MDM Observatory 2.4m Telescope Observing Report for 2014 Mar 27

Observer(s): Hamden, Gordon
Institution(s): Columbia

Instrument: Proto-Chas

Worked for 8 hours (part of the night)
Conditions were Photometric most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the separate trouble report for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   Beg: Seeing 2 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   Mid: Seeing 2 arcsec, Clear, Winds Calm
   End: Clear, Winds Calm

Observing Summary:

So we started before sun-set, and worked on getting proto-CHaS focused and 
centered below the telescope.  We think we did a pretty decent job of this.  
Around about 10pm, we decided to open up and see how the sky looked. 
We pointed to the nearest bright star and centered it in the CHaS field of view 
(which may be offset slightly, causing some of the problems we describe. We reset 
the encoders to reflect this offset, although it wasn't very large.

We then pointed to M82, and decided to stop at the nearest bright star first to see 
how the pointing was. Of course we didn't see it in proto-chas, or in the guider. Then
we went to zenith, but were unable to move the tilt sensors in a way that made sense.
Maybe we are tired or something is wrong. We will ask about this in the morning.
Anyway, after some fancy footwork, we were able to get them to CLOSE to the right
values (0.08 and 0.02). We then reset and tried to find the nearest bright star. BAD-
no bright stars to be found. So we are deciding to call it a night.

Also- the guider focus problem Eric described did turn out to be an issue for us- at
the farthest limit, we still had donuts for guide stars.

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Submitted on 2014 Mar 28 [1:39:25]