INAF LBC+MODS queue observing, 2012 January 20-21

Observer: K. Boutsia, R. Speziali
Telescope Operator: S. Allanson
Support Astronomer: O. Kuhn
Instrument: MODS

Summary

Sparse clouds in the horizon during sunset.
At the begninning the seeing was very mediocre (1.6''-1.8'') so we switchd from macsj0647 to Radovich that was in higher elevation and had looser constraints. The seeing improved considerably in this position and after completing a mask we slewed back to macs0647. Since this target does not go higher than airmass 1.4, again the seeing got slightly worse so we only did 45min that are probably out of specs.
When we moved to macsj0744 there was a reflection in the acquisition image. We closed the vent doors in case the light was coming from outside the dome but this did not chabge anything. The reflection is 10counts above the background. We decided to go on with the acquistion. At the same field we also had problems with the collimation. The guide star was very comatic but the wfs did not seem to send any zernike offsets and we had to stop the ob and recollimate in a nearby BS star (45min lost). After that it seemed to struggle for the whole time we were on the target. At some point we called DMiller for advice and he adjusted the grid for this star on the wfs camera.
Calibration files for all MODS observations can be found in /Repository/20120116 - /Repository/20120117 and for the Radovich mask in /Repository/20120121.

Data Summary

Project	Objects	Filter	ExpTime	Notes
Radovich	1.wlclus	dual grating	1hr	flats+arcs+STD
Nonino	macsj0647	dual grating	45min	flats+arcs+STD - probably out of spec
Nonino	macsj0744	dual grating	4hr	flats+arcs+STD
Fiore	cosmos	dual grating	2hr	flats+arcs+STD
STD	g191b2b	dual grating
STD	Feige34	dual grating

Details

11:48 Starting up MODS

• mods1 start gui
• execMODS ~MODSeng/modsScripts/Support/modsWake.pro
• modsDisp
• test images mods1b 0001-0003 / mods1r 0001-0002

00:54 Slewing for pointing and collimation

01:28 acqMODS g191b2b.acq mods1r 0003-0007

• offsetxy 0.663 8.223 rel
• star not well centered - we manually send another dx=0.615
• seeing in the guider 1.6''

01:40 execMODS g191b2b.obs mods1b 0004-0005 / mods1r 0008-0009

02:09 acqMODS macsj0647_mods.acq mods1r 0010-0011

• seeing measured in the image is 1.3'' so we abort acquisition and we move to radovich that has a seeing request of 1.2''
• we are also at a low elevation (<40) and this could contribute to the bad seeing

02:20 acqMODS mods.1.wlclus.acq mods1r 0012-0014

• only 3 ref stars in the lower part of the mask - according to the ref stars the mask is not perfectly aligned but we do see sources in the science slits and we decide to go on with the OB
• the mms file by radovich does not have the 4''x4'' slits for reference stars and the numbers do not appear with the modsAlign task

02:40 execMODS mods.1.wlclus.obs mods1b 0006-0009 / mods1r 0015-0018

• seeing on the guider now is ~1.0''
• elevation here is >50 and rising

03:49 acqMODS macsj0647_mods.acq mods1r 0019-0021

• offsetpointing -0.1285 0.096 -1.048 detxy rel

04:07 execMODS macsj0647_mods.obs mods1b 0010-0012 / mods1r 0022-0024

• only 45min done and probably out of spec

05:02 abort because seeing is ~1.3 for the last half hour

• move to mask 0744 that is in higher elevation and we could have better luck with seeing

05:03 acqMODS macsj0744_mods.acq mods1r 0025-0027

05:18 we centered the mask but there is stray light in the acquisition image so we are trying to understand if we can move on

• after closing the vent doors we repeat the acquisition (only the images - no preset involved) - to see if the light is still there
• acqMODS -a macsj0744_mods.acq mods1r 0028-0030
• nothing changed - the level of the reflection is 10counts above background - we decide to go on with the OB

05:31 execMODS macsj0744_mods.obs mods1b 0013 / mods1r 0031

• images only 600sec instead of 1200sec

05:43 abort exposure because the star on the wfs seems really comatic even though it sais that it is collimated

• problem with the secondary? - need to fix this before proceding
• we collimated in a nearby BS star - the star was way out of focus

05:56 acqMODS macsj0744_mods.acq mods1r 0032-0034

• after collimating on the BS we go back to our field
• checking the previous acquisition images with the correct cuts the stars are indeed comatic
• offsetpointing -0.1559 0.210 -1.391 detxy rel
• 45min lost due to this

06:12 execMODS macsj0744_mods.obs mods1b 0014-0025 / mods1r 0035-0046

• since the guide star seemed to drift again in collimation we called Doug who adjusted the position of the grid (hot spot) for this particular star
• the seeing has been <1.0'' for most of the time but the shape of the guide star is very variable drifiting out of collimation and back again.
• there is also considerable jumping around of the centroid position - according to Doug, all this should not affect dramatically the quality of the data at this seeing.
• we interrupt after 12 exposures (4hr) because seeing is getting worse (1.3''), airmass is getting low (>1.35), there are thin clouds and we are not very confindent about the collimation on this target

10:38 acqMODS mods.56.FIORE1.acq mods1r 0047-0049

• offsetpointing -0.1789 -0.091 -0.619 detxy rel
• here the seeing is ~0.8'' ...
• like yesterday, the centering of the mask is not very convincing but the is no obvious offset pattern to adjust it. Most of the sources in the science slits seem centered

10:53 execMODS mods.56.FIORE1.obs mods1b 0026-0029 / mods1r 0050-0053

• seeing is progressively getting worse and the average seeing is around 1.1''
• guiding is a bit jumpy but we are at 1.6airmass and we have head winds, seeing is also is getting worse, 1.4'' (12:24)

13:03 Abort scipt after 4th exposure because airmass >2.0 (PI request was 2.0) - 2hr total time with this mask

13:03 acqMODS Feige34_std.acq mods1r 0054-0057

13:14 execMODS Feige34_std.obs mods1b 0030-0031 / mods1r 0058-0060

• seeing again is <1.0'' but we are at airmass 1.3.
• in the red channel we had to change exptime from 180sec to 30sec in order to get an unsaturated image (mods1r 0060)

13:30 Slewing for calibrations for Radovich mask

• execMODS grmoslamps.M1.cal mods1b 0032-0034 / mods1r 0061-0063
• execMODS grmosflats.M1.cal mods1b 0035-0044 / mods1r 0064-0078
• execMODS grlamps1.0.cal - it gave error with calib unti and the script moved on to the next line
• execMODS grlamps5.0.cal mods1b 0045-0047 / mods1r 0079-0081
• execMODS grlamps1.0.cal mods1b 0048-0050 / mods1r 0082-0084
• execMODS ~MODSeng/modsScripts/Support/modsSleep.pro

-- KonstantinaBoutsia - 21 Jan 2012