Night Log 2012-12-30

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others:

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


. Bright night, with thick cloud followed by high humidity. Got only a few spectra before the clouds were too thick to do anything else.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-003 (block incomplete because of cloud)

Night Log 2012-12-29

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others:

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


. Bright night, with thin cloud and good seeing (steady at ~1", then up to 1.5", then back down to 1").

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RU-007 (x2; FP)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-2-RSA_DC_OTH-001
2012-2-IUCAA_RSA_OTH-001

Night Log 2012-12-28

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others:

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


. Clear, bright night, with excellent seeing (mostly 0.5"-1.1").

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RU-007 (FP! x2 loooong blocks)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-2-POL-003
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-002 (more FP!)

Night Log 2012-12-27

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others:

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


. Thick cloud and high humidity. Unlike your Christmas presents, there was nothing being opened tonight!

. BCAM testing data for 2012-2-POL-007.

Night Log 2012-12-26

SA: Amanda
SO: Fred
Others:

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


. Warm, clear night with good seeing (0.9"-1.5"). Bright night: 98% moon from twilight through twilight.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-UKSC-002
2012-2-RU-007 (rejected, with LR calibration problem)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-2-POL-007 (BCAM calibrations)
2012-2-POL-003
2012-2-UNC_RSA-001
2012-2-RSA-004
2012-2-RSA_DC_OTH-001

Night Log 2012-12-25

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl as SO

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


=> Clear night, but we were closed by humidity at midnight.
Seeing degradated from 1.1 to 3.2

=> Data were taken for programs:
2012-2-UKSC-002 (x2)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-003

Night Log 2012-12-24

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Tamara, Dima and Matthias for a while

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


=> No any observations.
Repeat of previous night: completely cloudy, RH near 100% ...

Night Log 2012-12-23

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Tamara, Dima and Matthias for a while.

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


No any observations because heavy clouds and rain.

Night Log 2012-12-22

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Tamara, Dima and Matthias for a while.

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


=> Clouds up to the middle of the night and stable weather after that with variable seeing.

=> Science data for:
2012-2-RSA_POL-001
2012-2-GU-001
2012-2-POL-003
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-001

Night Log 2012-12-21

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Tamara, Dima and Matthias for a while

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


=> Cloudy, very unstable night with seeing around 1.2-1.3".
Heavy clouds in the evening time and some fields of clouds during the night.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_POL-001
2012-2-AMNH-003
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-001

Night Log 2012-12-20

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Tamara, Dima and Matthias for a game of Bohnanza

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


=> Clear, stable night with good seeing. Productive.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-003
2012-2-RSA-010
2012-2-RSA-002
2012-2-GU-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015
2012-2-RSA_DC_OTH-001
2012-2-UNC_RSA_RU-001
2012-2-DC_RSA-001

Night Log 2012-12-19

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl, Tamara, Dima and Matteas for some time

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


=> Unstable night with variable seeing.

=> Some data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-DC_RSA-001
2012-2-RSA-001
2012-2-UW-003

Night Log 2012-12-18

SA: David
SO: Thea
Others: Emma, Siphelo initially; Deatrick & Jean-Marc later on.

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


Thick clouds hampered first half of night, but mostly clear by midnight.
Good seeing (subarcsec initially).

Attempted the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_OTH_UKSC-004 (Crawford; P1; MRC0316-257)
2012-2-DC_RSA-001 (Fesen; P0; PSN J0949-47544)
2012-2-RSA-004 (Pickering; P0; GRB 542441)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015 (Vaisanen; P1; ESO440-IG058B)

Plus another swag of spectphot stds & flats

Night Log 2012-12-17

SA: David
SO: Thea
Others: Emmna (learning the ropes from Thea!)

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


Clear weather at sunset - at last.
Quite a productive night in the end, despite seeing steadily deteriorating as wind swung from SW to SE.

Managed to observe an SN ToO for Dan Milisavljevic at short notice.

Other programs attempted:
2012-2-AMNH-003 (LMC88b; Shara), but seeing might compromise later spectra
2012-2-RU-002 (SN2012Z; Jha)
2012-2-UKSC-003 (T Pyx; Maxwell), bit only time for one spectrum
2012-2-DC_RSA-001 (PSN J0949-4754; Fesen & Milisavljevic) ToO
2012-2-RSA_OTH-002 (NGC2917; Kniazev) only option in bad seeing

Plus knocked off most of the outstanding accumulated spectrophot & Lick standards.

Night Log 2012-12-16

SA: David
SO: Thea
Others: Amanda when the power tripped & dome troubles; Emma (till 2 a.m) & Jean (only until midnight)

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


"Thunderbolt & lightning, very very frightening me, Galileo, Galilieo...." at the start of the night.
Lost power, so on generator.

Eventually opened after midnight and managed to do:
2012-2-AMNH-003 (Shara)
2012-2-IUCAA-001 (Srianand)
condition were photometric and seeing 1.2-1.8"

Night Log 2012-12-15

SA: David
SO: Thea
Others: Emma & Jean for a bit

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


Clouds dispersed during the first half of the night, but humidity increase and dew point limit was hit all night.

Night Log 2012-12-14

SA: David
SO: Thea
Others: Emma, Jean, Amanda

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


Repeat of previous night: completely cloudy, rain drops at times, RH near 100%...

Night Log 2012-12-12

SA: David Buckley
SO: Thea
Others: Amanda, Emma, Jean-Marc, Hannes

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


Welcome to Anti-Doomsday Day Night!

Electrical storm from early evening, culminating with loss of Eskom, a strike on SALT, loss of comms to CCAS, BMS and excternal weather/ELS, and general crippling.

Did some stray light tests.

Twister in Karoo

I don't think we are in Kansas anymore.

Thanks Martin for the pictures and Willie for posting them!

Night Log 2012-12-11

SA: Brent
SO: Fred
Others: Jonathan, Nimrod, Paul R, Charl, Lucian, David B, Emma, Jean-Marc, Thea, Francois, Kevin, Sarah, and by phone Deneys, Garith and Janus

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


Lots of tech issues resolved by a talented team of elite SALT personnel. Seeing was an awful 2.5-3.0". Accepted one observation for 2012-2-RSA-001 before ridge cloud forced us to close at 00:35.

Night Log 2012-12-10

SA: Brent
SO: Fred
Others:

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


Night lost due to high humidity.

Night Log 2012-12-09

SA: Brent
SO: Fred
Others:

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


An evening storm, a twister(!!!!), a spectacular sunset and a night of thick clouds, high humidity and lightning. Sutherland put on quite a show. No observations.

Night Log 2012-12-08

SA: Brent
SO: Fred
Others:

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


Data taken under poor conditions of bad seeing and high humidity for:

2012-2-RSA-005
2012-2-RSA_OTH-003

Do or do not, there is no try.

