MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2002 Sep 12

Observer(s): Paust, Krusberg
Institution(s): Dartmouth

Instrument: 8K

Worked for 10 hours (all night)
Conditions were Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Seeing 1.2 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   Mid: Seeing 1.2 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Calm
   End: Seeing 1.2 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

Sky was photometric on and off throughout the night.  

The evening observing went beautifully - the sky was magnificent
and everything went smoothly.

Bad things happened around 1 am when the guider started beeping
sporadically, the Dec started drifting in strange directions, the
dome got utterly confused and spun around about a lap.  The control
paddle didn't want to work, neither did the dome, clearly.  We
restarted the guider PC and reset the parameters to work with 
the 8K, forced the dome to place, and went on observing.  However,
it wasn't until we were slewing the telescope to the zenith 
after finishing off the last touches on the morning sky flats that
it became clear:  the dec was off.  WAY off.  And it had been
ever since the problems began early in the night.  Half a night's
observations were all of a sudden worthless.

It's a sad story.


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

Submitted on 2002 Sep 13 [6:45:38]