MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observer's Report for 2005 Apr 22

Observer(s): Halpern
Institution(s): Columbia

Instrument: Templeton Direct

Worked for 7.5 hours (most of the night)
Conditions were Non-Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from start until 10pm.
   Beg: Overcast, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

This was an engineering night following aluminization of the
1.3m primary.  The night started out overcast, but by 10pm it
was largely clear.  During the previous two days, considerable
effort had been taken to relieve any possible stresses on the
primary mirror, and to center the secondary on the optical axis.
As a result, it was relatively easy to collimate the primary
mirror, for which only small adjustments were necessary. 
This took a bit more than 1 hour.  Next, the pointing of the 
telescope was reestablished using the tilt meters and a bright 
star.

The remainder of the night was used to test various functions
of the telescope.  A few problems were encountered, as described
in the trouble report.  A bit more testing will be required
tomorrow night to see if these can be corrected.

A few science observations were possible toward the end of the
night.  Although the moon was full, some I-band images were
taken to try to identify high-energy sources in the
Galactic plane.

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Submitted on 2005 Apr 23 [5:55:58]