Night Log 2014-11-29

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others: Timmy, Keith

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Frustrating night with only handicapped RSS and SCAM available. Frequent alignments needed due to high and variable temperature during night.

Data taken for:

2014-2-SCI-074 P1 SCAM (Observations of Dwarf Novae in the Large Magellanic Cloud)
2014-2-SCI-066 P2 RSS (x2) (Finding the redshift and ionization of WISE-selected QSOs)

Night Log 2014-11-28

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others:

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A reasonably productive night despite closing around 2:30 due to high humidity and seeing mostly worse than 2.5 arcsec.


Data taken for:

2014-2-SCI-065 P2 SCAM (x2) (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)
2014-2-SCI-028 P2 HRS (x2) (To determine if C enhanced Metal-poor stars without heavy element enhancement is due to binarity.)
2014-2-SCI-001 P3 HRS (Searching for circumbinary planets)

Night Log 2014-11-27

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others:

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Clouds and high humidity tonight. No observations tonight.

Night Log 2014-11-26

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others: Eben, Ant

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Took one science block for 2014-2-MLT-005 before issues with RSS filter insertion and faulty articulation sensors. Thereafter high humidity ensued.

Night Log 2014-11-25

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Steve, Brent, Ted, Nithaya, Thea

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Most of the night lost to humidity except for <2h in the beginning with
clear but average to poor seeing conditions, and then for <1h in the end.
Latter time used for on-sky engineering, first section has data for:
2014-2-MLT-001 P2 RSS (Study of the evolution of lenticular galaxies.)
2014-2-SCI-062 P2 RSS (Studying a post-starburst galaxy with unusual [O III] emission lines - an ionized galactic wind?)

Night Log 2014-11-24

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Steve, Ted, Nithaya Chetty

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All night lost to humidity and clouds apart from a brief window right in
the beginning resulting in data for:
2014-2-SCI-004 P1 RSS (Dark energy and the expansion rate of the Universe from quasar monitoring.)

Night Log 2014-11-23

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Steve, Timmy

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Lost almost the whole night to humidity. Managed just one short block
in a brief hole in clouds and dip in RH:
2014-2-SCI-049 P2 RSS (Enshrouded exoplanetary systems)

Night Log 2014-11-22

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Steve

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Lost first half of the night to clouds and thundershowers. Conditions
improved later and did "thin cloud" science in average seeing and on-sky
engineering tests until clouded out again half an hour before end of night.
Data for:
2014-2-SCI-002 P1 HRS (x2) (The black matter probe using the interstellar gas)
2014-2-SCI-049 P2 RSS (Enshrouded exoplanetary systems)

Night Log 2014-11-21

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Steve, Keith

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The dark night started out well with RSS and good seeing, then hit
technical issues, and some clouds, but latter half of the night went
smoothly again with HRS only and skies clearing.
Data for:
2014-2-MLT-005 P0 RSS (Deriving the mass of the central super-massive black hole in the core of active galaxies)
2014-2-SCI-062 P2 RSS (Studying a post-starburst galaxy with unusual [O III] emission lines - an ionized galactic wind?)
2014-2-SCI-020 P2 HRS (HRS observations of planetary nebulae and spectra of dwarf tidal galaxies.)
2014-2-SCI-022 P2 HRS (x2) (Anchoring the extragalactic distance scale with an LMC eclipsing binary star)

Night Log 2014-11-20

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Steve

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Spent night running highest-priority edge-sensor tests. As luck would
have it, turned out to also be one of those once-a-semester nights ...
stable, dark, photometric, excellent seeing with long stretches at sub-arcsec.

Night Log 2014-11-19

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Steve, Keith

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A frustrating night with a multitude of technical troubles. Seeing was good, but cirrus all night and getting thicker towards the morning. Got a couple blocks done regardless, in addition to many rejected ones.
2014-2-DDT-001 P0 RSS (nuclear processing in evolved stars)
2014-2-SCI-002 P1 HRS (The black matter probe using the interstellar gas)
2014-2-SCI-005 P3 HRS (HRS spectroscopy of FU Ors Outbust Sources)

Night Log 2014-11-18

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others: Petri, Fred, Steve C, Etienne

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=> Nice clear night with brilliant seeing.

=> Lost some time from the evening due to technical issues.

