MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2006 Jun 13

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

Instrument: echelle direct + 2 in FW

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

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds all night.
   Beg: Seeing 1 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Seeing 1 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1.0 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

Astrometry of cataclysmics and proper-motion objects, plus a few
random images.  

Seeing was decent but there was always high cloud, often quite 
heavy, esp. in the first half.  In the first hour or so I had a
very bad patch of asynchronous read errors -- I had to cycle the
power several times.  These were cleared after I hit  reset , but
I don't know if this was different from turning it off and on or
just by chance.  It was exceptionally warm tonight, so the CCD 
controller electronics were at 37+ Celsius, which conceivably
may have been a factor.  Lost the better part of an hour before
it got better.

A hose fixture failed yesterday, and Bob and Tony stayed up to 
jury rig a solution to seal it off so it didn't leak.  I kept
an eye on it all night, it didn't leak at all.

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Submitted on 2006 Jun 14 [5:23:48]