MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2003 Sep 19

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

Instrument: Echelle

Worked for 9 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 .8 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   Mid: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing .8 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

The night started with problems.  I've used up my swearing for the night, so see the trouble report for details.

Shortly after sunset, there was a period with really good seeing, in the .8 arcsec range.  However, from about 10 to 1:30, the seeing was horrible, sometimes as bad as 1.6 arcsec.  When you're trying to do crowded field photometry, it doesn't help when the weather makes everything crowded.  At around 1:30, the air just started to settle down and image quality improved dramatically.

Basically, barring the incident at the start of the night, it was a standard night of observing and I managed to finish the first set of globular and open clusters that I'm observing.

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Submitted on 2003 Sep 20 [6:50:28]