MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2010 Oct 30

Observer(s): D. Milisavljevic
Institution(s): Dartmouth

Instrument: MKIII + Templeton

Worked for 10 hours (all night)
Conditions were Non-Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Clear, Winds Moderate
   End: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

My run of smooth sailing was abruptly ended tonight. :(

Start was fine. I opened to some light cirrus overhead, but
overall conditions were reasonable. Seeing okay first half of
the night and got good data.

Then, mid-evening, I went out to rotate to an east-west slit. As
described in the trouble report I determined later that 
in attempting to do so I snapped the wire connecting a USB
extender box (a brand new one freshly installed, of course) to
its power supply, making the guider Andor camera inaccessible.
Ouch! I handed guided for the rest of the night with reasonable
success, thanks in part to nice features of the Solis software.
Will have to talk with Bob when I get up about possible fixes I
can try, since it is the weekend. My observing program benefits
immensely from the guider cam.

Closed up slightly early because clouds rolled in and covered
my targets.

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Submitted on 2010 Oct 31 [5:03:18]