MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observer's Report for 2004 Feb 21

Observer(s): M. Bureau, M. Damen
Institution(s): Columbia University

Instrument: Direct imaging with Echelle

Worked for 7 hours (most of the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds all night.
   Beg: Seeing 1.8 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Calm
   Mid: Seeing 1.8 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1.4 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

Fairly homogenous thin cirrus with patchy thick cirrus were present for the first half of the night, we but observed nevertheless with increased exposure times (seeing 1.8 ). We also needed to close for about 2 hours due to high humidity. The second half saw mostly thin cirrus with much fewer thick clouds, so we again observed with increased exposure times (seeing 1.2  to 1.8 ).

From the middle of the night onward, we experienced tracking problems and could not observed in a certain area of the sky, as the telescope would frequently and suddenly move in the North-South direction by itself. We lost about 01:30 because of this (see the problem report).

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Submitted on 2004 Feb 22 [6:40:09]