MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2004 Dec 02

Observer(s): Diane Paulson
Institution(s): Michigan

Instrument: 8k

Worked for 9 hours (all night)
Conditions were Non-Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds all night.
   Beg: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Calm
   Mid: Seeing 1.1 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Calm
   End: Seeing 1.1 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

The night started out partially cloudy. High cirrus were still 
present throughout the night. I began with focusing one of the 
guider cameras and not being able to get the second focused. 
As I was setting up, I noticed all of my short exposures had 2 
chips reaching saturation levels within 10-30 seconds. I spent 
much time testing this and realigning the telescope so that my 
objects wouldn't fall on these chips. I discovered later
that for long exposures, this saturation problem doesn't exist. 
Half way through the night, the telescope jumped positions and 
it took me a half hour to recover from this. The telescope 
slowly drifts to the east and south (primarily to the east). 
This has become more prominent in the wee hours of the night.

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Submitted on 2004 Dec 3 [2:56:56]