MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2001 Dec 24

Observer(s): Ben Sugerman
Institution(s): Columbia

Instrument: MDM8K

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

Seeing and Weather:
   High Humidity all night.
   Beg: Seeing 1.4 arcsec, Clear, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Clear, Winds Moderate
   End: Clear, Winds Moderate

Observing Summary:

Trouble reports were submitted for each problem:

1. the dewar started a slow leak after filling it this evening.
2. around midnight, the 2nd board on the camera stopped responding, 
and hard resets on the power boxes did not fix it.

The following was a false trouble reprot:
3.  the DFM engineering TCS box power shut off, but only because I had
raised the platform in the dome.  I apologize for sending out a 
false alarm.

I shut down around 3AM.

The weather is pretty lousy.  The night started off very humid, and the
mirror A/C would not turn on because the computer thought the
dewpoint was warmer than the desired mirror temp.  The humidity
has been dropping but the seeing was never better than 1.4  or so, 
plus 20 MPH winds made guiding difficult.  



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Submitted on 2001 Dec 25 [12:45:26]