Saturday, February 28, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-27

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Marissa (in training), Deneys & Enrico

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


A productive gray night with mediocre seeing until the humidity got too
high at around 2.30am.

Data taken for:
2014-2-SCI-054 P1 RSS (Measuring radial velocities in the spectrum of CAL 87)
2014-2-SCI-037 P1 RSS (x2) (Study of the extraplanar diffuse ionized gas properties of galaxies NGC 253 and NGC 3044)
2014-2-SCI-078 P1 SCAM (Searching for exoplanets around evolved binary stars)
2014-2-SCI-077 P2 HRS (Constraining the orbital ephemeris and the Be disk status of the X-ray Binary GX304-1)
2014-2-SCI-015 P2 RSS (Measuring dark matter in clusters using the brightest cluster galaxies)

Friday, February 27, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-26

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Deneys, Marissa in training, Enrico

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Beginning of the night lost due to technical problems.
But managed to get one block before closing for high humidity:
2014-2-SCI-078 P1 SCAM (Searching for exoplanets around evolved binary stars)

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-25

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Marissa in training, Deneys, Enrico, Katherine and Steve visiting, plus the Dartmouth students

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Most of the night lost to humidity and cloud - unfortunate since we were
looking forward to a simultaneous observation with radio KAT-7 in the
morning hours. Lost an hour in the beginning to technical issues too, but still
managed several science blocks for:

2014-2-SCI-065 P1 SCAM (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)
2014-2-SCI-058 P1 HRS (Accretion in Young Binary Star Systems)
2014-1-MLT-007 P4 RSS (x2) (Long term monitoring of circumstellar disk in Be X-ray binaries)

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-24

SA: Alexei
SO: Thea
Others: Petri, Denis

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


=> Night with rising humidity. Were closed very soon after beginning.

=> Data were taken for the program:
2014-2-SCI-054 P1 RSS (Measuring radial velocities in the spectrum of CAL 87)

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-23

SA: Alexei
SO: Thea
Others: Timmi and Jonothan to solve problem with structure

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


=> Stable and productive night with moderate seeing.

=> SAMS testing.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2014-2-SCI-034 P0 RSS (Classification of possible supernovae)
2014-2-SCI-015 P1 RSS (x2) (Measuring dark matter in clusters using the brightest cluster galaxies)
2014-1-MLT-002 P2 RSS (x2) (Determining the fraction of Luminous Red Galaxies in merging pairs)

Monday, February 23, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-22

SA: Alexei
SO: Thea
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


=> Stable and productive dark clear night with moderate seeing.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2014-2-SCI-015 P1 RSS (x2) (Measuring dark matter in clusters using the brightest cluster galaxies)
2014-2-SCI-004 P1 SCAM (Dark energy and the expansion rate of the Universe from quasar monitoring.)
2014-2-SCI-027 P1 RSS (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2014-2-SCI-014 P1 RSS (Investigating the activity in the not-red-and-dead brightest cluster galaxies)
2014-2-SCI-002 P2 HRS (The black matter probe using the interstellar gas)
2014-2-SCI-023 P2 RSS (Time variabilility of the broad absorption line QSOs.)
2014-2-MLT-001 P3 RSS (Study of the evolution of lenticular galaxies.)
2014-2-SCI-060 P3 RSS (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae)
2014-2-SCI-016 P3 HRS (Investigating the birth and evolution of X-ray binaries through their radial motion.)

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-21

SA: Alexei
SO: Thea
Others: Tamara and David for a while

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


=> Very unstable night with bad seeing. Were closed by humidity before midnight.

=> Some data were taken for the following proposals:
2014-2-SCI-058 P3 HRS (Accretion in Young Binary Star Systems)
2014-2-SCI-022 P3 HRS (Anchoring the extragalactic distance scale with an LMC eclipsing binary star)
2014-1-MLT-007 P4 RSS (Long term monitoring of circumstellar disk in Be X-ray binaries)

=> HRS weekly calibrations were taken.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-20

SA: Alexei
SO: Thea
Others: The day team for a while, Bengt Gustaffson and wife, Ross

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


=> Struggled at the beginning of the night and in the middle of the night with mirror alignment. Were closed by humidity around 4 o'clock. Moderate seeing and passing clouds during the night.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2014-2-DDT-005 P0 RSS (Classifying the optical counterpart to the HMXB 2S 1553-542)
2014-2-SCI-024 P2 HRS (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2014-1-MLT-002 P2 RSS (Determining the fraction of Luminous Red Galaxies in merging pairs)

Friday, February 20, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-19

SA: Alexei
SO: Thea
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


=> Clear night with moderate seeing at the beginning and very bad seeing at the end. Were closed by humidity.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2014-2-SCI-017 P2 RSS (Optical preparatory survey for Cold HI 21-cm Absorption Line Survey (CHITALS))
2014-2-SCI-060 P3 RSS (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae)
2014-2-SCI-025 P3 RSS (Chemistry and kinematics of Blue Compact Dwarfs)
2014-1-MLT-007 P4 RSS (x2) (Long term monitoring of circumstellar disk in Be X-ray binaries)

=> Some calibration data for HRS

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-18

SA: Alexei
SO: Thea
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


=> Tracker Y-drive problem (clutch slipping). Will be serviced tomorrow
after investigations. No observations for tonight.

