MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2009 Jan 11

Observer(s): Julie Skinner
Institution(s): Dartmouth College

Instrument: Echelle

Worked for 10 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:
   High Winds from 21:00 until 00:00.
   Beg: Seeing >2 arcsec, Clear, Winds Above Limit, dusty due to wind
   Mid: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Clear, Winds Moderate
   End: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Clear, Winds Moderate

Observing Summary:

Around 21:00 MST, I closed because winds were gusting over 40 mph and there was a lot of dust in the air.
I reopened around 11:30 when things had died down a little.

There were 2 small problems that cost little to no time:
1) The telescope stopped tracking briefly.  Luckily, I noticed very quickly that the TCS monitor was giving a RA/DEC encoder error.
I fixed this by turning the tracking off and then back on.

2) The dome kind of freaked out at one point.  I was on an object, but the dome would not put itself less than 4 degrees error to the appropriate azimuth.
It kept trying to correct itself, though.  This fixed itself when I went to the next object and the dome was fine the rest of the night.

So.  No major problems.  The skunk smell is also very slowly fading away.

------------------------------

Submitted on 2009 Jan 12 [7:31:27]