MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2012 Jun 01

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

Instrument: Nellie + Buckeye FW direct

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

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Moderate, mediocre visibil.
   Mid: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Moderate, better vis.
   End: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Clear, Winds Light & Variable, better vis.

Observing Summary:

Murky at the start, but it grew better and better through the 
night.  Seeing consistently around 1.3-1.5 arcsec, not great
but quite usable.  Baboquivari is on fire and looked a bit like 
Mt. Doom in the middle of the night.  There was a good breeze
most of the night blowing the smoke well away from us, 
thankfully -- we never got any.

I had a minor glitch with my Owl focus script where inquiries
to xtcs for the focus value would occasionally time out; 
hopefully this won't be an issue when we get the new computers.
I used the rotator only once at the start of the night, and it
was fine. 

Kitt Peak, by the way, never opened, because of  dust in the
air , or at least that's what it said on the web.  It didn't
seem that dusty to me -- wind never got about about 25 mph, 
and there was no flying grit -- and Helena Uthas, a former
La Palma telescope operator, thought it was fine (they deal
with Sahara dust all the time).  I actually thought it was
a bit scandalous that KP never opened, assuming they didn't.
If I were an observer there, I would feel quite put out!

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Submitted on 2012 Jun 2 [5:43:49]