MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observer's Report for 2008 Feb 21

Observer(s): J. Thorstensen 
Institution(s): Dartmouth 

Instrument: echelle CCD + 4in FW

Worked for 9 hours (most of the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from 2 AM  until end.
   Beg: Seeing 0.9 arcsec, Clear, Winds Moderate, nearly photometric
   Mid: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable, a few high clouds
   End: Seeing N/A arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Moderate, unusable with moon

Observing Summary:

Tonight through Sunday are assigned to Mike Shara (AMNH,
through Columbia) and would have been taken by Sebastien 
Lepine; it was inconvenient for him to observe at this time,
and since we're pooling our parallax targets I offered to 
do the observing.

After a very unpromising afternoon, the evening proved to be 
almost photometric with mostly good seeing.  Conditions stayed
good (though not photometric) until about 2 AM, when the cirrus
went from mostly inconsequential to pretty substantial.  Kept 
observing through gaps until after 3, when the strongly moonlit
cloud became too much; reopened for twilight cloudflats.  

No troubles; telescope pointing was somewhat off at the start, 
and focus about 100 units too high, but those were easily 
remedied. Dome inaccuracy was about the same as last month.

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Submitted on 2008 Feb 22 [6:59:16]