FLWO Tillinghast 60-inch Telescope Log
May-August 2017

Tillinghast Telescope Log for the Month of May 2017

April May June July September Schedule PDF Schedules TDC
DateObserverInstObsLostWeatherInstTelObsComments
05/01/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with relatively good seeing. A nice way to start the new TRES run. No problems
05/02/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night. Seeing was good early but degraded when the wind shifted to come from the northwest. No problems
05/03/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with soft seeing for the first half due to a north wind, but improving later despite no change in the wind direction. A productive night with no problems
05/04/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night but with poor seeing most of the night with a strong north wind that shifted to the east part way through. Seeing improved some at the end of the night when the wind calmed, but still a challenging night. No problems
05/05/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 0 0 0 0 0 Mostly clear very early with a bout of clouds for about two hours that I was able to work through and around. Clear for the remainder other than a strange cap cloud to the very far north at the very end that did not bother me as my remaining targets were
05/06/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 0 0 0 0 0 Mostly clear all night with a very brief and light passing cloud early. Gusty winds early becoming calm> Soft seeing most of the time, degrading as the night progressed but good during morning twilight. No problems
05/07/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.75 8.75 0 0 0 Low clouds and high humidity all night. Never opened
05/08/2017 MCalkins TRES 0 9 9 0 0 0 Fog and rain
05/09/2017 MCalkins TRES 5 4 4 0 0 0 Snow, fog, rain, and clouds first part of night gave way to clear skies and decent seeing by midnight. Clouds, humidity returned at very end of night. No problems
05/10/2017 MCalkins TRES 9.0 0 0 0 0 0 Clouds departed yesterday early evening leaving clear skies and good seeing. Seeing softened toward the end of the night as wind increased and came from the east/southeast. No problems with instrument
05/11/2017 PBerlind TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 _
05/12/2017 PBerlind TRES 10 0 0 0 0 0 A few changes in focus and collimation after long slews. Thin clouds all night
05/13/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 0 0 0 0 0 Mostly with light cirrus only appearing in the last quarter of the night. One 48" robot alarm several hours into the night claiming that ST was not advancing. A check showed all was working just fine and a clear_robot was issued. I suspect this was dur
05/14/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 0 0 0 0 0 Light and quickly passing clouds early then clear for the remainder of the night. Seeing became soft towards the end. No problems
05/15/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 5 3.5 3.5 0 0 0 Mostly clear in the early part of the night with increasing clouds as the humidity rose. Finally, capped in with fog not long after 1:00. Seeing was poor when open. No problems
05/16/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clouds at sunset that went away quite quickly leaving clear skies for the night but with poor seeing throughout. No problems on the last night of the TRES run
05/17/2017 PBerlind FAST 9 0 0 0 0 0 FAST ok. Ln2 dewar was not pressurized. Beeping alarm at minerva
05/18/2017 PBerlind FAST 9 0 0 0 0 0 Windy. No beeping from minerva
05/19/2017 MCalkins FAST 8.5 0 0 0 0 0 Nice night. Clear skies and good seeing. No problems
05/20/2017 MCalkins FAST 8.5 0 0 0 0 0 Nice night, clear skies and good seeing. No problems
05/21/2017 MCalkins FAST 8.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies and mostly moderate to poor seeing. No problems
05/22/2017 MCalkins FAST 8.5 0 0 0 0 0 Full night of observations in clear skies and good seeing. No problems
5/23/2017 Emilio Falco FAST 7 2 0 0 0 2 Late start due to Smithsonian Journeys dinner
05/26/2017 GZhou TRES 8 0 0 0 0 0 at the beginning hour, then got worse, ending at ~2
05/27/2017 GZhou TRES 8 0 0 0 0 0 No problems during the night, seeing ~1.5 throughout. Scheduled internet outage from 00 - 03.30 am, did not affect observations
05/28/2017 GZhou TRES 8 0 0 0 0 0 Fine night again. Bad seeing during DT run (~2"), but improved towards the end of night. No other problems
05/29/2017 GZhou TRES 8 0 0 0 0 0 Thick cirrus throughout the night. I continued observations, but only giants and bright backup targets got enough counts to be useful. No instrument issues
05/30/2017 G Zhou TRES 4 4 4 0 0 0 Bad weather throughout the night. The clouds were thick enough to prevent continued Vega observations by 6 UT. Opened again 15min from morning twilight as the skies cleared.
05/31/2017 Zhou TRES 6 2 2 0 0 0 Arm hang during afternoon calibrations, cleared by redo. Otherwise no instrument problems. Persistent clouds throughout the night. Observed through the weather for the first 6 hours. Clouds became thicker by 09 UT, and spots of rain appeared on radar. Clo

