MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2005 Dec 28

Observer(s): Halpern, Tyagi, Zimmerman
Institution(s): Columbia U.

Instrument: RETROCAM + CCDS

Worked for 10 hours (most of the night)
Conditions were Non-Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from 4:00 until end.
   Beg: Seeing 1 arcsec, Clear, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Seeing 1 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Moderate
   End: Patchy Clouds, Winds Moderate

Observing Summary:

The night started out photometric with decent seeing.
Around 4:00am it became cloudy and we had to stop.
The tracking was okay, although we never tested it
at an extreme hour angle.  There was one anomaly
when the telescope kept moving at the set speed
after a short set motion with the hand paddle.
The STOP button on xtcs window would not stop the
telescope.  However, turning off the tracking
momentarily did stop the motion.

A separate trouble report about ghost images in
RETROCAM was submitted.  The images are posted
on a web page

http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~jules/retrocam/

and on the white board in the cootrol room.

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Submitted on 2005 Dec 29 [6:36:25]