Friday, September 30, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-29

SA: Marissa
SO: Veronica
Others: Enrico

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Summary
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Cloudy night with good seeing. Almost 2 hours lost due to technical difficulties and 2 hours lost due to cloud. Made productive use of our on-sky time given the conditions.

Data taken for:

2015-1-MLT-004 P0 RSS (Deriving the mass of the black holes in the core of active galaxies @romeroencarni1 @sand_dave)
2016-1-MLT-010 P0 RSS (Follow up observations of transient sources)
2016-1-SCI-039 P1 RSS (Observing unusual binaries containing a massive blue star and a hydrogen burning white dwarf)
2016-1-SCI-060 P1 RSS (Connecting timescales of star formation and AGN activity in galaxies)
2016-1-SCI-051 P3 RSS (Monitoring the X-ray bright sgB[e] stars in Magellanic Clouds cc. @astro_Liz)
2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (x2) (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)
2016-1-MLT-003 P4 RSS (x2) (Spectroscopic observations of bright RR Lyrae variables)
2016-1-SCI-057 P4 SCAM (x2) (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)
2016-1-SCI-052 P4 RSS (Stars with close-in planets: are the planets losing mass? Do they stimulate stellar flares?)

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-28

SA: Marissa
SO: Veronica
Others: Enrico

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Summary
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A clear night with variable seeing. Lost two hours due to technical difficulties with the dome.

Data taken for:

2016-1-MLT-010 P0 RSS (x3) (Follow up observations of transient sources)
2016-1-SCI-022 P1 RSS (x2) (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2016-1-SCI-024 P2 HRS (Hunting for Ultra-Metal Poor stars: a quest to find the first generation of stars)
2016-1-SCI-029 P2 HRS (Probing Supernovae Chemical Yields with Magellanic Cloud B-type Stars)
2016-1-SCI-055 P3 SCAM (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)
2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)
2016-1-SCI-051 P3 RSS (Monitoring the X-ray bright sgB[e] stars in Magellanic Clouds cc. @astro_Liz)

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-27

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others: Marissa, Enrico

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Summary
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Night lost to high humidity. Sub-zero temperatures, got
some snow too. It was summer two days ago?
No science data taken.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-26

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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Whole night lost to high humidity and later clouds. No science.

Monday, September 26, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-25

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others: Jonathan for a while, Marissa on skype for BVIT

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Summary
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Another full night with good conditions. However, this time had
a few technical niggles as well, lost a bit more than an hour to
these. We also made use of the perfectly clear and
photometric conditions to spend time on engineering tests for
the system throughput. On top of that still had time for many
science observations, data taken for:

2016-1-SCI-022 P1,P2 RSS (x4) (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2016-1-MLT-008 P1 RSS (Redshift measurements of distant massive ACT galaxy clusters)
2016-1-SCI-061 P1 RSS (x2) (Study of ionized gas in galaxies where the centers are obscured by dust.)
2016-1-SCI-034 P1 RSS (Line profile variations in PKS 2135-14)

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-24

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others: Minna and group of friends

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Summary
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Another productive night, with super-excellent seeing in the
beginning and the last hours of the night, and clear and dry
throughout. Lost all of 3 mins for problems, so lots of science:

2016-1-SCI-011 P1 RSS (Dark energy and the expansion rate of the Universe from quasar monitoring.)
2016-1-SCI-060 P1 RSS (x2) (Connecting timescales of star formation and AGN activity in galaxies)
2016-1-SCI-022 P1 RSS (x6) (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2016-1-SCI-061 P1 RSS (Study of ionized gas in galaxies where the centers are obscured by dust.)
2016-1-MLT-008 P1 RSS (x2) (Redshift measurements of distant massive ACT galaxy clusters)
2016-1-SCI-044 P2 RSS (Search for symbiotic stars in a dwarf galaxy NGC6822.)
2016-1-SCI-024 P2 HRS (Hunting for Ultra-Metal Poor stars: a quest to find the first generation of stars)