Tillinghast Telescope Log for the Month of June 2017

April May June July September Schedule PDF Schedules TDC
DateObserverInstObsLostWeatherInstTelObsComments
06/01/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night but with soft seeing, improving a little at the end of the night. No problems
06/02/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night but soft seeing again, this time care of a north and northeast wind. No problems
06/03/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 6.25 1.75 1.75 0 0 0 Clouds at sunset that lingered for the early part before breaking for mostly clear skies for the remainder. Seeing was soft early but gradually improved as the night progressed
06/04/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8 0 0 0 0 0 Rapidly clearing light clouds at sunset gave way to clear skies until the very end where there was a batch of little popcorn clouds racing though at morning twilight. Otherwise, no problems
06/05/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 7.75 0 0.25 0 0 0 Thin cirrus early but gradually building as the night progressed. I finally pulled the plug with a little bit of night left as I was running out of unobserved giants and other bright targets as the twilight started to become an issue when blended with th
06/06/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 3 5 5 0 0 0 Very thin cirrus early that thickened as debris clouds from nearby dry storms came over in several waves. While mostly cirrus, this was thick enough that when combined with the nearly full moon made observations effectively impossible for the last 2/3 of
06/07/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 6.25 1.75 1.75 0 0 0 t expect to get tonight
06/08/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8 0 0 0 0 0 Rapidly dissipating clouds at sunset that gave way to clear skies with good seeing. No problems
06/09/2017 PBerlind TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 nice clear night
06/10/2017 PBerlind TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 clear night
06/11/2017 MCalkins TRES 8.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed full night in clear skies and decent seeing. No problems
06/12/2017 MCalkins TRES 8.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies and mostly good seeing. No problmes
06/13/2017 MCalkins TRES 8.5 0 0 0 0 0 t think it
06/14/2017 PBerlind TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 Telescope focus and collimation changing when slewing around the sky. 48 dewar started to warm up, stopped and filled it
06/15/2017 PBerlind TRES 8.5 0.5 0 0.5 0 0 Nice clear night, collimation changes going to NE did some testing
06/16/2017 MCalkins FAST 8.0 0 0 0 0 0 Full night of observing in clear skies and good seeing. No problems
06/17/2017 MCalkins FAST 8.0 0 0 0 0 0 redo
06/18/2017 M Wilson FAST 8.0 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies and poor seeing. No problems
06/19/2017 MWilson FAST 8 5 5 0 0 0 From beginnnig of night to around 11 pm, the gusts of the wind was near or above 40 mph. Dome was not opened until around 11 pm. Extreme cloud cover around 2 am blocked all stars for remainder of night
06/20/2017 MWilson FAST 8 4 4 0 0 0 Bad seeing and cloud cover throughout the night from the start to end. Clouds seldom opened up and stars were visible for seconds. At 10 pm, gusts of the wind reached near 40 mph and continued to rise. Dome was closed during the windy period
06/21/2017 MWilson FAST 8 4 4 0 0 0 Cloudy conditions throughout the night. Completely blocked stars for majority of night
06/22/2017 MWilson FAST 8 7 4 3 0 0 Very cloudy conditions all throughout the night. Clouds seldom broke up and made way for observing. Unfortunately during one of these rare moments, the telescope motor limit was breached causing software to crash and disconnection of dome and telescope
06/23/2017 MWilson FAST 1 7 3 4 0 0 Cloudy conditions throughout the night. In an effort to fi=
06/24/2017 MWilson FAST 3 5 5 0 0 0 Poor seeing and very cloudy conditions throughout the night. Luckily clouds occasionally opened up and made time for some observations
06/25/2017 MCalkins FAST 5.5 3.0 3.0 0 0 0 Opened after storms cleared. Telescope collimation is way, way off. Most likely due to movement of primary mirror during event that resulted in lost pointing last Thursday. This will severely limit how faint the telescope can go. If there's no way to a
06/26/2017 MCalkins FAST 6 2 1.5 0.5 0 0 ll work with Gil tonight to re-collimate. Last time at the end to clouds and time at the beginning when a focus button failed. I removed it and soldered in a new button. However, the only spare remaining is used. I
06/27/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.25 0 0 0 0 0 s still not quite right but is significantly better than before. I
06/28/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.25 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night. OK seeing early, but degrading as the night progressed. No problems
06/29/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.0 0 0 0 0 0 wait until Saturday
06/30/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.25 0 0 0 0 0 s not perfect, and finding proper focus is a bit touchy, but when in focus, it

