidity.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-2-UKSC-010 (P3)
- 2013-2-UKSC-008 (P3)
- 2013-2-POL_OTH-001 (P1)
- 2013-2-IUCAA_OTH-003 (P1)
- 2013-2-IUCAA-001 (P2)
- 2013-2-RSA_DC_OTH-001 (P1)

Night Log 2013-12-24

SA: David
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Twas the night before Christmas and the elves were busy trying to get some data for all the good SALT boys & girls.

Those in luck tonight, before the dreaded ridge cloud came upon us:
2013-2-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (F-P; Sheila; P2)
2013-2-UW-002 (MOS; Diamond-Stanic; P1)

A very merry Xmas and successful 2014 to all our customers and friends!!

Night Log 2013-12-23

SA: David
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Promising start to the night, but SE wind change brought humidity and ridge clouds just after midnight.

Still, observed following programs:
2013-2-RSA_UKSC_OTH-002 (McBride; P0)
2013-2-POL-_OTH-001 (Hajduk; P1)
2013-2-RSA_OTH-001 (Kraan-Korteweg; P2)

Night Log 2013-12-22

SA: David
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Another nice night with data for the following programs:
2013-2-RSA-008 (Viljoen; P2)
2013-2-POL_OTH-001 (Hajduk; P2)

Night Log 2013-12-21

SA: David
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Started of a magnificent evening with clear skies, light wind, low humidity. RH shot up towards end of twilight. Seeing ~1.5-2.5".

Programs done for:
2013-2-POL_OTH-001 (Hajduk, P2)
2013-2-UKSC-004 (Kalari; P1)
2013-2-RU-001 (Jha, P0)
2013-2-UW-001 (Orio, P1)
2013-2-UKSC-004 (Kalari; P1)
2013-2-RSA_POL-001 (Miszalski; P2)

Night Log 2013-12-20

SA: David
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Excellent clear night with stable seeing.
Completed RSS observations for the following programs:
2013-2-RU-001 (Jha; P0)
2013-2-DC-002 (Wegner; P2)
2013-2-GU-001 (Kollatschny; P1)
2013-2-IUCAA_OTH-003 (Bhalerao; P1)
2013-2-HET-003 (Curtis; P2)
2013-2-RSA_POL-001(Miszalski; P2)
2013-2-RSA_OTH-003 (Kniazev; P2)

Night Log 2013-12-19

SA: Lisa
SO: Veronica
Others: Luke, Ms T, Keith (+ helpers: Nimrod & Paul R by phone), Alexei for a while, Ray on Skype & Steve C on ajbber to fix the DIMM & all-sky camera

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More HRS SV data taken for:

2013-2-RSA_HET-001 (Gilbank)
2013-2-POL-008 (Konacki)
2013-2-RSA_OTH-022 (Buckley)
2013-2-UKSC-011 (Elkin)

Happy Holidays Everyone! See you all again in the New Year :)

Night Log 2013-12-18

SA: Lisa
SO: Veronica
Others: Luke & Her Royal Tortoiseness (asleep)

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Our first ridge-cloud free night in a couple of weeks!

Data taken various HRS SV projects:

2013-2-DC-007 (Chaboyer)
2013-2-RSA_HET-001 (Gilbank)
2013-2-POL-008 (Konacki)
2013-2-UW-008 (Mathieu)
2013-2-UKSC-011 (Elkin)

Night Log 2013-12-17

SA: David
SO: Fred
Others: Lisa & Luke

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Full Moon, so focussing on HRS SV programs:
2013-2-HET_OTH-002
2013-2-POL-008
2013-2-RSA_HET-001
2013-2-UKSC-012

All ran quite smoothly until ridge cloud hit at ~2:30

Night Log 2013-12-16

SA: David
SO: Fred
Others: Luke & Lisa

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Bright Moon so dedicating to HRS Science Verirfication proposals:
2013-2-DC-007 (Chaboyer)
2013-2-RSA_HET-001 (Gilbank)
2013-2-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001 (Buckley)
2013-2-POL-008 (Konacki)

Then we closed by 01:30 due to ridge cloud.