=> SAMS tests tonight

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-17

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Marissa, Alexei, Thea, John Thorstensen

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


- A very stable night with great seeing for Sutherland (~1''). We had a couple of technical problems which unfortunately meant we could not take full advantage of the conditions.

Data taken for:

2014-2-SCI-021 P1 RSS (Kinematics of exotic S0 galaxies with Fabry-Perot imaging spectroscopy)
2014-2-SCI-028 P1 HRS (To determine if C enhanced Metal-poor stars without heavy element enhancement is due to binarity.)
2014-2-SCI-020 P2 HRS (HRS observations of planetary nebulae and spectra of dwarf tidal galaxies.)
2014-1-MLT-002 P2 RSS (Determining the fraction of Luminous Red Galaxies in merging pairs)
2014-2-SCI-016 P3 HRS (Investigating the birth and evolution of X-ray binaries through their radial motion.)
2014-2-SCI-077 P3 HRS (Constraining the orbital ephemeris and the Be disk status of the X-ray Binary GX304-1)

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-16

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Marissa, (Etienne, Paul and Johnathan at the start of the night)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


- had a fairly productive night. the seeing was good until midnight after which it deteriorated drastically, it was more than 2'' after 2 o'clock.

Data taken for:

2014-1-MLT-001 P0 RSS (Observations of supernovae, near and far.)
2014-2-SCI-003 P1 RSS (Target of opportunity for variable AGN)
2014-2-SCI-015 P1 RSS (Measuring dark matter in clusters using the brightest cluster galaxies)
2014-2-SCI-017 P1 RSS (Optical preparatory survey for Cold HI 21-cm Absorption Line Survey (CHITALS))
2014-2-SCI-060 P3 RSS (x2) (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae)

Monday, February 16, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-15

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Marissa

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


- High humidity forced us to close just before midnight. Observing conditions were pretty good till then.

Data taken for:

2014-2-SCI-035 P1 SCAM (Imaging of Type Ia supernova remnants)
2014-2-SCI-016 P3 HRS (Investigating the birth and evolution of X-ray binaries through their radial motion.)

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-14

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Marissa

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


- Happy Valentines Day!

- Struggled at the beginning of the night with mirror alignments and image quality because of dome conditioning problems in the afternoon. This hampered observations. Managed to get some data before we closed due to high humidity around 3 o'clock.

2014-1-MLT-002 P1 RSS (Determining the fraction of Luminous Red Galaxies in merging pairs)
2014-2-SCI-014 P1 RSS (Investigating the activity in the not-red-and-dead brightest cluster galaxies)
2014-2-SCI-017 P2 RSS (Optical preparatory survey for Cold HI 21-cm Absorption Line Survey (CHITALS))

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-13

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Marissa

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


- Did not observe tonight due to cloudy weather and high humidity.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-10

SA: Luke
SO: Veronica
Others: Hitesh remotely for SAMS testing, Paul and Marissa for handover

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Night devoted to SAMS mirror alignment system engineering tests. No science data gathered.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-09

SA: Luke
SO: Veronica
Others: Keith via phone for Payload issues, Encarni for observing advice via Skype

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


An excellent night of observing with some important observations tackled, including eight blocks consisting of 1x P0, 1x Time Critical P1, 2x P1, 1x P2, 3x P3. Consistent seeing between 0.8" and 1.5" and cloud free skies made the night a useful and long one, with only limited technical issues.

Data taken for:

2014-2-SCI-070 P0 RSS (Spectroscopic follow-up of type Ia supernovae discovered by DES to analyse their spectral properties)
2014-2-SCI-058 P1 HRS (Accretion in Young Binary Star Systems)
2014-2-SCI-037 P1 RSS (x2) (Study of the extraplanar diffuse ionized gas properties of galaxies NGC 253 and NGC 3044)
2014-2-SCI-024 P2 HRS (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2014-2-SCI-060 P3 RSS (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae)
2014-2-SCI-055 P3 RSS (Multi-wavelength classification of unidentified Blazar-like Fermi 2LAC catalogue sources)
2014-2-SCI-027 P3 RSS (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))

Monday, February 9, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-08

SA: Luke
SO: Veronica
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Very variable seeing conditions at the start of the night tempted us with <1" conditions during alignment and acquisition which, by Murphy's Law, immediately degraded below program limits during the actual science. A more stable second half of the night enabled 2x P1s, 1x P2 and 2x P3s to be taken, with an additional P1 lost due to weather.

Data taken for:

2014-2-SCI-057 P1 RSS (Exploring magnetic accretion in Intermediate Polars)
2014-2-SCI-054 P1 RSS (Measuring radial velocities in the spectrum of CAL 87)
2014-2-SCI-024 P2 HRS (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2014-2-SCI-017 P3 RSS (Optical preparatory survey for Cold HI 21-cm Absorption Line Survey (CHITALS))
2014-2-SCI-001 P3 HRS (Searching for circumbinary planets)

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-07

SA: Luke
SO: Veronica
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


A near textbook observing night with great seeing, few minor technical issues and calm, clear (if brightly moon illuminated) skies. Ten blocks including 5x P2s, 4x P3s, 1x P4 observed with RSS and HRS, as well as Fabry-Perot calibrations, extensive HRS calibrations and an HRS radial velocity standard in dusk twilight.