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-23

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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The smoothest of sailing. Excellent seeing in stable and dry
and dark and clear conditions all night. No problems at all.. almost.
Science delivered for, hopefully, happy customers
who ordered observations on these interesting topics:

2016-1-SCI-018 P0 RSS (SALT spectroscopic follow-up of type Ia supernovae for investigations of the nature of dark energy)
2016-1-SCI-022 P1 RSS (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2016-1-SCI-011 P1 RSS (Dark energy and the expansion rate of the Universe from quasar monitoring.)
2016-1-SCI-044 P1 RSS (Search for symbiotic stars in a dwarf galaxy NGC6822.)
2016-1-SCI-061 P1 RSS (Study of ionized gas in galaxies where the centers are obscured by dust.)
2016-1-MLT-008 P1 RSS (x3) (Redshift measurements of distant massive ACT galaxy clusters)
2016-1-MLT-006 P2 HRS (Orbital period search of possible binary system)
2016-1-MLT-010 P2 RSS (Follow up observations of transient sources)

Friday, September 23, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-22

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others: Keith

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Summary
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Clear conditions in the beginning with mediocre seeing. Used it
for a couple of science targets and some on-sky engineering,
but humidity unfortunately forced us to close after 9.30pm already.

2016-1-SCI-049 P1 RSS (Confirmation and redshift determination of galaxy clusters)
2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-21

SA: Petri
SO: Veronica
Others:

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Summary
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Excellent seeing in clear conditions until midnight, when humidity
forced us to close. Did some engineering tests before that,
as well as science, and even pretty pictures, for:

2016-1-MLT-007 P0 RSS (Observations of supernovae, near and far.)
2016-1-SCI-058 P1 HRS (Testing the theoretical prediction about the spin of the most massive stars in a binary system.)
2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-20

SA: Rosalind
SO: Thea
Others: Petri. Lisa, Tana, Rejane at start of night, Stephan and students from Germany.

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Summary
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A night of good seeing with some clouds. Much smoother operations than last night with both instruments working well. :)

Data taken for:
2016-1-MLT-010 P0 RSS (Follow up observations of transient sources)
2016-1-SCI-039 P1 RSS (x2) (Observing unusual binaries containing a massive blue star and a hydrogen burning white dwarf)
2016-1-SCI-032 P1 HRS (x5) (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2016-1-SCI-049 P1 RSS (x2) (Confirmation and redshift determination of galaxy clusters)
2016-1-SCI-012 P2 RSS (Revealing evolved massive stars with Spitzer, WISE and SALT)
2015-2-MLT-006 P2 RSS (Characterising Strong Gravitational Lensing systems)
2016-1-SCI-022 P2 RSS (x2) (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2016-1-MLT-003 P4 RSS (Spectroscopic observations of bright RR Lyrae variables)

Calibrations:
Specphot standards for HRS (CAL_SPST)

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-19

SA: Rosalind
SO: Thea
Others: Lisa for a while.

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Summary
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A mostly clear night with stable seeing and some clouds. Quite a few technical niggles, and HRS unfortunately offline, but nevertheless productive with RSS. Kniazev targets really cleaning up tonight...now running out of options for bright moon!

Data taken for:

2016-1-SCI-049 P1 RSS (Confirmation and redshift determination of galaxy clusters)
2016-1-SCI-052 P1 RSS (Stars with close-in planets: are the planets losing mass? Do they stimulate stellar flares?)
2016-1-SCI-043 P2 RSS (x2) (Spectrophotometry of Magellanic symbiotic stars)
2016-1-SCI-051 P3 RSS (x2) (Monitoring the X-ray bright sgB[e] stars in Magellanic Clouds cc. @astro_Liz)
2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (x2) (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)
2016-1-MLT-003 P4 RSS (x14) (Spectroscopic observations of bright RR Lyrae variables)

Monday, September 19, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-18

SA: Rosalind
SO: Thea
Others: Lisa

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Summary
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A productive clear night with fairly good seeing, particularly over the second half of the night.

