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.)

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))

Night Log 2015-02-13

SA: Paul
SO: Veronica
Others: Marissa

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


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

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.

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))

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)

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)