Night Log 2015-12-12

SA: Encarni
SO: Veronica
Others: Simon W.

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Too humid tonight - could not open. Took some close dome calibrations and ran a few engineering tests instead.

Night Log 2015-12-11

SA: Encarni
SO: Veronica
Others: Ana, Liam, Simon W. and Steve. Timmy and Hitesh for the alignment troubles.

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Dark night with very variable seeing (from sub-arcsecond to silly) and thin cloud. Technical problems at the beginning of the night with the mirror alignment system and high relative humidity at the end of the night cut our short summer night a bit shorter. Obtained science data for:

2015-2-MLT-004 P1 RSS (Unraveling ring galaxies)
2015-2-SCI-019 P2 RSS (x2) (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae )
2015-2-SCI-038 P2 HRS (Study of evolution in outflows from outburst)

Night Log 2015-12-10

SA: Encarni
SO: Veronica
Others: Ana, Liam, Simon W. Timmy and Thabelo to help with a wayward mirror segment.

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Another dark, clear night with sub-arcsecond seeing - we could get used to this! :)

We had a slow start due to a technical problem but the rest of the night was pretty much smooth sailing. We took our first block for RSS polarimetry science verification and science data for:

2015-2-SCI-061 P0 RSS (x2) (SALT follow-up of type Ia supernovae to study their spectral properties at targeted redshifts)
2015-2-MLT-006 P1 RSS (Characterising Strong Gravitational Lensing systems)
2015-2-SCI-026 P1 RSS (Probing the time variability of QSO absorption line)
2015-2-SCI-033 P1 SCAM (Observations of Dwarf Novae in the Large Magellanic Cloud)
2015-2-MLT-002 P2 RSS (Study of the evolution of lenticular galaxies.)
2015-2-SCI-041 P2 RSS (Spectroscopic classification of candidate magnetic cataclysmic variables in the CRTS)

Night Log 2015-12-09

SA: Encarni
SO: Veronica
Others: Ana, Liam, Stephen and Simon W. Thabelo for a quick hello. :)

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Dark, clear night with decent seeing - even sub-arcsecond at times. No technical problems. Science data for:

2015-2-SCI-061 P0 RSS (x2) (SALT follow-up of type Ia supernovae to study their spectral properties at targeted redshifts)
2015-2-MLT-006 P1 RSS (Characterising Strong Gravitational Lensing systems)
2015-2-SCI-026 P1 RSS (Probing the time variability of QSO absorption line)
2015-2-SCI-033 P1 SCAM (Observations of Dwarf Novae in the Large Magellanic Cloud)
2015-2-MLT-002 P2 RSS (Study of the evolution of lenticular galaxies.)
2015-2-SCI-041 P2 RSS (Spectroscopic classification of candidate magnetic cataclysmic variables in the CRTS)

Night Log 2015-12-08

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Paul, Encarni, Christian, Veronica, Simon W.

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Another excellent and productive night, great seeing and clear all along.
Lost a mere 10 mins for a minor problem, otherwise was just chugging
through the night taking data for:

2015-2-SCI-045 P1 HRS (Radial velocity study of gamma-ray binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856 )
2015-2-MLT-003 P1 RSS (x2) (Redshift measurements of distant massive ACT galaxy clusters)
2015-2-SCI-035 P1 RSS (Identifying new ultracompact binary star systems through their spectral characteristics)
2015-2-MLT-006 P1 RSS (Characterising Strong Gravitational Lensing systems)
2015-2-SCI-060 P1 RSS (Study of OVI emissions as a function of optical brightness state in two SSS.)
2015-2-SCI-030 P2 RSS (Searching for high redshift quasars for the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS))
2015-2-MLT-002 P2 RSS (Study of the evolution of lenticular galaxies.)

Night Log 2015-12-07

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Paul, Simon F., Simon W., Sami Sillanpaa

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The night started out very cloudy, we got going around 10.30pm, and even
then only with bright stars. But it then cleared up after midnight, and the
seeing was good all along. Minimal technical downtime. Science for:

2015-2-SCI-017 P1 SCAM (Dark energy and the expansion rate of the Universe from quasar monitoring.)
2015-2-SCI-018 P1 HRS (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2015-2-SCI-046 P2 RSS (A spectral study on low-mass T Tauri stars in the high mass star forming regions RCW 34 and NGC 2626)
2015-2-SCI-019 P2 RSS (x2) (Searching for binaries in unusual central stars of planetary nebulae )
2015-2-SCI-022 P3 RSS (Spectroscopy of early-type barred disk galaxies to investigate an ansae phenomena.)
2015-2-SCI-007 P3 RSS (x2) (Spectroscopic classification of pulsating stars. )

Night Log 2015-12-06

SA: Petri
SO: Fred
Others: Paul, Simon W.

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And another great night. Clear, dark, mostly good seeing, humidity gave
a scare by rising to closing limit at 2am, but then dropped back. No time
lost whatsoever. Engineering time spent on polarimetry again, and many
science blocks done:

2015-1-COM-002 P0 RSS (Polarimetry test proposal)
2015-2-SCI-045 P1 HRS (Radial velocity study of gamma-ray binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856 )
2015-2-SCI-018 P1 HRS (x2) (Evolved binaries in the Magellanic Clouds)
2015-2-SCI-052 P1 RSS (x2) (Detecting star forming galaxies in two distant, massive galaxy clusters.)
2015-2-MLT-003 P1 RSS (Redshift measurements of distant massive ACT galaxy clusters)
2015-2-SCI-033 P1 SCAM (Observations of Dwarf Novae in the Large Magellanic Cloud)