Closed around 23:10 due to high humidity.
Ominous clouds arrived later to impart their own touch of... je ne sais quoi...malice?

Night Log 2012-12-07

SA: Brent
SO: Fred
Others: Steve C, Laure

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


Unstable night with poor seeing, closing up at 23:00 due to high humidity. Data taken successfully for

2012-2-GU-001
2012-2-UKSC-002

Night Log 2012-12-06

SA: Brent
SO: Fred
Others: Eben, David

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


A clear, productive and relatively stable night with seeing around 1.5", but with some good stretches between 1.1-1.3". Data taken for the following programs:

2012-2-POL-004
2012-2-RSA_UKSC_RU_UC_OTH-001
2012-2-UKSC-004
2012-2-UW-004
2012-2-RSA_POL-001
2012-2-POL-003

Night Log 2012-12-05

SA: Brent
SO: Fred
Others: David Buckley, Steve C

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


An unstable with abysmal seeing, thick clouds and ridge cloud.
Only had chance to take a few specphot stds from backlog.

Night Log 2012-12-04

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Brent, Fred, David, Tim, Laure

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


Short night, humidity went over at 10pm already. Science for:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-004
2012-2-GU-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH-002

Night Log 2012-12-03

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: David B, Steve C, Tim, Laure, adaptive opt school

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


Science in-between clouds. In addition to couple of incomplete
blocks, finished data for:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-004
2012-2-POL-004
2012-2-UKSC-002
2012-2-RSA_OTH-005 (x2)
2012-2-RSA-010
2012-2-UKSC-004

Night Log 2012-12-02

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Keith, Steve C and David B.

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


Half night of observations, until humidity forced us to close
down. Shame, it was clear all night for a change. Science for:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH-002
2012-2-UKSC-002 (x2)

Night Log 2012-12-01

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


All night lost to rain and clouds.

Night Log 2012-11-30

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Thea, David

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


A day of power outage and internet downtime gave way
to a night of extreme winds and ridge cloud. No science.

Night Log 2012-11-29

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Eben, Keith

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


Most of the night lost to clouds. And the only 2hrs of clear
sky to out-of-limits wind ... No science data.

Night Log 2012-11-28

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl

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


Cirrus with full moon and variable and poor seeing made
observations very difficult. Science for:

2012-2-RSA_UKSC-004
2012-2-UKSC-002
2012-2-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003 (x3)

Night Log 2012-11-27

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Lisa, Petri, Janus, Charl.

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


Good seeing night with thin cirrus.

Science data for:
2012-2-GU-002
2012-2-IUCAA_RSA_OTH-001 (x2)
2012-2-RU-007
2012-2-RSA-007
2012-2-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003

Night Log 2012-11-26

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl, Jonathan for a quick visit

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


Clear night with variable seeing.

Science data for:
2012-2-POL-006
2012-2-UKSC-002
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-2-RU-007

Night Log 2012-11-25

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


At last, a clear night with good seeing!

Science data for:
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-001 (x4)
2012-2-POL-006
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-2-POL-003
2012-2-RU-007
2012-2-HET_OTH-001

Night Log 2012-11-23

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl, Jonathan.

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


Very windy night with poor seeing.

Science data for:
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-001 (x3)
2012-2-DC_RSA-001
2012-2-RSA-001 (x4)
2012-2-GU-001

Night Log 2012-11-22

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Steve C, Charl, Mauritius visitors Nalini and Dinesh.

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


Cirrussy night with variable seeing.

Science data for:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-005
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-001 (x2)
2012-2-UW-004 (x2)
2012-2-RSA-001 (x3)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-002

Night Log 2012-11-21

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Steve C, Charl.

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


Clear night with SE wind and mostly horrible seeing. Forced to close at 3am due to high humidity.

Science data for:

2012-2-RSA_UKSC-001 (x2)
2012-2-GU-001
2012-2-DC_RSA-001
2012-2-UKSC-002
2012-2-RSA-002 (x3)

Night Log 2012-11-20

SA: Alexei
SO: Fred
Others: Steve C, Encarni, Charl.

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


=> Cloudy night with high humidity. Were closed about 23:00 by humidity.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2012-RSA_UKSC-001
2012-2-UKSC-004
2012-2-UW-004

=> References spectra are taken on request to check
efficiency of new liquid light guide

Night Log 2012-11-19

SA: Alexei
SO: Fred
Others:

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


=> Amazing night with 1" seeing during the whole night.

=> Slitmask mechanism problems. Only one mask was available during the night.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015
2012-2-AMNH-003
2012-2-POL-004
2012-2-RSA_POL-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH-004

Night Log 2012-11-18

SA: Alexei
SO: Fred
Others:

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


=> Dark night with very good seeing, but four hours were lost due to problems
with RSS slitmask Mag.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-POL-003 (x3)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-004
2012-2-GU-001

Night Log 2012-11-17

SA: Alexei
SO: Fred
Others:

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


=> Dark night with variable seeing.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-UW-004
2012-2-RSA_OTH-004
2012-2-RSA-005
2012-2-RSA_OTH-016
2012-2-HET_GU-001
2012-2-RSA_POL-001

Night Log 2012-11-16

SA: Alexei
SO: Fred
Others:

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


=> Dark night with high humidity and good seeing.

=> Data were taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA-005
2012-2-RSA_RU_UKSC-001 (x3, MOS)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-005
2012-2-RSA_OTH-004
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015
2012-2-GU-001

Night Log 2012-11-15

SA: Alexei
SO: Fred
Others:

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


=> Very unstable dark night. It started from very strong wind,
but started much better later.

=> Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-005
2012-2-RSA_RU_UKSC-001 (x2, MOS)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015 (x3)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-004
2012-2-RSA-002

Night Log 2012-11-14

SA: Alexei
SO: Fred
Others: NRF Board from the evening, Charl, Chris, David

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


=> Dark night with good seeing. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-POL-004
2012-2-UW-001
2012-2-GU-001
2012-2-RSA_POL-001 (x2)

Night Log 2012-11-13

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Alexei, Fred, Charl, Patricia, Dave C.

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


. Dark night. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-POL-004 (x2)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-005
2012-2-RSA_RU_UKSC-001
2012-2-HET_OTH-001
2012-2-RSA_008
2012-2-RSA_OTH-017

Night Log 2012-11-12

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Marissa, Anthony, David M.

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



. Dark night with some cloud. Closed due to high humidity at 01:00. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-004 (x2)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-005 (x2)
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-001
2012-2-RSA-005

Night Log 2012-11-11

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Barry, Marissa, Antony, Charl, Vic

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


. Last night for BVIT PI Barry Welsh -- the instrument reinstallation and operation went smoothly and we got some science data, so it was a successful trip! We can safely say it won't be the same without you.

