ENR CTIO Blanco 4-m 2012-12-06

Date: 
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Telescope: 
CTIO Blanco 4-m
Submitter: 
Liz Buckley-Geer
Observer Support: 
Mauricio Rojas
Night Assistant: 
Leonardo Paredes
Also Present: 
Jim Annis, Huan Lin
Problems: 
The TCS computer crashed but Mauricio was able to control it via VNC from his room. Leonardo connected from his laptop. The computer eventually rebooted after fsck'ing its disks. The TCS lost control of the telescope when trying to slew to the standard stars. For the first part of the night the guide stars were bouncing all over the place, presumably because the telescope was oscillating.
Comments: 
Started with twilight standards, including SDSS Stripe 82 fields. Continued with MiniSurvey 1b, but had problems with large oscillations, as seen clearly on guider display and in QR ellipticities 0.2-0.4 and QR fwhm 2-3”. Thought maybe recent guider fix for nan’s was causing problems, but turning guider off made no difference. Then switched to SN shallow fields (guider back on) and did C1 and C2. QR seeing ~1.5” and QR ellipticities ~0.1 or less. As we are lacking in MiniSurvey data, we went back to try again, this time with generally good QR ellipticities ~0.1, though QR seeing was ~1.5” or worse, and there are occasional instances of high ellipticities. Then continued with Max-Vis fields under ObsTac control. Seeing better than for MiniSurvey 1b: QR fwhm ~1.3” (down to ~1.1” later on), QR ellipticity ~0.1. Took 120 sec exposures with guider on (158787) and with guider off (158788) for Klaus and Santi. Finished with Morning twilight standard Max-Vis. Ran out of time against Sun for E2a and E4a.
Conditions: 
General Conditions
Temperature Max: 
12.00
Temperature Min: 
12.00
Humidity Max: 
58
Humidity Min: 
20
Wind Speed Max: 
15.00
Wind Speed Min: 
10.00
Comment: 
None.

Quarters

Program: 
Proposal: 
2012B-0003
Target of Oportunity: 
No
Time Observed: 
5.75
Time Engineering: 
1.0
Time lost technical: 
0.5
Time lost weather: 
0.0
Time lost other: 
0.0
Description: 
DES SV
Primary Investigator: 
Josh Frieman
Email: 
frieman@fnal.gov
Institution: 
Fermilab
Instrument: 
CTIO 4m DECam
Organization: 
NOAO
Total Program Time: 
7.25
Total Times Time Observed Time Engineering Time lost technical Time lost weather Time lost other Total Program Time
2012-12-06 5.75 1.0 0.5 0.0 0.0 7.25