MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2014 Dec 12

Observer(s): Thorstensen & Alper
Institution(s): Dartmouth

Instrument: modspec + echelle CCD

Worked for 2 hours (part of the night)
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
No equipment or software problems were encountered.

Seeing and Weather:
   Fog from 8 pm until end?.
   Beg: Seeing 1.5 arcsec, Patchy Clouds, Winds High
   Mid: Fog/Low Clouds, Winds Moderate
   End: Fog/Low Clouds, Winds Moderate

Observing Summary:

Looked grim around dinnertime, but we did get a completely 
unexpected interval of usable weather for the first two hours,
before the humidity spiked and the fog rolled on in.  

Used the time to add a feature to the JSkyCalc 1.3m code.  The
motivation is that it's very easy for a remote observer
to track the telescope into the tripwire on the west pier, which
kills the power in a way that requires an on-site person (or
actually two) to restart. The other day Eric and Tony traced 
out the HA at which the 1.3m gets within about an inch of the 
tripwire as a function of declination.  I used this to 
add a display box that shows how long it will be before the 
telescope gets to the tripwire.  When the telescope is about to
hit the tripwire, the program sends a command to stop the 
tracking, and puts up a dialog box giving the user the option
of automatically backing out.  Erek and I tested it with the
live telescope (dome closed, obviously) and it works!

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Submitted on 2014 Dec 13 [2:20:29]