. Dark night with thin cloud and decent seeing (1-2.5"). Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-005 (x4)
2012-2-GU-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH-017 (x2)
2012-2-RSA_OTH-015
2012-2-RSA_POL-001

Night Log 2012-11-10

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Barry, Marissa, Anthony, Charl

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


. Dark night with primarily good seeing (1-2"). Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-POL-004
2012-2-RSA_OTH-017 (x2)
2012-2-HET_OTH-001
2012-2-RSA_RU-UKSC-001 (MOS!)
2012-2-UC-003
2012-2-AMNH-003

Night Log 2012-11-09

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Marissa, Anthony, Barry

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


. Clear night with mostly good seeing (~1", up to 2+ at end), dark to gray.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-RSA_OTH-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH-017 (x3, BVIT!)
2012-2-HET_GU-001
2012-2-RSA_UKSC-001
2012-2-GU-002 (slotmode!)
2012-2-RU-007 (FP!)

SALT Science Meeting

The SALT Science meeting was held at SAAO on 6 November.   In addition to updates on the status of SALT, partners presented some of their science results.   Some of the highlights of the talks include searches for planets, investigation of unique objects, studies of planetary nebula, and next generation instrumentation.     The talks are available on the science wiki along with highlights from the work of the SALT Science Committee from the board meeting.

Night Log 2012-11-08

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Marissa, Ant, Barry, AVG, Keith

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


. First few hours were cloudy, during which we carried out engineering tests (timing on RSS slotmode and BVIT), thin cloud the rest of the night.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-HET_GU-001
2012-1-RSA_OTH-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH-017
2012-2-RSA_POL-001
2012-2-HET_OTH-001

Night Log 2012-11-07

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Barry, Marissa, various TechOps for a brief visit

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


. First light for the refurbished BVIT! Everything went well, and we even took some science data. Yee-haw.

. Cirrusy night with high wind and moderate to poor seeing (2"-3.5"+). Closed due to high humidity at ~01:45. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-2-GU-002
2012-2-RSA_POL-001
2012-2-RSA_OTH-017 (BVIT recommissioning)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-002

Night Log 2012-11-06

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Stephen, Barry, Anton, Pierre, Amanda, Marissa, Eben, Amanda G

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


- no science data tonight, clouded out.

- BVIT installation is complete, will start functional testing tomorrow. good luck to the commissioning team!

SALT MeerKAT collaboration meeting

On 5 November, the SALT-MeerKAT collaboration meeting was held at the Pineland offices of SA SKA.  The meeting looked at the interactions and potential collaborations between the large astronomy facilities available in South Africa including SALT, MeerKAT, and HESS.   It brought together members of the different communities to discuss current and future directions of the different projects.   Talks for the meeting and the programme for the meeting have been made available for those interested and weren't able to to attend.   The meeting had some interesting and exciting results and one of the main outcomes was the formation of a group to explore future capabilities at SAAO to support the large key MeerKAT science projects.   

Night Log 2012-11-05

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Barry, Anton. Keith and Eben early in the evening to help with closing up the NRS.

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


- clouded out for most of the night. opened up after 01:00. seeing again was very good, <= 1''. tried a few proposals but was not successful since the cloud returned shortly after opening.
- no data for tonight.

Night Log 2012-11-04

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: keith, barry, anton

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


- night started out very cloudy. most of the heavy clouds cleared by midnight after which we had moonlit cirrus till we closed. seeing was sub-arcsec for most of the night.

- obtained data for the following programs:
- 2012-2-UKSC-001
- 2012-2-HET_GU-001
- 2012-2-RSA_OTH-005
- 2012-2-DC-002
- 2012-2-RSA_UKSC-001
- 2012-2-IUCAA_RSA_OTH-001
- 2012-2-RSA_POL-001 x2

Night Log 2012-11-03

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: David B, Brian Chaboyer, David G, Keith for a quick CCAS fix

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


- cloudy for most of the night. the thick clouds cleared just before 02:00 when we opened to <1'' seeing. stack was not that great and we could not take full advantage of the seeing.

- obtained data for the follwing programs:
- 2012-2-UKSC-001
- 2012-2-HET_GU-001
- 2012-2-RSA_POL-001

Night Log 2012-11-02

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith, Pierre, David G.

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


- clouded out for more than the first half of the night. got on sky just before 02:00 . seeing was good for a change, sub-arcsecond for a while.

- obtained data for :
2012-2-POL-006 x2
2012-2-RSA_POL-001

A new SALT asteroid publication

A manuscript describing the physical and dynamical characterization of a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA; 190491 aka 2000 FJ10) has recently been accepted for publication in A&A. Photometric data were obtained at SALT, which were combined with photometric and spectroscopic data taken at other telescopes. An absolute magnitude of 21.54 +/- 0.1 was derived, equating to a diameter of 130 +/- 20 m – in the transition zone between a gravitationally-bound rubble pile and a monolithic body. The data suggest that this is an S-type asteroid, which means that it is unlikely to be primitive. Numerical simulations of the NEA's orbit were carried out in order to investigate its dynamical history and predict future locations. The large size of the NEA, combined with its slow rotation (>2 hours) and its orbit, make it a suitable candidate for a human mission. Within the next one hundred years, the optimal launch window was found to be 2047-2059.

Tolis Christou (Armagh Obs., UK) lead the effort. The work involved researchers from a range of international institutions, including A. Mickiewicz University in Poland, the South African AStronomical Observatory, the University of Arizona in the USA, and the University of Kent and Queen's University Belfast in the UK. A copy of the article is posted online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3486

Figure 1. Lightcurve of 190491 from SALTICAM in the r' filter (bottom) and an SDSS comparison star (top). There are no periodic variations during a 20 minute period with peak-to-peak amplitude > 0.05 mag. The slope in the linear fit is insignificant, and the scatter of the points is caused by residual effects of the flat fielding procedure. (Figure 2 from Christou, et al., Physical and dynamical characterisation of low ∆V NEA (190491) 2000 FJ10, A& A, accepted 2012.)

Night Log 2012-11-01

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Keith, Francois, David G

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


- dismal start to the semester. had some tech issues, then clouds which was followed by high humidity.
- no science data taken tonight.

Night Log 2012-10-31

SA: Paul
SO: Thea
Others: Chris, Charl, Francois + visitor

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


- slow start to the night, closed early due to rising humidity.
- accepted one proposal visit for 2012-1-UKSC-004

Night Log 2012-10-30

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl, paul k, dave g, thea

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


windy, cloudy, humid night. no observations performed, but several programming tasks completed. not the greatest run, weather-wise, but i completed my three main objectives for the week:
1) fix the pointing (now +/- 5")
2) revive the MASS turbulence profiler
3) complete initial automation of calibration system procedures

Night Log 2012-10-29

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: janus

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


high humidity, high wind, and ridge cloud all night. no observations. thoughts go out to our colleagues at AMNH and RU who are right in the path of hurricane sandy tonight. stay safe and dry!

