MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2012 Jan 21

Observer(s): John Thorstensen
Institution(s): Dartmouth

Instrument: Modspec + Nellie

Worked for 6 hours (off and on through the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds from 7 PM until 11 PM.
   Beg: Seeing 3 arcsec, Overcast, Winds High
   Mid: Seeing 5? arcsec, Clear, Winds High
   End: Seeing 5? arcsec, Clear, Winds High

Observing Summary:

High winds, enough so I didn't even ride my bike to dinner, but 
apparently below the limit - Kitt Peak was open most of the night.

With the high winds came some consistently terrible seeing.  I
mean bad.  I mean  Battlefield Earth  bad.  Fortunately, I had
some extremely bright backup targets so that even the meager
fraction of the photons that made it through the slit 
communicated some marginally-useful information.

There was a hole at the start, followed by a band of opaque
cloud that lasted a few hours.   Interestingly, the satellite 
animation showed that the clouds in that particular band
were formed at the ridge of the mountains in Baja 
California and then blown NE over us.  This pattern pushed
south and dissipated as the night went on.  But the seeing 
remained atrocious.

Left a little early to get to the airport -- under the 
circumstances, no great loss. 

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Submitted on 2012 Jan 22 [4:21:06]