Night Log 2013-12-15

SA: David
SO: Fred
Others: Lisa, Luke, Emma, Jean

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Lots of clouds at sunset followed by rising humidity and ridge cloud. Managed to do a RV std for HRS HS + ThAr before dewpoint limit.

Night Log 2013-12-14

SA: David
SO: Fred
Others: Lisa, Luke, Emma & Jean

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Lots of clouds at the start, which only worsened.
Tried one HRS SV observation (2013-2-POL-008, Konacki) before clouds got too thick.

Night Log 2013-12-12

SA: David
SO: Fred
Others: Lisa, Luke, Emma

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Weather looked iffy to start, but steadily improved and had spells of clear skies and good seeing.

Completed P0 on CXOU_J005758.4-722229 (Bartlett)
Rest of night on HRS SV programs:
HR1146, HD10700 (Gilbank)
HD38529b (Buckley)
CPD-73 420 (Niemczura)

Night Log 2013-12-11

SA: David
SO: Fred
Others: Lisa 'n Luke & Emma

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Patchy clouds and rising humidity killed all hopes.

Night Log 2013-12-10

SA: Lisa
SO: Thea
Others: Luke, Fred, David & Emma

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* Opened briefly but to no avail as the humidity shot back up as soon as we pointed to a target!

* RSS flexure tests taking arcs during the course of a long track.

* RSS stray light tests.

Night Log 2013-12-09

SA: Lisa
SO: Thea
Others: Luke, David & Veronica + Hannah & Carel for a visit

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Another whole night lost to weather :(

Night Log 2013-12-08

SA: Lisa
SO: Thea
Others: Luke

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Grim weather all night, but charmed & entertained by Danger Mouse (who we rescued from the the 40-inch control room)!

HRS internal arcs galore & more file admin...

Night Log 2013-12-07

SA: Lisa
SO: Thea
Others: Luke, Ray via Skype

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Overcast with intermittent drizzle - didn't open at all.

Various HRS tests & sorting through accumulated data.

Night Log 2013-12-06

SA: Lisa
SO: Thea
Others: Luke

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Successfully tested HRS's Nod & Shuffle option for Low Resolution mode, just before the weather packed up! Well done Eddy & Janus :)

Night Log 2013-12-05

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Luke, Simon, Eddy & Ray via Skype

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- R.I.P. Tata Madiba... :( :::

- Not shut down by humidity afterall & the telescope was extremely well behaved! Lots of high-priority targets to keep the trainee SA busy & big thanks to Paul & Thea for all their help!

- Data taken for:

2013-2-RSA_UKSC-002 (P0)
2013-2-RSA_OTH-018 (P0)
2013-2-UW-002 (P1)
2013-2-HET-005 (P3)
2013-2-UW-002 (P1 - HRS)
2013-2-RSA_OTH-022 (P1 - HRS)
2013-2-RSA_OTH-021 (P0 - HRS)

Night Log 2013-12-04

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Lisa, Luke

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- closed before midnight due to high humidity.

- we were only able to obtain data for 2013-2-DC-005

Night Log 2013-12-03

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Lisa, Luke, Deon

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- had a great sub arcsec start to the evening, but it got spoiled by the midnight humidity.
- took advantage of the initial good seeing with HRS
- got one P0 target done before we had to close

- obtained data for:
- 2013-2-DC-007 x2 (HRS)
- 2013-2-IUCAA-003 (HRS)
- 2013-2-DC_RSA-001 (P0)

Night Log 2013-12-02

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Lisa, Luke

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- rain kept us from opening the telescope tonight.

Night Log 2013-12-01

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Lisa, Luke, Keith

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- dismal observing weather tonight. had thin cloud coverage and seeing around 4'' for most of the night.
- did one or two HRS SV observations. spent the rest of the time doing P3 and P4 targets and showed Lisa the ropes.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-2-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003 (P4)
- 2013-2-AMNH-002 (P4) x2
- 2013-2-RSA_POL-001 x3
- 2013-2-GU-001 (P1)

Night Log 2013-11-30

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Lisa, Luke

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- bad weather tonight, closed early due to high humidity. attempted a couple of programs.
- had a tracker issue which put us out of business for a while.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2013-2-AMNH-002 (P4) x2
- 2013-2-UKSC-010 (P3)