SALT Status Update for October

================================================
Recent Papers from SALT
================================================

Apostolos Christou at Armagh Observatory in the UKSC along with Tomek
Kwiatkowski and Magda Butkiewicz from Adam Mickiewicz University from
Poland and Amanda Gulbis from SAAO/SALT (NRF) recently published a
paper on the physical and dynamical characterization of nearby Earth Asteroid 
NEA (190491) 2000 FJ10.  They used imaging observations from SALT
along with observations from other telescopes to determine the
characteristics of this asteroid.   Due to its characteristics, this
object may be a good candidate for future human space missions.
More details can be found here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3486

================================================
Science at the Board meeting
================================================

The SALT board meeting is quickly approaching (5-9 Nov)!  The first
two days of the meetings includes workshops on MeerKAT and SALT and
Science with SALT, and then followed by the regular board meeting.  We
will try to post as much as we can on the SALT website and blog, but
if you would like anything presented or to share anything with the
community, please send it along either to your board representative,
email it to sa@salt.ac.za, or post it on the SALT Science wiki:
https://sciencewiki.salt.ac.za/ (you can use your WM username and
password to log in).  We know there have been many great proposals
observed so far and it would be great to hear updates on how they are
going!

================================================
Phase II deadline
================================================

Just a quick reminder the Phase II deadline is Oct 31!  As soon as the
proposals are finalized and reviewed by your SA, they will go directly
into the queue!

================================================
Updates to the PIPT
================================================

If you want to copy blocks from an old proposal to your current
proposal, you should upgrade to version 2.8 of the PIPT, which lets
you do this in an easy manner. See the Phase 2 FAQ for details:
http://www.salt.ac.za/observing/proposing-for-salt-observations/phase-ii-frequently-asked-questions/


You should also consider upgrading if your block lengths exceed 90 %
of the maximum available track length.

However, submitting your proposal with version 2.71 of the PIPT is
still possible.


================================================
Slotmode imaging on RSS
================================================

Despite SALTICAM not being available, high speed imaging can still be
done with RSS.  Observers who proposed for SALTICAM slotmode
observations for next semester can switch their configurations to use
slotmode imaging with RSS.  This mode was successfully tested out in
September and imaging can be done either with a clear filter or with
any of the existing narrow band filters.


================================================
RSS Slotmode Timing
================================================

A series of experiments were carried out to investigate the absolute
and relative accuracy of timing for RSS slotmode. An LED was placed
into the lightpath and was triggered by an independent GPS. The header
times of the slotmode images were compared with the start time and
pulse interval from the GPS.  The results indicated that the relative
timing is good to within the measurable accuracy (half an exposure
time, which was on the order of hundredths of a second) and that the
absolute timing was late by seven exposure times.  Previous tests
using SALTICAM slotmode showed the same effect on the header times
were in fact the readout times rather than the exposure times,
effectively neglecting the time required to transfer through the
masked region.  A timing correction for slotmode data from both
instruments is available in the nightly build of PySALT.

================================================
Updates to PySALT
================================================

We are starting to prepare for the next major release of PySALT, but
the nightly builds now has much new functionality that will be useful
to test out!  This includes reduction tools for SALT multi-object
spectroscopy, fixes for the slotmode timing, new tools for basic CCD
reduction, and general code updates.  Please download and try out the
nightly build and let us know of any thoughts.  Nightly Build:
http://pysalt.salt.ac.za/versions/pysalt.nightly.tar.gz

Night Log 2012-10-28

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl

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


fairly smooth night with good weather and decent seeing. accepted blocks for the following programs:
2012-1-UW_OTH-002
2012-1-UKSC_OTH-001 x2
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-RSA-019 x2

observed new type Ia SN in NGC 1365 for 2012-1-RU-005, but didn't complete the block in time. data for 2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005 was impacted by quickly degrading mirror stack so block rejected. attempted block for 2012-1-UW_OTH-002 was aborted due to inability to ID target from provided finder charts.

Night Log 2012-10-27

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl, simon

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


bumpy night weather-wise with highly variable seeing that was awful at times, 4" or worse. worked on fixing the pointing during the first half of the night and made good progress. there was a constant offset in AZ that was nearly an arcminute. that has been fixed and the pointing is at spec at worst and usually better than 10". was able to acquire MOS field without manual offsets in one case. stars came up close enough to boxes for MOSpup to work.

accepted blocks for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001
2012-1-RSA-013

observed, but rejected, block for 2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005 because the seeing blew up terribly during the observation.

Night Log 2012-10-26

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl

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


snuck in one lonely block for 2012-1-GU-003 before humidity closed us up at 20:30. RIDGE CLOUD settled in by midnight and the rest of the night was lost in the fog. managed to finally resuscitate the MASS turbulence profiler instrument and update its software so the night was put to some good use.

Night Log 2012-10-25

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl

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


cirussy night that started off very windy, but once the wind died suddenly, the seeing was decent to good most of the night. under 1" for a while and only over 2" on a few occasions. relatively smooth sailing systems-wise with the only slowdowns due to cable wrap problem and mirror stacks that fell apart quickly due to changing conditions. five blocks accepted and another three observed, but rejected.

Night Log 2012-10-24

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: charl

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


frustrating night with only one block accepted. abysmal seeing during the first half gave way to steady seeing that was at least mediocre in the 2nd half. however, a slew of technical problems slowed things down considerably. first the primary mirror and then the RSS slitmask mechanism. several PCON lockups happened over the course of the night, sometimes at very inconvenent times.

on the bright side, my calsys script was fleshed out and tested further. it can now query RSS and configure calsys for flats automatically based on my recipe from the wiki. selecting a lamp will coordinate insertion of cal screen, selection of stage, and turning on of lamp into one command.

Night Log 2012-10-23

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Tim, Fred, Hitesh, Keith.

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


Clear night with a SE wind that forced us to close due to humidity at around midnight.

Science data for:

2012-1-RU-001 (P1)
2012-1-DC_RSA-001 (P0)
2012-1-UW_OTH-002 (P1)

Night Log 2012-10-22

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl. Hitesh at the beginning.

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


A beautiful afternoon that turned foggy waaay too early, at around 9:30pm.

Attempted an incomplete observation for 2012-1-RU-001 (P1)

Night Log 2012-10-21

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl.

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


Entire night lost to fog and rain.

Night Log 2012-10-20

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Buzani, Nic and Keith for a while.

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


Rainy and foggy night. No observations.

Night Log 2012-10-19

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl for a while.

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


Cold, high humidity night ended with some snow... in October!!! No data taken.

Night Log 2012-10-18

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl and Chris. Nicola for a brief visit.

