MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2008 Aug 30

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

Instrument: Modspec + Echelle CCD

Worked for 1.5 hours (first half of the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Very bad weather from 20:40 until dawn.
   Beg: Seeing 1 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Overcast, Winds Moderate
   End: Overcast, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

The night started out pretty nice -- some cloud around, distant
storms, but nothing that looked threatening.  I managed to get 
good observations on two targets that extended their ephemerides
and sharpened up their periods quite a bit -- then it abruptly
clouded over around 8:40.  Closed mirror cover and waited a
bit. Radar indicated rain coming -- I closed the dome just as
it started to sprinkle lightly, and a few minutes later it was
pouring.  Lightning started crackling, so I did a shutdown.
Brought things back up successfully later, but it never did 
clear after that.  In a very atypical pattern, a massive storm
had quickly moved straight north from Mexico -- usually, those
tend to stay put.  

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Submitted on 2008 Aug 31 [4:40:11]