=> Date were taken for the following programs:
2014-2-DDT-001 P0 RSS (nuclear processing in evolved stars)
2014-2-SCI-074 P1 SCAM (Observations of Dwarf Novae in the Large Magellanic Cloud)
2014-2-SCI-040 P1 RSS (Superwinds in luminous starburst galaxies)
2014-2-SCI-024 P2 HRS (x2) (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)

Night Log 2014-11-17

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others:

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=> Clear night with nice seeing. HRS and SALTICAM observations.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2014-2-SCI-020 P1 HRS (HRS observations of planetary nebulae and spectra of dwarf tidal galaxies.)
2014-2-SCI-024 P1 HRS (x3) (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2014-2-SCI-078 P1 SCAM (Searching for exoplanets around evolved binary stars)
2014-2-SCI-065 P2 SCAM (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)
2014-2-SCI-016 P2 HRS (Investigating the birth and evolution of X-ray binaries through their radial motion.)

Night Log 2014-11-16

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others: Etienne for a long time

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=> Clear sky and very bad seeing at the beginning of the night.

=> Technical issues at the beginning of the night.

=> High humidity pushed us to close earlier.

=> Data were taken for the program:
2014-2-SCI-073 P4 RSS (x2) (Monitoring of the SMC LBV S18)

=> RSS Geometry Calibrations were finished.

=> Throughput spectral test for RSS was done using SpSt

=> Gain Calibrations for RSS were repeated.

Night Log 2014-11-15

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others: Etienne

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=> Clear night. Managed to open and make one test before humidity forced us to close. Later heavy clouds came.

=> Tested RSS guidance and make test for relative locations of a fairly central star on PDET and SCAM (RHO=0 only).

Night Log 2014-11-14

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others: Lisa

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=> Strong wind, high humidity and heavy clouds all the night.

=> RSS tests were done:
1. RSS geometry calibrations (except SpSt observations)
2. Gain and Read-Out noise Calibrations
3. Stability of long-slit mask insertion

RSS Goes Back Up!!

After two months of enormous effort by all concerned, RSS is looking better than ever!  In addition to the highly successful optical service (a long blog post to follow about that at some point...) which drove the project, the Tech Ops team's made full use of this opportunity to access any & every part of the instrument.

All mechanisms have been thoroughly overhauled & tested, CAD models were created for parts that weren't under config management & the baffling's been improved to beat down stray light & to help keep the instrument (& particularly the optics) as clean as possible.

The various mechanisms (including new etalon mounts, the waveplates, the slitmask magazine & the gratings) needed plenty of tweaking & testing before the lift could happen.  This stuff's hard enough to do on the ground, no point rushing to put everything back up, only to then discover that something wasn't right.

The guys have been relentless, working day & night for the past several days to make sure everything's ready & in great shape.  With that, a post-lunch launch was agreed to yesterday...

The instrument was rigged up at the tracker's 37 degree operational angle before being hoisted through the hatch with the dome crane.

This was all a bit too hard to watch for some thoroughly exhausted people...

Safely to the first floor!

& then up to the catwalk.

Time for a last good look at everything from above.

RSS hovers patiently above the hatch after hailing a telescope...

After 9 weeks & 3 days of major surgery & intensive care in the spectrometer room, the tracker must've been a most welcome sight for our prime focus imaging spectrograph (the instrument formerly known as PFIS).

Eben & his crew of lifters: Denville, Etienne, Timmy & Jono, + crane-man Nicolaas, took up their positions on the tracker & access platform.

Everyone guided her down very gently before fastening the bolts into the rho stage.

Securely down, the lifting gear could be removed...

Then the task of routing & connecting all the RSS cables, pneumatics, coolant pipes & other life-support back into & out of the rotating structure.

Earlier in the day, the HRS fibres had been stowed out of harm's way in a blue tube that was lashed to the outside of the rho ring (visible to the left of Eben's foot in the pic above).  With RSS back on, these could be fed back under the RSS frame, routed into the rotating structure & connected to the FIF.

What happened next is not hard to imagine...  A cold & hungry crew did what they needed to do!  Big thank you to Jupiter for still being willing to cook fantastic steaks after 10pm when the last of us arrived there!  

Don't be fooled by the date on the bottle - the lift happened on Thursday the 13th, the past few days have just been too busy to keep track of such details!  Pity about the bad weather that'll prevent on-sky testing for a couple of days, but stay tuned...