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


Highly humid night with clouds coming and going and some rain from around 03:25.

Science data for:
2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (P3)
2012-1-RSA-016 (P3)

Night Log 2012-10-17

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl at the beginning, Chris briefly, Bruno

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


Cloudy and humid start, clearing and drying up at about midnight and closing up again at 2:30.

*Science data for 2012-1-RU-005 (ToO)

Night Log 2012-10-16

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Encarni, Siphelo, Amanda, Charl

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


All night lost to rain and clouds.

Night Log 2012-10-15

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Francois, Hitesh, David, Bruno

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


The whole night lost to clouds and high humidity.

Night Log 2012-10-14

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others: Hitesh, Francois, Bruno

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


String of good weather ended, night lost to clouds. Only one
block attempted, unsuccessfully.

Night Log 2012-10-13

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others:

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


Fourth photometric night in a row, dark and beautiful. Seeing
started out excellent at sub-arcsec but then blew up later.
Temperature went UP many degrees at end of night. Science for:

2012-1-RSA_OTH-010 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC-004 (2xLS)
2012-1-RU-005 (TOO)
2012-1-UW-004 (LS)
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-003 (TOO)
2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001 (LS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003 (LS)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)

Night Log 2012-10-12

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others:

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


And one more fully successful dark photometric night. Seeing was good
in the beginning, but got worse and variable later. Science for:

2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-032 (LSx2)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-028 (MOS)
2012-1-RU_RSA_OTH-002 (MOS)
2012-1-HET_OTH-001 (TOO)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003 (LS)
2012-1-RSA-016 (LS)

Night Log 2012-10-11

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others:

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


Dark photometric night with more variable seeing than previously with
otherwise identical wind pattern. Very productive nevertheless, science:

2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-010 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC_OTH-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-003 (NB)
2012-1-HET_OTH-001 (ToO)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-030 (LS)
2012-1-UKSC-003 (LS)
2012-1-UKSC-002 (LS)

Night Log 2012-10-10

SA: Petri
SO: Thea
Others:

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


Surprising night - wind from the dreaded SE but seeing was good
all night and humidty crept too high only at 4am. Got many
high-priority blocks done, especially on the MOS side:

2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-IUCAA-003 (2xMOS)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-028 (MOS)
2012-1-POL-010 (LS)
2012-1-RU-001 (FP)
2012-1-UKSC-009 (MOS)

Night Log 2012-10-09

SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Simon

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


- night lost to high humidity

Night Log 2012-10-08

SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others:

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


* short night. closed just before 23:00 due to rising humidity.
* obtained data for the following programs:
- 2012-1-GU-003
- 2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001

Night Log 2012-10-07

SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others:

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


- entire night lost to bad weather

Night Log 2012-10-06

SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others: Simon for a while

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


- cloudy night, had one clear patch and obtained data for:
- 2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001

Night Log 2012-10-05

SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others:

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


- frustrating night with a few technical issues. still getting the hang of the new observing setup. closed just before one due to cloud.

* obtained data for:
- 2012-1-RSA_OTH-030

Night Log 2012-10-04

SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others: Janus, Deneys, Anthony

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


- not a very productive night. had some technical issues during the night. closed right after 02:00 due to rising humidity.
- did some more BCAM testing and its looking good for now. have not tried very faint targets yet.

* obtained data for the following programs:
- 2012-1-GU-003
- 2012-1-RSA-014
- 2012-1-UNC-001

Night Log 2012-10-03

SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others:

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


- no observations tonight due to strong winds and high humidity.

Night Log 2012-10-02

SA: Paul
SO: Fred
Others: Software team: Janus, Anthony, Denyes

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


- BCAM was tested for slit viewing tonight. From the one observation we did, all looked good for a fairly bright target. Bright moon and cloudy conditions did not allow us to test the BCAM performance on fainter targets.
- The functionality to move the guide probe from BCAM has also been implemented and guide probe movements from PDET are spot on.
- Anthony implemented sound on PCON with R2D2 announcing the end of a procedure... cool...

* accepted observations for the following program:
- 2012-1-IUCAA_RSA_OTH-001

Night Log 2012-09-30

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl

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


Excellent seeing until midnight, but thin and thick cirrus all
night with the bright moon made things a bit challenging,
with some gaps in observing. Science for:

2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RSA-010 (x3)
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RU_UNC-001 (FP x2)
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-RSA-014
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005
2012-1-RU-008 (FP)

The next few nights will be engineering.

Night Log 2012-09-29

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl, Amanda

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


Full moon and a photometric night with good seeing. Engineering
time partially in an attempt to quantify new telescope throughput
values since the primary mirror is in the best condition EVER (thanks
Tech.Ops!). Bright time science for:

2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RSA-014
2012-1-IUCAA-002 (x2)
2012-1-UC_OTH-003 (MOS)
2012-1-RU_UNC-001 (FP)
2012-1-UW-006 (cals)

Night Log 2012-09-28

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl

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


All night lost to high humidity.

Night Log 2012-09-27

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: charl, keith, amanda and cherry picker crew

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


Snow and rain, never opened

Night Log 2012-09-26

SA: Petri
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl, Amanda visit

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


Good seeing, but high winds preventing good alignment, humidity shot up at 23.30 - data taken until then for:

2012-1-HET_OTH-001 (ToO)
2012-1-GU-003 (LS)
2012-1-RU_UNC-001 (FP)
2012-1-RSA-001 (LS)

Night Log 2012-09-25

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others: Petri, Siphelo, Charl

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


A smooth mostly clear night with good seeing.
Accepted observations for:

2012-1-UKSC_OTH-001 MOS
2012-1-UC_OTH-003 MOS
2012-1-RU_UNC-001 FPx2
2012-UNC_RSA_RU-002 FPx2
2012-1-RSA_OTH-032 longslit

Night Log 2012-09-24

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others: Charl

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


A frustrating night with lots of tech problems. A shame given the seeing was routinely less than 1.5 arcsec.

Took data for
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-RSA_OTH-021
2012-1-RSA-011
2012-1-RSA-003
2012-1-RSA-001
2012-1-RSA_OTH-019
2012-1-RSA_OTH-028

Night Log 2012-09-23

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others:

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


High humidity and, you guessed it, ...

http://cheezburger.com/5821708800

Did not open.

Night Log 2012-09-22

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others: Charl

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


Clear night with revolting seeing.
Data taken for
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-RSA_OTH-021 (ooooh pretty FP blobs)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-002
2012-1-RSA-001
2012-1-DC-001

International Observe the Moon Night from Sutherland

Click for a bigger version. For more info see: http://observethemoonnight.org
Image taken outside of SALT before a night of observations with a SONY HX200V camera.

