MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2007 Jul 13

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

Instrument: Modspec + echelle CCD 

Worked for 5 hours (first half of the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from 1 AM until end.
   Beg: Seeing 2-5 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing 1 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Overcast, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

First half was remarkably good for monsoon -- some cirrus kicked 
up by storms far to the east, but mostly clear.  There was some 
amazingly bad seeing from time to time, but it was usable for 
spectroscopy of somewhat brighter targets, especially since 
it is the middle of the dark run.  Between midnight and 1 AM
the cirrus got to be thicker and more pervasive, and the night
became unusable.  No trouble with the equipment, save for the
coffee maker -- I somehow set it up so that the coffee basket
drain didn't open, and it made quite a mess.  Cleaned it up,
and the coffee maker worked on the second attempt. 

On another topic:
I came up today and saw no evidence of smoke anywhere -- the
fire appears to be practically out.  One can see the dark 
orange smears of fire retardent a few miles to the south, and
some of the hills look to be burnt over.  There's still some
fire crew activity at the top of the mountain.  They did a 
great deal of firebreak work, esp. around the 1.3m -- one
can now stand on the road to the 1.3m and look right off
into the valley to the SW.  

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Submitted on 2007 Jul 14 [3:03:42]