MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observer's Report for 2003 Oct 27

Observer(s): M. Bureau, P. Kamphuis
Institution(s): Columbia, Groningen

Instrument: Echelle, f/7.6 Direct Imaging

Worked for 6 hours (last half of the night)
Conditions were Non-Photometric most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from 18:00 until 00:00.
   Beg: Overcast, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing 1.2 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1.4 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

First half of the night was covered with thick high clouds. Those thinned by about the middle of the night and we started working, although the conditions were far from ideal, with thin (and not so thin!) clouds constantly covering the sky. To compensate, we had to double the exposure time for our targets, resulting in very low efficiency. We completed about 25% of what could be expected in clear weather.

The seeing however was fine for the half-night we used, varying from 1.2  to 1.4 . This is important for our program, imaging of nearby early-type galaxies from the Sauron Survey.

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Submitted on 2003 Oct 28 [6:44:55]