Tillinghast Telescope Log for the Month of July 2017

April May June July September Schedule PDF Schedules TDC
DateObserverInstObsLostWeatherInstTelObsComments
07/01/2017 MCalkins TRES 9.0 0 0 0 0 0 dead spots
07/06/2017 MCalkins TRES 2.5 6.5 6.5 0 0 0 Lost most of the night to clouds. When able, observed brighter objects through cirrus. Fire on western tree line of Mt Wrightston seems to be all but out (fire probably started by lightning yesterday)
07/03/2017 MCalkins TRES 1.0 8 8 0 0 0 Monsoonal clouds. Observed through a few holes. No problems
07/04/2017 PBerlind TRES 4 5 5 0 0 0 _
07/05/2017 PBerlind TRES 4 5 5 0 0 0 _
07/06/2017 MCalkins TRES 4.5 4.0 3 1 0 0 FLWO60 computer video card died sometime during the day. Many thanks to Ted for driving up to replace it. Once clouds cleared observed in mostly clear skies and good seeing. No other problems
07/07/2017 MCalkins TRES 7 2 2.0 0 0 0 Operated in between and through clouds for most of the night. It finally cleared toward the end of the night with good seeing. No problems
07/08/2017 MCalkins TRES 1.0 8.5 8.5 0 0 0 Storms and drizzle for most of the night. Worked the last hour thru/between clouds in moderate seeing. No problems with telescope or instrument
07/09/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 3 5.5 5.5 0 0 0 clear
07/10/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.5 8.5 0 0 0 Thunderstorms early then trying to clear after midnight when clouds rebuilt and moved in from the north. Never opened
07/11/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.5 8.5 0 0 0 Cloudy all night. Never opened
07/12/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.5 0 0 0 0 Cloudy all night with a brief and strong storm that passed through in the first third of the night. Never opened
07/13/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.5 8.5 0 0 0 Scattered rain for the first 2/3 of the night with elevated wind and clouds all night. Never opened
07/14/2017 PBerlind TRES 0 9 9 0 0 0 Strong storm after sunset, cloudy
07/15/2017 PBerlind TRES 0 9 9 0 0 0 Strong storms, cloudy
07/16/2017 MCalkins TRES 0 9,5 9.5 0 0 0 Clouds, fog, rain.
07/17/2017 MCalkins TRES 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 0 Rain, clouds, fog, humidity
07/18/2017 MCalkins FAST 0.5 8 8.0 0 0 0 Got 30 minutes in a hole. Otherwise, monsoon weather
07/19/2017 PBerlind FAST 4 5 5 0 0 0 mostly cloudy night
07/20/2017 PBerlind FAST 0 9 9 0 0 0 monsoons
07/21/2017 MCalkins FAST 2.5 6.0 6 0 0 0 Observed the last part of the night through thin clouds and good seeing. Harvey PC was locked up at the beginning of the night requiring a hard reboot. No problem once it came online
07/22/2017 MCalkins FAST 0 9.0 9.0 0 0 0 s a significant rock fall between the 60" and dorm. It should still be passable by four wheeled vehicle, but it
07/23/2017 MCalkins FAST 2 7 7 0 0 0 s a rock fall just below the summit on the west side of the mountain. I
07/24/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.5 8.5 0 0 0 Mostly clear from start to finish but over limit humidity most of the night with railings and domes dripping wet throughout. Never opened
07/25/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 1.75 6.75 6.75 0 0 0 Variable clouds all night from mostly clear to completely overcast. Observed just short of two hours over three separate breaks in the clouds. No problems
07/26/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 1.5 7 7 0 0 0 Clouds most of the night. I opened a couple times to shoot through a clearing only to have it close in before I could do much. Stayed open much too long at the end of the night fighting an opening that was getting closed in by a rebuild of the clouds.
07/27/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.5 8.5 0 0 0 Rain pretty much all night from quite strong early to a drizzle late. Never opened
07/28/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.5 8.5 0 0 0 Strong storms midday then cloudy all night. Never opened
07/29/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 8.5 8.5 0 0 0 Another cloudy night! Some rain mid-day and some drizzle in the early evening. Never opened
07/30/2017 PBerlind TRES 8 1 1 0 0 0 mostly clear night. 48 skytemp set to -25 for observing
07/31/2017 PBerlind TRES 0 9 9 0 0 0 Monsoons. End of run, start of summer shutdown