MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2008 Feb 13

Observer(s): Statler, Riethmiller, Cotto-Figueroa
Institution(s): Ohio Univ.

Instrument: Direct/Echelle

Worked for 10.5 hours (most of the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Seeing 1.8 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Moderate
   Mid: Seeing 1.1 arcsec, Clear, Winds Moderate
   End: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Moderate

Observing Summary:

Continuing our program to obtain lightcurves of small near-Earth
asteroids. Opened at sunset despite some clouds, and we were able
to take decent twilight flats, set pointing, and focus. However
clouds kept us from starting on first science target for an hour.
Observed two NEAs with no problems until about 2:50 AM, when the
autoguider stopped functioning. We traced this to a TCS freezeup,
and restarted the TCS program. This cured the freezeup but we had
to reacquire pointing. We continued on two more targets until
twilight. We had some unexpected drifting while taking flats,
detailed in the trouble report.

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Submitted on 2008 Feb 14 [7:11:57]