MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2007 Jul 18

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

Instrument: Modspec + Echelle CCD

Worked for 3 hours (last half of the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Rain from 8PM until midn..
   Beg: Overcast, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Overcast, Winds Moderate
   End: Seeing 1-5+ arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

Real monsoon weather, with two thunderstorms passing through,
one around dinnertime and one later in the night.  By 2 AM the
fireworks were over and it cleared and dried out well, so off 
I went.  Seeing was highly variable, at times halfway-decent, 
at other times becoming, well, atrocious, basically looking
like Van Gogh's Starry Night.

The shutter works, indeed!  But the first attempt at opening and
closing with CCDCOM didn't work, I had to cycle the power.  So
there's still something up, though not as severe as last night.

The most notable incidents of the night were due to my own 
sheer idiocy (in retrospect).  In the evening it was a bit
stuffy in the building, and it was pleasantly cool and breezy
after passage of the first storm, so I opened windows in the 
lounge and my bedroom, propped open the door to the dorm rooms,
and opened up the louvers in the dome and the doors through 
from the shop into the dome.  Big Mistake, it turned out.  The 
first indication of trouble came when I heard a rustling in the
shop, and upon investigation discovered a rat (!) in the 
wastebasket under the bench nearest the doors to the dome.  
I quickly closed the doors, lifted the wastebasket into the 
dome and tipped it on its side, and figured that was the end 
of it.  But then later in the night, during the second 
lightning shutdown, I retired to my room to read and possibly 
nap.  Imagine my surprise when a rat jumped on my bed!  I 
yelled at it, using swears (!) and it ran out the door.  I 
looked around for rat traps in both buildings, and finding 
none, fashioned a water trap out of a wastebasket, a bit of 
wire, and some raisins.  Didn't catch anything.  Later I found
a rat -- I think (hope!) the same one -- in the shop over by 
the vacuum pump.  It froze when it saw me - it had big ears, 
making it cuter than your basic subway rat, but still, it was 
a rat. I closed the shop doors and opened the exterior door;  
when I got back into the shop it was under the workbench by 
the door to the dome.  I turned out the lights and tried to 
scare it out the door with my flashlight.  A little while 
later it seemed not to be in evidence, so I think I may have 
managed to flush it out.  Even so, I'm gonna make sure my 
bedroom is clear before I try to go to sleep tonight, and 
staff should be aware that there might still be a rat somewhere.
Eeeeew!

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Submitted on 2007 Jul 19 [5:02:17]