MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2003 Sep 18

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 .9 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   Mid: Seeing .8 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   End: Seeing .8 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

Other than a patch of bad seeing around 10:30, this was pretty much an ideal night of observing.  For some short exposures, the seeing was under .6 arcsec.  Longer exposures were generally in the .8 to .9 range.  During the  bad  patch early in the evening, the seeing jumped from around .9 arcsec to 1.3, and then after an hour or so, went back down.

One odd thing that I noticed was the focus changing during large slews.  That is, I would set the focus to some value, slew, and the value would change by up to 4 units.  It only happened 2 or 3 times though, so I just kept my eye on it.

Anyway, just more globular and open cluster observations.  Lots of photometry to do once I get home.

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Submitted on 2003 Sep 19 [6:27:57]