Night Log 2012-09-21

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others:

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


"Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rain-storms in the spring or fall, which confined me to the house for the afternoon as well as the forenoon, soothed by their ceaseless roar and pelting; when an early twilight ushered in a long evening in which many thoughts had time to take root and unfold themselves.
...
Men frequently say to me, "I should think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer to folks, rainy and snowy days and nights especially." I am tempted to reply to such -- This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by SCAM or RSS? Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way?"

--Walden, H. D. Thoreau

(High humidity, heavy clouds and rain)

Night Log 2012-09-20

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others: Charl, Keith

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


Data taken for these programs:
2012-1-UKSC_OTH-001
2012-1-RSA_OTH-030
2012-1-RSA_OTH-023
and tried many others that were thwarted by warm SALTICAM...

Night Log 2012-09-19

SA: Brent
SO: Thea
Others: Charl

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


A clear relatively stable night with seeing mostly around 1.7". Difficult to schedule many programs due to many being equatorial with stricter track timings.

Took data for
2012-1-RSA_OTH-010
2012-1-POL-010
2012-1-RSA_OTH-030
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005

Night Log 2012-09-18

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: brent, thea

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


night mostly lost to wind, clouds, humidity, and light rain. conditions cleared after midnight and humidity dropped significantly after 0300. opened and tried to get some data, but the quality of the alignment was poor and changed very quickly. managed to observe one block for 2012-1-RSA-014 which is better than nothing. took a lot of FP engineering data to help characterize the erroneous header issue. also helped train brentski how to do FP.

Dome on the Range (abridged)

Oh, give me a dome where the Springbok roam
Where the Astronomers and the Humidity fight;
Where seldom is heard a demoralizing groan,
And the sky is not cloudy all night.

Chorus:
   A dome! A dome!
   Where the Astronomers and the Humidity fight,
   Where seldom is heard a demoralizing groan,
   And the sky is not cloudy all night.

Oh! give me a spectrum where the exquisite planetary nebulae
Send their light in strong emission lines,
Where soareth along the majestic Verreaux's eagle,
High above the Cape's prized vines

   Chorus

How often at night, when the heavens were hidden,
With the bane of the Ridge Cloud
Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,
Where the hell are our stars?

   Chorus

The air is so pure and the breezes so gale-force,
The zephyrs so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my dome here to range
Forever in azures so bright.

   Chorus

Night Log 2012-09-17

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: benoit, kelley, charl

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


thick high clouds in the first half of the night gave way to clear skies and high wind in the second half. humidity spiked during morning twilight as a harbinger of ridge cloud to come tomorrow night. temperature dropped almost 13 C over the course of the night. seeing was good at times, but high winds prevented an alignment good enough to take advantage of it. IQ was so dire at the end that CAL_SPST and a P4 were the only viable options. ultimately completed 5 blocks and rejected two others. fabry-perot was again shown to be compromised by software bugs.

Night Log 2012-09-16

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: benoit, claude, kelley, danielle, charl

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


frustrating and unproductive night with cirrus and thick haze and numerous technical issues. seeing was steady, if unspectacular. lost much of the first half to some weird PCON bugs that prevented us from successfully taking any fabry-perot data. lost another hour each to alignment issues and the cable wrap under the structure. managed to get some data towards the end, but the clouds steadily thickened as well.

Night Log 2012-09-15

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: claude, kelley, benoit, danielle, charl, thea & family

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


finally worked dusk to dawn. the southeaster and northeaster fought an epic battle early on and left heavy turbulence in their wake. seeing in excess of 5" at times and highly variable. the northeaster was eventually victorious and the seeing settled down to 1.5" or better later in the night. unfortunately, lost almost 3 hours of the good part of the night to primary mirror/SPS problems. observed 7 blocks with 5 accepted. also caught up with all outstanding CAL_SPST.

Night Log 2012-09-14

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: kelley, danielle, clause, benoit, charl, jonathan

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


snuck in three quick observations before humidity and ridge cloud had their way once again. in addition the seeing was as bad as i've ever seen with long stretches of 4-5" or worse.

on the bright side, i now have a working python interface to BCAM. w00t!

Night Log 2012-09-13

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: claude, benoit, danielle, kelley

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


another night largely lost to ridge cloud. attempted one block for 2012-1-RSA_OTH-010 before getting closed, but the seeing blew up in the middle of it so had to reject it.

Night Log 2012-09-12

SA: Tim
SO: Fred
Others: claude, kelley, danielle, benoit, charl

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


first 3/4 hour of the night lost to alignment issues, 1 3/4 hours of science, and then humidity and ridge cloud socked us in the rest of the night. observed a block each for 2012-1-RSA_OTH-003 (rejected because seeing blew up) and 2012-1-GU-003 (accepted).

Night Log 2012-09-11

SA: Amanda
SO: Thea
Others: Tim, Keith, Charl, Ockert

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


. Mostly dark night with decent seeing (~1.2-2").

. Data taken for the following programs:
ENG_RSS (slotmode timing tests)
2012-1-HET-003
2012-1-POL-009
2012-1-IUCAA-003 (x2)
2012-1-RSA-016
2012-1-RSA-018
2012-1-RU-001
2012-1-UKSC-001

Night Log 2012-09-10

SA: Amanda
SO: Siphelo
Others: Dave C.

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


. Mostly dark night with variable seeing (0.8"-3"), the middle part being stable at 1"-1.5".

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-RSA_UKSC_OTH-001 (first RSS slotmode imaging!)
2012-1-IUCAA-003 (x2)
2012-1-IUCAA-001
2012-1-UW-005
2012-1-RU-005 (rejected with only 2 of 4 setups; payload failure)
2012-1-RSA-001
2012-1-RSA-019

Night Log 2012-09-09

SA: Amanda
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


. Cloudy, stormy night -- unable to open.

. It is with great sadness that we are memorializing SALT Operator Patrick Matshaya. He will be remembered and missed. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends.

Night Log 2012-09-08

SA: Amanda
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


. Dark to gray night with good seeing (1.3"-1.8") and high wind. Closed a few hours early because of wind.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-POL-001 (x2)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003
2012-1-POL-009
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-IUCAA-003 (MOS)
2012-1-UW-005
2012-1-DC-001 (MOS)
2012-1-RSA-001

Night Log 2012-09-07

SA: Amanda
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


. Half dark, half gray, photometric night with great seeing (1-1.5").

. Data taken for the following programs - many long blocks tonight!
2012-1-POL-009
2012-1-IUCAA-001
2012-1-IUCAA-003 (MOS)
2012-1-UW-005
2012-1-DC-001 (aborted, couldn't get MOS aligned)
2012-1-UC_OTH-003 (MOS)
2012-1-RU_RSA_UKSC_OTH-001
2012-1-UKSC-002

Night Log 2012-09-06

SA: Amanda
SO: Siphelo
Others: Jonathan, Keith

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


. Dark to grey night with good seeing at start (mostly 1-1.5"); closed before midnight due to high humidity and cloud.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-RSA_UKSC_RU-001
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-002 (aborted because of focus loss and degrading conditions)
2012-1-RSA_OTH-011

Night Log 2012-09-05

SA: Amanda
SO: Siphelo
Others: Dave C.

