MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2014 Dec 20

Observer(s): R. Mark Wagner
Institution(s): OSU

Instrument: OSMOS

Worked for 7.5 hours (most of the night)
Conditions were Overcast most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Clouds all night.
   Beg: Seeing 1.3 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Calm
   Mid: Overcast, Winds Calm
   End: Seeing 1.0 arcsec, Cirrus, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

There were cirrus and at times heavy clouds all night.  I closed at 22:30 when the
clouds got too thick and I kept losing the guide star.  The conditions improved
by 02:30 that I was able to reopen.  Sky was workable for spectroscopy but the
clouds thickened as we moved to morning.  The RH steadily rose during the night
starting at about 30% and was near 70% just before sunrise.  Seeing wasn't all
that bad.  Typically 1.3 to as good as 1.0 arcsec.  Closed 06:20.

At 04:30 as I was watching the telescope slew to a new target about 
1h E at -28 deg DEC, I heard a loud clap.  I stopped the telescope and looked
around the telescope and dome but did not see anything that was out of position
or broken.  Subsequently I had problem with the dome following.  When I went
to the zenith at the end of the night the dome did not follow the telescope.  But
when I enabled dome home it moved to the az=320 deg stow spot.  The dropout
and dome closed just fine.  I examined the dropout in the daylight this afternoon
and it looks ok.

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Submitted on 2014 Dec 21 [15:30:21]