Nightlog 2010-09-09

SA: David
SO: Fred, Zolisa & Siphelo (TimDIMM)
Others: Deon, Hitesh, Charl, Patrick all for a little awhile

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Summary
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Clear at sunset.

Initial hiccups: comms with VI stage & interferometer, OPT not loading
to schedule

Looked at OOF images & affect of changing phi & theta

Seeing never better than 2" (TimDIMM)& similar best focus values with
Apogee.

Incr. humidity, dew point & ridge cloud killed us.

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Nightlog 2010-09-08

SA: David
SO: Fred, Zolisa, Siphelo
Others: Patrick

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Summary
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- Cloudy at the start, clearing partially by midnight, cloudy again by ~3:30
- Seeing 2.0 - 2.5", so not really useful for IQ
- Images looked the same over all 9 VI positions
- Hint that images at bottom of Apogee slightly comatic, but not so much
at the top?

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Nightlog 2010-09-05

SA: Paul
SO: -
Others: -

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Summary
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- Did not open, cloudy=20

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Nightlog 2010-09-04

SA: Paul
SO: Patrick
Others: Zolisa, Siphelo, Hitesh

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Summary
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- We did some more out of focus tests to see if the get the same variation =
in
flux distribution over the VI stage.

- We found that that auto collimator has been very stable and we detected no
drift which could have been one of the explanations for the observed images=
.=20

- Hitesh came out to have a look at the images we were getting and agrees t=
hat
all is not right. We are speculating that its a mis-aligned VI stage. This
might have occurred when it was put back after the rho ring measurements. We
will only know for sure when the guys come up tomorrow night to check the VI
stage alignment.

- We closed early, we can't do any IQ with the current aberrations. =C2=A0=
=20

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Nightlog 2010-09-03

SA: Paul
SO: Patrick
Others: Zolisa, Siphelo

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Summary
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- Opened with thin cloud around, conditions was not photometric.=20

- Attempted to re-obtain the ghost images found previously from a low track,
but the missing two rows of mirrors made that a bit tricky.=20

- The seeing was too bad for IQ, we are still waiting to see if the elongat=
ed
images were due to atmospheric dispersion.=20

- The variation of the out of focus flux distribution across the VI stage is
still puzzling.=20

- The night was cut short due to cloud.=20

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Nightlog 2010-09-02

SA: Paul
SO: Patrick
Others: Zolisa, Siphelo, Deon, Francois, Charl, Chris

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Summary
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- We waited for the engineering team to align the VI stage and
put the Apogee camera back. They did a good job of centering the camera.

- The seeing was variable, fluctuating between 1'' and 4'' but staying around
2'' for most of the night.

- Seeing was not good enough for IQ testing, but we checked how far off centre
the X0;Y0 VI stage is. Found it to be within ~30'' from the centre of the focal
plane.

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Nightlog 2010-08-31

SA: Petri, Paul
SO: Patrick
Others: Zolisa, Siphelo, Rudi, Deon, Charl, Chris

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Summary
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- Lots of pointing tests during the night, see notes and comments below.

- Could not test IQ because of bad conditions.

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