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


. Dark to gray night with the majority of time lost due to high humidity.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-POL-001 (x2)
2012-1-POL-009 (terminated and rejected)

Night Log 2012-09-04

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke, amanda

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


clear, photometric night with mediocre to terrible seeing until a sudden wind shift after about 0200. then steady 1.0-1.3" from then until the end of the night. smooth night as well with the only technical issue being the payload falling over once. mirror alignments went much more smoothly than previous nights.

accepted 7 out of 9 blocks plus a couple targets that were aborted before any observations. also collected some FP engineering data along the way.

Night Log 2012-09-03

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke

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


cirrusy night with highly variable and sometimes awful seeing. humidity spiked after 1:00 and closed us up by 01:45 for the rest of the night. still managed 10 accepted blocks plus a couple more attempts.

Night Log 2012-09-02

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke

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


very stable night with good seeing start to end. with the exception of a few blips of 1.5-1.7" the seeing was 0.8-1.2" the entire time. mostly clear as well with some light cirrus passing through at times. mirror alignments worked much better tonight. thanks to hitesh for helping out over the phone at the beginning.

a total of 10 blocks accepted plus another couple rejected. could have done more if there were more programs with southern objects. almost everything in the 2nd half was clustered on the equator within 25 deg of the moon. not ideal. did acquire some pointing data which showed good repeatability all around the vis strip, but with a large offset from the RSS field center.

Night Log 2012-09-01

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke

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


clear, stable, bright night. battled a bit with mirror alignment and with the moon washing out a few targets, but accepted seven blocks from the following programs:
2011-3-UC-001
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-006 (x2)
2012-1-IUCAA_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005

attempted one for 2012-1-RU_UNC-001, but too much moon. also attempted 2012-1-RSA-005, but moon plus sick SCAM plus PA error made acquisition take way too long that the window was missed.

Night Log 2012-08-31

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke

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


entire night lost to cold front. high wind, rain, fog, and then ice. took a bunch of F-P engineering data to pass the time. wheee!

Night Log 2012-08-30

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke h

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


first half of the night was breezy with come and go cirrus. winds picked up in the 2nd half and closed us down eventually shortly after 0300. only successful science data was FT spectroscopy of V2301 Oph for DoD. attempted a couple of FP targets, but bright moon and poor IQ scuttled them. got full sets of FP calibration data for the entire H-alpha region.

mirror alignment was once again a struggle and sucked up significant time during both attempts tonight.

the timdimm is working now, but only the dimm portion. still need to sort out a computer to run the mass.

Night Log 2012-08-29

SA: Tim
SO: Thea
Others: luke h, jonathan

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


clear, bright, fairly smooth productive night. some struggles with mirror alignment and focus drifts/jumps, but otherwise mostly trouble-free. acquired data for the following programs:

2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-RSA-015
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RU_UNC-001 (several blocks torpedoed by focus drifts/jumps)
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-005

Night Log 2012-08-28

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others: Keith at the beginning. Tim (all night!), Luke. Lisa and Chris for a while. Brent, Christina and Rajeev for a quick visit around 12:30pm

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


Mostly clear but windy night with ~1.7-2.8" seeing.

Science data for:
2012-1-POL-001 (x3)
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RSA-010
2012-1-UNC-001 (x3)
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-006 (x2)

Night Log 2012-08-27

SA: Encarni
SO: Thea
Others:

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


Clear, stable night with low humdity and seeing 1.2"-2".

Science data for:

2012-POL-001 (x4)
2012-1-RSA-005
2012-1-RSA_OTH_UKSC-001
2012-1-POL-011
2012-1-RSA_OTH-011
2012-1-UKSC-006

Night Log 2012-08-26

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda and Paul at the beginning to help sort out the multiple problems. Jonathan over the phone.

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


Clear night with rollercoaster humidity at the beginning and 1.5" seeing

Science data for:
2012-1-HET_OTH-001
2012-1-POL-003
2012-1-RSA-009
2012-1-RSA-011
2012-1-UW_OTH-002
2012-1-UW-005
2012-1-RSA-019

Night Log 2012-08-25

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


Cold, rainy, windy night. Did not open.

Night Log 2012-08-24

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


Cloudy and windy night. No observations.

Night Log 2012-08-23

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda to fix interlock panel issue. Brent to cover for Encarni from around 00:30

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


Clear, photometric night with seeing ~1.5" ish.

Data for:
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-RSA_OTH-021
2012-1-IUCAA-002
2012-1-POL-007
2012-1-UW-004

Night Log 2012-08-22

SA: Encarni
SO: Siphelo
Others: Hitesh, Francois, Martin at the beginning

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


Clear, nearly photometric night with 2-3" seeing.

Data for:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-POL-007 x3
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-UW_RSA_OTH-001 x2
2012-1-POL-003
2012-1-RSA_OTH-013 x5
2012-1-RSA_OTH-022

Night Log 2012-08-21

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Encarni, Siphelo, Hitesh, Francois, Brent

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


. Dark, clear night with some cirrus at the start.

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-POL-007 (x2)
2012-1-DC_RSA-001
2012-1-POL-001
2012-1-UW_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-POL-010
2012-1-RSA_OTH-032
2012-1-RSA_OTH-013 (x6)
2012-1-RU-005
2012-1-RSA_OTH_022

Night Log 2012-08-20

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Charl

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


. Thick clouds and high humidity. No observations.

SALT Status Update for August 2012

=======================
Recent Science Results
=======================

SALT science results are starting to show up on the arXiv, and here
are some of the most recent:

In http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.2152, Dan Milisavljevic et al. monitor
the time evolution of SN 2011ei, one of the least luminous SNe IIb or
Ib observed to date.

In http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.4357, M. Sharina et al. report the
discovery of a new carbon star near the center of the low-metallicity
globular cluster NGC 6426.

In http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.1347, Brian van Soelen et al. use SALT
data to help model the properties of PSR B1259-63, a gamay-ray binary
system consiting of a 48 ms pulsar obiting a Be star.

