MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2003 Sep 17

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

Instrument: Echelle

Worked for 9 hours (all night)
Conditions were Photometric most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Seeing 1.25 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing .9 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   End: Seeing .8 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

Pretty good night all in all.

In late afternoon and early evening, a fairly major thunderhead formed south of MDM, but luckily the winds at altitude were blowing the same way as the ground-level wind and it blew away to the east.  However, generally moist and turbulent air reduced observing quality at the start of the night.  At around 11, the humidity almost got high enough to shut the telescope, but after that the humidity dropped along with the wind resulting in some great observing conditions in the morning.

I'm also convinced that playing music into the microphone on the table helps the telescope produce good images.  Genre doesn't seem to be an important issue.

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Submitted on 2003 Sep 18 [6:20:17]