MDM Observatory 1.3m Telescope Observing Report for 2012 Sep 13

Observer(s): Colon
Institution(s): UH

Instrument: 4K

Worked for 5 hours (first half of the night)
Conditions were Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   High Humidity from 01:00 until .
   Beg: Clear, Winds Calm
   Mid: Clear, Winds Calm
   End: Clear, Winds Calm, Humid

Observing Summary:

The weather looked good at the beginning of the night.

The main shutter dripped a bit as it was opening but all the water seemed to miss the telescope.

I'm guessing that because the telescope had not been used or moved since September 3, when I took a 10 second sky flat I saw a significant condensation pattern in the center of the image.
I took a 15 minute exposure to vent the CCD.  This seemed to remove some, but not all, of the condensation, and a condensation ring plagued my images for the rest of night.  Perhaps I should have vented the CCD during the day...

As happened previously after a cold start, I had to correct for a 13' offset in the E/W tilt again.

There was a problem with the guide probe.  The guide probe would not move to the location of the guide star I selected in the JSkyCalc gui.  

Prospero appeared frozen at one point, showing that it was still integrating even after the image had been read out and saved.  To fix this I closed the Prospero terminal and restarted it.

I finally started continuous observations of my target at 10:00pm.  The humidity creeped up to above the limit around 1:00am, so I closed the dome at that point.  

I called it a night at 2:00am since the humidity hadn't gone down and since I am driving down the mountain in the morning.

I also submitted a trouble report in regards to some of the issues stated above.

Finally, please note that Eric Gaidos will not be arriving until late Friday (September 14) so we need the dewar to be filled in the afternoon before his arrival.

Also, there is still a dead mouse in the trap underneath the desk in the control room.

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Submitted on 2012 Sep 14 [2:09:51]