Data taken for:
2014-2-SCI-016 P2 HRS (x3) (Investigating the birth and evolution of X-ray binaries through their radial motion.)
2014-2-SCI-058 P2 HRS (Accretion in Young Binary Star Systems)
2014-1-MLT-001 P2 RSS (Observations of supernovae, near and far.)
2014-2-SCI-028 P2 HRS (To determine if C enhanced Metal-poor stars without heavy element enhancement is due to binarity.)
2014-2-SCI-045 P3 HRS (Chemical composition determination of LBVs in the Southern Hemisphere.)
2014-2-SCI-047 P3 RSS (Study of the properties of thin and thick disks of galaxy IC2531)
2014-2-SCI-001 P3 HRS (Searching for circumbinary planets)
2014-2-MLT-003 P4 RSS (Study, and detailed classification, of a number of proposed very cool astronomical objects)

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-06

SA: Luke
SO: Veronica
Others: Timmy (payload) & Encarni (remote Fabry Perot support)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


A bright moon but clear, calm night, with some patches of excellent sub-1" atmospheric conditions. 1x P1, 3x P2 and 1x P3 HRS targets observed before closing a little early due to humidity, along with Fabry-Perot and HRS calibration data and RSS spectrophotometric standards.

Data taken for:
2014-2-SCI-077 P1 HRS (Constraining the orbital ephemeris and the Be disk status of the X-ray Binary GX304-1)
2014-2-SCI-001 P2 HRS (Searching for circumbinary planets)
2014-2-SCI-028 P2 HRS (To determine if C enhanced Metal-poor stars without heavy element enhancement is due to binarity.)
2014-2-SCI-050 P2 HRS (Exploring the limits of HRS for measuring Exoplanet Radial Velocities)
2014-2-SCI-022 P3 HRS (Anchoring the extragalactic distance scale with an LMC eclipsing binary star)

Friday, February 6, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-05

SA: Luke
SO: Veronica
Others: Hitesh and Encarni remotely for SAMS/monochromator tests

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Made use of a night of bright moon and patchy thick to blanket cloud cover with light winds to gather SAMS mirror alignment system data, and test the Fabry-Perot system with arc lamps and the monochromator system (which seems promising). Unfortunately forced to close early due to high humidity.

No science data taken tonight.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-04

SA: Luke
SO: Veronica
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Full moon night with variable seeing and high humidity closing us prematurely at 1:20am. Nevertheless, 2x P2 targets, 2x P3 targets and a P4 target observed, along with extensive calibrations for both HRS and RSS. Unable to perform the planned SAMS mirror engineering tests due to slightly to high wind speeds at the start of the night.

Data taken for:
2014-2-SCI-047 P2 RSS (Study of the properties of thin and thick disks of galaxy IC2531)
2014-2-SCI-028 P2 HRS (To determine if C enhanced Metal-poor stars without heavy element enhancement is due to binarity.)
2014-2-SCI-010 P3 RSS (Spectroscopic observations of the pulsating, eclipsing binary 1SWASP J050634)
2014-2-SCI-060 P3 RSS (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae)
2014-2-MLT-003 P4 RSS (Study, and detailed classification, of a number of proposed very cool astronomical objects)

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-03

SA: �ric
SO: Fred
Others: Luke

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Good productive night. We had a clear night with low wind.
We could gather data for 9 programs this night.

Data taken for:

2014-2-SCI-050 P2 HRS (x2) (Exploring the limits of HRS for measuring Exoplanet Radial Velocities)
2014-2-SCI-001 P2 HRS (Searching for circumbinary planets)
2014-2-SCI-073 P3 RSS (Monitoring of the SMC LBV S18)
2014-2-SCI-022 P3 HRS (Anchoring the extragalactic distance scale with an LMC eclipsing binary star)
2014-2-SCI-060 P3 RSS (x3) (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae)
2014-1-MLT-007 P4 RSS (Long term monitoring of circumstellar disk in Be X-ray binaries)

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-02

SA: �ric
SO: Fred
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


We started the night by doing some engineering tests for the mirror.
Then, after midnight, we could observe some science targets.
Data taken for:

2014-2-SCI-001 P2 HRS (Searching for circumbinary planets)
2014-2-SCI-060 P3 RSS (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae)

Monday, February 2, 2015

Night Log 2015-02-01

SA: �ric
SO: Fred
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


We could observe only one program tonight. Then, we experienced technical problems. We considered it was safer for the telescope to not be operated until we can solve the problem. But while the telescope was closed, we could keep on testing the system that will keep our primary mirror in shape.


We could gather data for one program on RSS:
A uniform spectroscopic sample of Ultra Cool Dwarfs

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Night Log 2015-01-31

SA: �ric
SO: Fred
Others:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------


We did not open tonight. No data gathered.