MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observer's Report for 2003 Dec 15

Observer(s): eve armstrong
Institution(s): columbia

Instrument: templeton/direct

Worked for 13.5 hours (all night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   High Winds all night.
   Beg: Seeing 1 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds High
   Mid: Seeing 5 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds High
   End: Seeing 5 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds High

Observing Summary:

WIND!   lots of it.  and scattered thin clouds.  seeing started
out okay, then grew terrible and remained terrible all night.

The stars on the guider screen were circular blobs all night --
about 10  large.  I have never seen high winds cause this before.  
Maybe it's expected under these conditions, and I've just been 
lucky in the past.  Or maybe it's a sign of an actual problem ..
 so I thought I'd mention it.

(Time series photometry of cataclysmic variable stars.)

~~~~~~~~~

Tonight's data sets have me chagrined,
For their helpfulness Joe might rescind.
My plot has been toyed 
With, and nearly destroyed
By this cogent, cantankerous wind.

From inordinate heights it has blasted
And lasciviously has bombasted
With gusts and trite thrusts.
Yet I fervently trust
That such tumult this 'scope has outlasted.

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Submitted on 2003 Dec 16 [6:07:43]