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

Observer(s): R. Mark Wagner
Institution(s): OSU/LBTO

Instrument: Modspec

Worked for 10.5 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 3-4 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing 4-8 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 3-4 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

Good night.  The seeing was very poor.  It was typically worse than
2-3 arcsec.  It correlates with the wind out of the NE all night.
Had problems at the start with a stuck shutter in Modspec.  Called
Bob and we ended up resetting the CCD power supply which fixed the
problem.  The guider struggled to guide properly all night but this
might be due to the poor seeing.  After using the spec pcguider 
parameters it worked much more reliably.  While not a problem,
the acquisition TV camera could be better aligned with respect to
the telescope optical axis.  When the star is centered on the detector
the star is off at the left edge of the slit as seen on the guider tv.
In spite of the seeing it was a good night and it felt good to
be back observing at MDM after a five  year absence.

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Submitted on 2008 Oct 14 [6:33:33]