=======================
SALTICAM UPDATE
=======================

SALTICAM is currently suffering from an array of maladies that almost
completely preclude it from doing any useful science.  It is still
useful as an acquisition camera, but even that is significantly
degraded.  Its filter magazine system is still unreliable and prone to
jamming.  Work is ongoing to design a long-term fix, but in the
meantime a single filter is pre-selected for a given night with no
further filter changes attempted unless absolutely necessary.  The
SALTICAM shutter is similarly unreliable and may fail completely at
any time.  The SALTICAM software is being updated to provide an
acquisition mode where the shutter is left open while exposures are
repeatedly taken.  This may result in streaking of bright sources
across the field during readouts, but this can be largely mitigated by
binning by 4x4 or more.  Being able to leave the shutter open during
acquisition and slit viewing will significantly extend the lifespan of
this and future shutters.  Lastly, some oil or other contaminant has
worked its way into the cryo-cooler system which prevents SALTICAM
from reaching its nominal operating temperature.  The temperature it
does manage to reach seems to vary with time and is often warm enough
that the thermal noise seriously impacts our ability to acquire faint
targets.

A decision has been made to move forward with plans to completely
re-plumb the SALTICAM cooling system and replace the coolant.
However, there may be significant lead time required to source the
necessary parts and materials.  In the meantime work is ongoing to
port some of SALTICAM's acquisition capabilities to the RSS camera
control software.  The most important bit is the ability to select
guide stars to position the RSS guide probe.  Work is also ongoing to
prepare our spare acquisition camera, called BCAM, so that it's ready
to go should SALTICAM fail completely.  SALTICAM will have to be
removed to perform the re-plumbing so BCAM will be needed to fill in
then as well.  It is hoped that fixes to the shutter and filter
mechanisms can be effected at the same time as the re-plumbing.

=======================
Semester 2012-2 Summary
=======================

A summary of the results of the recent proposal deadline have been
posted on the SALT Astronomy blog:
http://saltastro.blogspot.com/2012/08/2012-2-proposal-statistics.html

102 proposals were submitted with an average oversubscription rate of
1.9, but a full break down of the proposals are given on the blog
post.


=======================
Science WIKI
=======================

To provide a common area for the SALT community to share information
about SALT data and SALT science, we have set up the SALT science
wiki: https://sciencewiki.salt.ac.za/index.php/SALT_Wiki.

The science wiki is accessible with your WebManager login.  Please
feel free to contribute information to the Wiki and share your
experience with SALT.

=======================
SALT Sandbox
=======================

To support and provide a place for the addition of new tools and
scripts related to the processing of SALT data, we have started the
SALTSandbox repository on github:
https://github.com/saltastro/SALTsandbox.

In particular, this repository provides a place to share code that
others might find useful, but might not have a place yet in the PySALT
package.  So if you have developed some code that might be useful to
others, please fork the code and contribute to it!

=======================
PySALT Update
=======================

A new version of the PySALT software has been released.  There are no
major changes in this version, but it does include some critical bug
fixes required for the performance of different packages. New versions
of the software can be downloaded from http://pysalt.salt.ac.za/


=======================
PIPT Update
=======================

New versions have been released for the Salticam and RSS Simulator as
well as for the PIPT.

The new Simulator versions let you select the filter (U, B, V, R or I)
to use for normalizing a generated spectrum. In case of a
user-supplied spectrum you may choose whether to supply actual flux
values or to normalize the spectrum with one of the above filters. In
addition, you may save and load simulation setups.

When using the new version of the PIPT, you may attach saved
simulation setups to a phase 1 proposal. This not only facilitates
checking your proposal, but also allows you to reuse the setup in a
subsequent phase 2 proposal. The new PIPT version also lets you add
information about the status of previous proposals and to flag a
proposal as a priority 4 one.

While you may still submit proposals with the existing PIPT, you are
strongly encouraged to update your software and make use of the new
features.

Links to the new versions can be found at:
http://www.salt.ac.za/observing/proposing-for-salt-observations/observation-planning-tools/

Night Log 2012-08-19

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: charl

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


. Dark night, practially all lost to high humidity and clouds.

. Data taken just at the start of the night for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-POL-001

Night Log 2012-08-18

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Charl

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


. Dark, clear night with moderate seeing (~2").

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-RU-002
2012-1-RSA_OTH-032 (x2)
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-POL-009
2012-1-RSA_OTH-013
2012-1-UNC_RSA_RU-001
2012-1-RU-001

Night Log 2012-08-17

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Chris, Charl

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


. Dark night, with thin to thick cloud, and moderate seeing (~2").

. Data taken for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-RSA-014 (x2)
2012-1-POL-003
2012-1-RSA_OTH-011
2012-1-UW-004
2012-1-RU-005

Night Log 2012-08-16

SA: Amanda
SO: Patrick
Others: Charl

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


. Cloudy, cold, high-humidity night. No observations taken.

Night Log 2012-08-14

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Amanda

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


=> High wind speed, high humidity and heavy clouds finally.
No any observations tonight.

2012-2 Proposal Statistics

For the second semester of 2012, 102 proposals were submitted from the SALT partners for observations.    The first one submitted was by Daniel Holdsworth of Keele University and the last one submitted was by Mickael Coriat of University of Cape Town.  A total of 1413 hours were requested from 739 hours available to observe almost 900 different targets.   12% of the proposal request SALTICAM observations and 95% of the proposal request some RSS observations.    Over 78 different principle investigators submitted proposals with 260 co-investigators from 83 different institutions, including 8 different South African institutes.  

In these proposals, a wide range of different objects are targeted including  538 different galaxies, 244 stars, 60 planetary nebula, 8 clusters of galaxies, and 30 objects of unknown nature.

The proposals are currently under technical review by the SALT staff.   They will then move to the
telescope allocation committees at each partner for scientific review.   The allocations of times
should be announced around the 1st of October with the semester beginning on the 1st of Novemeber.  

Night Log 2012-08-13

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


=> Unstable night with strong wind and from moderate to bad seeing.
Were closed by strong wind.

=> Some data were taken for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-1-RSA-021
2012-1-RSA-014

=> Calibration through-slit images with QTH2 lamp were taken

Night Log 2012-08-12

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


=> High humidity and a lot of snow around. No observations tonight.

Night Log 2012-08-11

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


=> Snowfall. High wind speed. High humidity.
Now observations tonight.

Night Log 2012-08-10

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others:

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


=> Unstable night with strong wind and bad seeing. Were closed by strong wind
and heavy clouds came later.

=> Some data were taken for the following programs:
2012-1-DC_RSA_OTH-001
2012-1-RSA_UKSC-003
2012-1-RSA_OTH-003

Night Log 2012-08-09

SA: Alexei
SO: Siphelo
Others: Charl from the evening

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


=> Stable night with strong wind and from moderate to bad seeing.

=> Data were obtained for the following programs:
2012-1-RSA-014 (x2)
2012-1-GU-003
2012-1-RSA-018
2012-1-UNC-001 (x6)

Night Log 2012-08-08

SA: Alexei
SO: Patrick
Others: Charl, Eben and Keith for some time, David

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


=> High humidity from the evening. No observations tonight.