MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2012 May 31

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

Instrument: Modspec + Templeton

Worked for 9 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+ arcsec, Smoke, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Seeing 1+ arcsec, Smoke, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Seeing 1+ arcsec, Smoke, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

Yesterday there was quite a bit of smoke from the big forest fire
in NM, but it was somewhat better by evening.  The moon and 
the extinction from the smoke made it impossible to do any
faint targets for the first half, so I did backups for a while. 
Then around midnight I ran a pointing test -- which generated a
few telescope glitches.  After the test it was much improved,
so I did my actual targets.  

On one occasion, I'm afraid, I found the rotator unresponsive
and had to power-cycle it.

After midnight, I noticed a forest fire a long way off due 
south.  It looked like it was at least 10 miles off, probably
a lot more, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

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Submitted on 2012 Jun 1 [5:21:37]