MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observer's Report for 2008 Sep 25

Observer(s): Atlee
Institution(s): OSU

Instrument: 4k Camera

Worked for 8 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 from 1800 until 2100.
   Beg: Overcast, Winds Moderate, distant lightning
   Mid: Seeing 1.7 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Clear, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

There was significant cloud cover, including lightning on the
horizon, during the first ~3 hours of the night.  Once I opened,
atmospheric conditions were moderately good.

I slewed to the target field (NGC 7791) in steps and attempted
to observe.  I was able to successfully focus the telescope, but
the focus did not hold for long.  The first time I thought it
might simply have been time to refocus since it had taken me a
while to align the target field on the CCD.  The problem recurred
within 5 minutes after I had refocued, however, and at that point
I gave up on the photometry and opted to perform a pointing
test.

I slewed between various bright stars over the sky and managed
to reliably complete 18 slews of various lengths.  The DEC
slewing appears to be quite reliable, and is usually correct
within ~30 .  The RA slewing is apparently the source of the
problem noted last night.  I found that, in general, a slew in
RA does not go far enough, and sending the telescope between
1-4 minutes of RA further in the direction it was going allowed
me to locate the target star.  This is, of course, made much
more difficult if the target is not extraordinarily bright.

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Submitted on 2008 Sep 26 [6:29:03]