MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2007 May 05

Observer(s): Sebastien Lepine
Institution(s): AMNH

Instrument: Direct + Echelle

Worked for 8 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:
   Beg: Seeing 1.6 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Seeing 1.4 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1.4 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

The winds finally calmed down just after sunset, but
the first half of the night was marred by passing
bands of cirrus clouds, which made observing difficult
(and intermittent). After 1pm things cleared up for 
good and the night went nicely aftewards.

The seeing was however not optimal, possibly due to
a warm primary. It looks like the primary mirror
AC malfunctioned during the day, and the mirror was
not properly cooled down at twilight. It stayed a 
couple degrees-C above ambient for most the
night. Luckily, it was just good enough for the
astrometry.

Despite these problems, I managed to get parallax
sequences on 13 targets. Not a bad haul for a short
night.

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Submitted on 2007 May 6 [5:56:41]