Night Log 2014-11-13

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others: SALT day team, Lisa, Ockert

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=> Mostly clear night. SALT team worked during twilight and first
hour to finish RSS and FIF installation. Three more hours we took
some tests for FIF first and for the new mirror segment edge sensor
system after that.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2014-2-SCI-002 P1 HRS (The black matter probe using the interstellar gas)
2014-2-SCI-043 P1 HRS ( Hunting for heavy-metal stars in the hot-star zoo. )
2014-2-SCI-024 P2 HRS (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)

Night Log 2014-11-12

SA: Alexei
SO: Veronica
Others: Lisa, Keith, Ockert

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=> Entire night lost to rain, heavy clouds and strong wind

RSS is Go for take-off in the morning! :D

Night Log 2014-11-11

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Chris, Etienne, Keith, Jonathan, Lisa, Eben, Deon... sorry if I missed anybody!

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Entire night lost to cloud and rain.

Night Log 2014-11-10

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Ockert, Keith, Lisa, Deon and Dan from 1.9m telescope.

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Horrid weather tonight. Managed to open and take a couple of tests during twilight before the wind, the humidity and the cloud cover forced us to close.

Night Log 2014-11-09

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Deon.

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A cloudy start, followed by some clear weather but poor seeing and ending early in thick cloud and high humidity.

Science data for:

2014-2-SCI-001 P3 (Searching for circumbinary planets)
2014-2-SCI-020 P3 (x2) (HRS observations of planetary nebulae and spectra of dwarf tidal galaxies.)

Night Log 2014-11-08

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Ted, Keith, Deon. Janus over the phone to help with FIF acquisition problems.

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The night started rather cloudy but cleared by midnight.

Science data for:
2014-2-SCI-020 P1 (HRS observations of planetary nebulae and spectra of dwarf tidal galaxies.)
2014-2-SCI-001 P1 (Searching for circumbinary planets)
2014-2-SCI-068 P2 (Properties of rapidily oscillating Ap star HD60435)
2014-2-SCI-043 P3 (x2) ( Hunting for heavy-metal stars in the hot-star zoo. )

Night Log 2014-11-07

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Deon. Luke over the phone to help with HRS.

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Mostly clear and dry, full Moon night. A few technical glitches and a lot of mirror alignments tonight, and some science data for:
2014-2-SCI-002 P1 (The black matter probe using the interstellar gas)
2014-2-SCI-020 P1 (x2) (HRS observations of planetary nebulae and spectra of dwarf tidal galaxies.)
2014-2-SCI-043 P1 ( Hunting for heavy-metal stars in the hot-star zoo. )
2014-2-SCI-050 P2 (x2) (Exploring the limits of HRS for measuring Exoplanet Radial Velocities)
2014-2-SCI-068 P2 (Properties of rapidily oscillating Ap star HD60435)

Night Log 2014-11-06

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Keith, Deon and Janus

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Mostly clear night with a few scattered high cirrus clouds. Again, forced to close early due to high humidity.

Science data for:
2014-2-SCI-022 P1 (Anchoring the extragalactic distance scale with an LMC eclipsing binary star)
2014-2-SCI-050 P2 (x2) (Exploring the limits of HRS for measuring Exoplanet Radial Velocities)
2014-2-SCI-028 P2 (x2) (To determine if C enhanced Metal-poor stars without heavy element enhancement is due to binarity.)

Night Log 2014-11-05

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Keith, Janus.

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Mostly clear night. The first couple of hours we took some tests for the new mirror segment edge sensor system, then did some tests with SALTICAM to make sure everything was back as expected, and took some HRS science data. Unfortunately, we were forced to close early due to high-humidity.

The science data winners are:
2014-2-SCI-020 P1 (HRS observations of planetary nebulae and spectra of dwarf tidal galaxies.)
2014-2-SCI-001 P2 (Searching for circumbinary planets)

Night Log 2014-11-04

SA: �ric
SO: Veronica
Others: Ockert, Janus, Eben, Etienne, Encarni, Daniel

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Night lost again due to humidity and clouds.
No data obtained tonight.

Night Log 2014-11-03

SA: �ric
SO: Veronica
Others: Eben, Janus, Willie, James, Ockert

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Weather prevented us from opening, no data obtained tonight.

Night Log 2014-11-02

SA: �ric
SO: Veronica
Others:

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No opening tonight, because of the weather.

Night Log 2014-11-01

SA: �ric
SO: Veronica
Others: Daniel

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Humidity and clouds prevented us most of the time to observe.
During a short window, we could observe the following program :
2014-1-POL_RSA_AMNH-001 P2 HRS (Looking for evidence of massive white dwarfs in symbiotic novae)

Night Log 2014-10-31

SA: �ric
SO: Veronica
Others:

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No data tonight, since we stayed closed because of the weather conditions.