MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2001 Mar 17

Observer(s): Pinkney, J.
Institution(s): U. Michigan

Instrument: MODSPEC

Worked for 8.0 hours (most of the night)
Conditions were Non-Photometric most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from 10:30 until 12:00.
   Beg: Seeing 1.1 arcsec, Clear, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

After speaking with Bob on the phone about power issues,
I had problems again with the tilt meters.  I was able
to go 1hr west for a twilight flat, return to the zenith,
and then tried to find the nearest bright.  The RA and DEC
encoding seemed correct, but the tilt meters showed a large
offset even when the telescope appeared verticle.  I tried
powering off the TCS computer and its power supply.  This
worked the night before, but this time it didn't immediately
work. I fiddled with the order of powering off the TCS computer,
the Telescope controller panel, and the xtcs windows.  
Eventually, I had the thing straightened out.
	I also lost some time when I tried to observe an
object at Dec=-24 (HA~0).  The object appeared on the monitor
but I could not find the slit opening!  I tried various things
to see it, acquiring a bright star, viewing with the finder
in and a lamp on, and adjusting the slit width,  but the slit
opening didn't appear until I moved to a higher dec.  When it
was missing, I could see the diagonal line on the slit
and other features were in focus, but there was NO SIGN of
the opening.  (This is strange since it usually looks open
even when it is shut.)
	Overall, I lost about 1.5-2hrs to these problems
and the night was fairly productive.

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Submitted on 2001 Mar 18 [16:28:58]