MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2004 Jan 15

Observer(s): Thorstensen
Institution(s): Dartmouth

Instrument: modspec + echelle CCD

Worked for 13 hours (all night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Calm
   Mid: Seeing 1. arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Calm
   End: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

A grim-looking afternoon metamorphosed into a very good night,
with high clouds growing thinner until it was no-kidding
photometric by dawn.  No problems.

I noticed one little normal phenomenon which was interesting. 
After grinding an object into the dirt at 6h west, I went for
another object near the zenith and as I set up I noticed the 
star images were slightly triangular -- on checking the airbag
computer I found the hard points all around 70 lb and the bags
all asking for MORE.  It took a couple minutes for the bags to
come back to equilibrium, but they were fine once they did.

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Submitted on 2004 Jan 16 [7:16:04]