MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2013 Sep 02

Observer(s): Price-Whelan, Eracleous, Runnoe
Institution(s): Columbia U.

Instrument: Modspec

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

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Clear, Winds Light & Variable
   Mid: Patchy Clouds, Winds Light & Variable
   End: Clear, Winds Light & Variable

Observing Summary:

When running flats, every ~4 frames or so the CCD would start 
reading out blank images (all values = 512). Restarting OWL did 
the trick for the first few times, but then I had to power cycle
 the CCD power box (Number 2). After power cycle, I started bias 
frames. First few bias frames had vertical striping (~10 1-pixel 
bright columns) but these went away after a few frames. Same 
512 / blank CCD problem happened once more during bias frames, 
but then after resetting OWL things worked for the rest of the 
night. Midway through the night, the guide focus got out of 
whack and we were unable to focus the guide camera. With Jules'
 help, we manually moved the focus motor in the MIS box and 
after that we had no trouble. Weather was great for most of 
the night except for a brief period of clouds right in the
 middle of the night.

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Submitted on 2013 Sep 3 [5:28:10]