MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observing Report for 2009 Sep 05

Observer(s): Parks
Institution(s): OSU

Instrument: 4k

Worked for 4 hours (last half of the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds all night.
   Beg: Overcast, Winds Moderate, Thunderstorm
   Mid: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1.1 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

Tonight began with a thunderstorm rolling in right at sunset.  
About an hour after sunset, I decided (along with 2.3m, 4m and WIYN)
to perform lightning shutdown, as the storm was headed over us. 
After the storm passed it remained cloudy (particularly in our
area of interest) for about an hour.  After turning everything back 
on and opening up for the night, I was able to get about 3 to 4 hours
of observations in, but patchy clouds would cause extended breaks 
between some exposures. Wind was moderate during the storm but died
down after.  Seeing was surprisingly good tonight, getting down to 
near 1'' on some exposures, but hovering around 1.3''

------------------------------

Submitted on 2009 Sep 5 [5:04:53]