MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2005 Mar 17

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

Instrument: Echelle direct + 2in FW

Worked for 4 hours (off and on through the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds all night.
   Beg: Overcast, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Moderate
   End: Seeing 1 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Moderate

Observing Summary:

Plentiful high cloud, heavy at times.  Managed to get some
useful data in first half through  sucker holes  - didn't need
long exposures.  There was a three-hour usable spell between
1:30 and 4:30 MST, the seeing became surprisingly good at times.
Given how bad the forecast was I was rather amazed to get any 
data at all.  RH is quite low, all the atmospheric action is 
very high up (for now).

No problems with telescope.   centermdm.py  has proven to be
a very helpful tool -- it allows you to center up a field to 
1-2 arcsec in about 1 minute, without even looking at the image.
It fails maybe 10 percent of the time.

This direct run has been used mostly for parallax observations
of CVs and related objects, and of high-proper motion stars 
turned up by the Lepine-Shara survey at AMNH.  

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Submitted on 2005 Mar 18 [5:12:27]