MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observer's Report for 2007 Jun 20

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

Instrument: templeton / direct

Worked for 8 hours (all night)
Conditions were Photometric most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   Mid: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   End: Seeing 1.6 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

Time series photometry of two cv's.  Brief issue with ccd, which 
I detail below; wasn't a real problem but could become one?  
Poem below the details - it's about the new MDM bike.


During the first ~ 15 minutes of work tonight it looked as though there    
was excess charge on the ccd.  During my first focus run at et 3
sec - data/tambora/obs13m/jk/07jun20/strange - bright pixels are scattered 
apparently randomly over the chip.  Take a look especially at 
ccd.007.fits.  As I was taking these images, the ccdcom failed to read out
twice: once after ccd.005, another after ccd.007.

Second focus run is in strange2/.  It shows the bright pixels as well,
but this time there were no readout failures.

Then took 30-second exposures on the field, for several hours.  
ccd.001-010 show these bright pixels (no readout failures), and 
all images after that look normal.  Did a second cv run after this -
also normal.

This wasn't a problem for me - just wanted to report it in case it's a 
harbinger of bad things to come ...



MDM's New Bike

Here's news that you guys all might like:
John Thorstensen's bought a new bike.
It's really high-tech
(I think I would wreck
It, so best if I stick to my hike.)

You gotta come see this design.
John says that it's top-of-the-line.
It glitters and sparks
And glows in the dark
And floats, swims, and flies - how divine!

It speeds up to .98c -
A staggering velocity.
It's light-weight and sleek
And it speaks fluent Greek.
Extraordinary, you'll agree.

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Submitted on 2007 Jun 21 [3:12:34]