MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observer's Report for 2001 Oct 31

Observer(s): Molly Hammell
Institution(s): Dartmouth

Instrument: ONIS

Worked for 6 hours (first half of the night)
Bad weather most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   High Humidity from 10pm until dawn.
   Beg: Seeing 1.2 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   Mid: Fog/Low Clouds, Winds Calm, Humidity at 90%
   End: Overcast, Winds Calm, Humidity at 86%

Observing Summary:

Guiding system having problems.  Stars kept drifting Westward in the box,
 and would eventually fall out of the box altogether.  This would happen over a period
 of about 3-4 minutes.  This began happening at about 6:06 UT, just after I'd moved the telescope
 from the 20 hour field (which was setting) to the 00 hour field.  

Also, the telescope looked too close to the pier when I was finishing on the 20 hour field--I think
it should have  been at a point where it warned me about nearing the western limit or at least have registered this
on the telescope altitude picture (the asterisk indicating altitude was still near the middle of the field when it
 should have been at the bottom).

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Submitted on 2001 Nov 1 [4:54:14]