Data taken for:

2016-1-SCI-018 P0 RSS (SALT spectroscopic follow-up of type Ia supernovae for investigations of the nature of dark energy)
2016-1-SCI-032 P1 HRS (x7) (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2016-1-SCI-002 P3 HRS (x2) (High resolution spectroscopic abundance measurements of RGBs in NGC 6681, NGC 6584 and NGC 7099)
2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)
2016-1-MLT-003 P4 RSS (x5) (Spectroscopic observations of bright RR Lyrae variables)
2016-1-SCI-006 P4 HRS (Probing winds from the center of the Milky Way (@astrocrawford))
2016-1-SCI-052 P4 RSS (Stars with close-in planets: are the planets losing mass? Do they stimulate stellar flares?)

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-17

SA: Rosalind
SO: Thea
Others: Lisa

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Summary
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Most of the night was lost to bad weather, but we managed to fit in one observation before closing.

Data taken for:

2016-1-SCI-034 P1 RSS (Line profile variations in PKS 2135-14)

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-16

SA: Rosalind
SO: Thea
Others:

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Summary
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Entire night lost to bad weather.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-15

SA: Rosalind
SO: Thea
Others: Etienne, Lisa

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Summary
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The night started off clear and windy, with good seeing but rapidly rising humidity. The first two hours were spent on engineering adjustments to the autocollimator. Only two observations before closing at 22:30.

Data taken for:

2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)
2016-1-SCI-057 P4 SCAM (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-14

SA: Rosalind
SO: Thea
Others:

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Summary
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A clear night with good seeing (~1.1") but many technical issues throughout the night causing more than half of the night to be lost.

Data taken for:

2016-1-SCI-032 P1 HRS (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2016-1-SCI-043 P2 RSS (Spectrophotometry of Magellanic symbiotic stars)
2016-1-SCI-051 P3 RSS (x2) (Monitoring the X-ray bright sgB[e] stars in Magellanic Clouds cc. @astro_Liz)

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-13

SA: Rosalind
SO: Thea
Others: Ted, Graham Smith, Lisa. Jan, Lenka for a telescope tour at start of night.

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Summary
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Started out clear, but rising humidity forced us to close around midnight again. Some technical problems at the start of the night with very out of focus images that Tech Ops came up to sort out (thanks!).

Data taken for:

2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (x3) (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)
2016-1-MLT-003 P4 RSS (x3) (Spectroscopic observations of bright RR Lyrae variables)
2016-1-SCI-006 P4 HRS (Probing winds from the center of the Milky Way (@astrocrawford))

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-12

SA: Marissa
SO: Thea
Others: Ros, Enrico, Paul

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Summary
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Open for the first half of the night before humidity shut us down.

Data taken for:

2016-1-COM-007 P2 HRS (Commissionning data for HRS)
2016-1-SCI-022 P2 RSS (x2) (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)
2016-1-SCI-028 P3 RSS (The Formation of Compact Stellar Systems - The connection between NSCs, UCDs and cEs.)
2016-1-SCI-055 P3 SCAM (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)

Monday, September 12, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-11

SA: Marissa
SO: Thea
Others: Enrico

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Summary
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A beautiful photometric night with variable seeing. It was put to productive use, doing mostly very high priority science until high humidity forced us to close 2 hours before the end of the night. Used the closed dome time for weekly calibrations.

Data taken for:

2016-1-MLT-007 P0 RSS (Observations of supernovae, near and far.)
2016-1-MLT-010 P0 RSS (x2) (Follow up observations of transient sources)
2016-1-SCI-002 P1 HRS (x2) (High resolution spectroscopic abundance measurements of RGBs in NGC 6681, NGC 6584 and NGC 7099)
2016-1-SCI-032 P1 HRS (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2016-1-SCI-022 P3 RSS (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2016-1-MLT-003 P4 RSS (Spectroscopic observations of bright RR Lyrae variables)
2016-1-SCI-044 P4 RSS (Search for symbiotic stars in a dwarf galaxy NGC6822.)

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-10

SA: Marissa
SO: Thea
Others: Paul & Jono (for slitmask), Enrico

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Summary
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Another night of high humidity and a very small window of opportunity to do science.

Data taken for:

2016-1-SCI-002 P2 HRS (High resolution spectroscopic abundance measurements of RGBs in NGC 6681, NGC 6584 and NGC 7099)

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-09

SA: Marissa
SO: Thea
Others: Keith, Jono, Paul, Timmy (all working on PFIS), Enrico

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High humidity and technical difficulties claimed this night. We did make the most of the small amount of on-sky time with the instrument we had available.

Data taken for:

2016-1-SCI-049 P3 SCAM (Confirmation and redshift determination of galaxy clusters)
2016-1-SCI-057 P4 SCAM (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)

Friday, September 9, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-08

SA: Marissa
SO: Thea
Others: Enrico, Kumiko, Jono

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Summary
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Closed most of the night due to high humidity and clouds. More closed dome tests and calibrations taken.

Data taken for:

2016-1-MLT-001 P3 RSS (Kinematics of Bulge Miras)
2016-1-MLT-003 P4 RSS (x2) (Spectroscopic observations of bright RR Lyrae variables)

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-07

SA: Marissa
SO: Thea
Others: Ant (at start), Enrico

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Back to regular science operations with a few technical difficulties costing us ~3 hours. Otherwise a productive night with fair seeing and thin clouds.

Data taken for:

2016-1-MLT-010 P0 RSS (Follow up observations of transient sources)
2016-1-MLT-007 P0 RSS (Observations of supernovae, near and far.)
2016-1-DDT-004 P1 RSS (A possible 15-minute binary towards the Galactic Centre.)
2016-1-SCI-039 P1 RSS (Observing unusual binaries containing a massive blue star and a hydrogen burning white dwarf)
2016-1-SCI-034 P1 RSS (Line profile variations in PKS 2135-14)
2016-1-SCI-061 P2 RSS (Study of ionized gas in galaxies where the centers are obscured by dust.)
2015-2-MLT-006 P3 RSS (x2) (Characterising Strong Gravitational Lensing systems)
2016-1-SCI-057 P4 SCAM (Studying the long-term behavior of classical novae after their eruptions)

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-06

SA: Marissa
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Ant, Deneys

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First science observations were done after the maintenance period. Several further on-sky image quality tests were also completed. So we declare SALT science ready!

Data taken for:

2016-1-MLT-010 P0 RSS (x2) (Follow up observations of transient sources)
2016-1-COM-007 P2 HRS (x2) (Commissionning data for HRS)

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-05

SA: Marissa
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Deneys

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Closed all night due to high humidity and dark clouds, allowing us to complete most of the outstanding closed dome tests required after the maintenance month.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-04

SA: Marissa
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Deneys

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Open all night with steady seeing but cloudy. Got the opportunity to verify that the image quality after the service period is good. Many on-sky tests completed successfully.

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-03

SA: Marissa
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Deneys, Komiko visiting

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We got 2 hours on-sky before high humidity forced us to close. Continued with closed-dome tests thereafter.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-02

SA: Marissa
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Deneys, Thabelo (first hour)

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High humidity kept us off sky, doing further functionality testing with the dome closed.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Night Log 2016-09-01

SA: Marissa
SO: Fred
Others: Petri, Ant & Deneys. Dave to fix SCAM.

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High humidity cut our evening short very early on, but we could continue with our many closed dome tests that are necessary to verify our instruments and telescope are science ready.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Night Log 2016-08-31

SA: Marissa
SO: Fred
Others: Tech Ops (Chris, Eben, Keith, Thabelo, Paul, Jono, Johan), Petri, Ant & Deneys, Lisa, Ockert

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Back on sky after a month of maintenance activities. The night was devoted to testing the functionality of the telescope and it's main instruments. Good progress was made and the first-light images were extremely rewarding.