FLWO Tillinghast 60-inch Telescope Log
September-December 2017

Tillinghast Schedule for the Month of September 2017

August September October November December January 2018 Schedule PDF Schedules TDC
DateObserverInstObsLostWeatherInstTelObsComments
09/01/2017 MCalkins TRES 2.0 8.0 8.0 0 0 0 Observed through/around clouds including a clearing after the moon set with good seeing. No problems
09/02/2017 MCalkins TRES 4 5.5 5.5 0 0 0 Observed in between, through clouds in good seeing before clouds thickened. No problems
09/03/2017 MCalkins TRES 5.5 4.5 4.5 0 0 0 Another night of working through and around clouds... Seeing was somewhat soft but not horrible. No other problems
09/04/2017 PBerlind TRES 8 3 3 0 0 0 clouds early and late
09/06/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Mostly clear all night after afternoon clouds broke and departed not long after sunset. The new pointing model seems slightly better than the old one, but I also didn't slew to any extremes in the sky to really test it. No problems
09/05/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 no problems
09/07/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 2 7.5 7.5 0 0 0 Mostly clear early with a short batch of clouds in the middle of a 2 hour stretch before getting clouded over for the remainder of the night. Rain in the area for much of this with a tiny sprinkle at one point. No problems
09/08/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 0 Clouds all night. Never opened
09/09/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Some light cloud early and again very late but otherwise clear. Very productive night with no problems
09/10/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Mostly clear all night with light cloud at sunset and passing debris clouds at the very end. Soft seeing most of the second half
09/11/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 7.75 1.75 1.75 0 0 0 Partly cloudy to start followed by debris clouds that shut me down for just short of 2 hours. Once it broke, skies were clear with relatively good seeing for the remainder of the night
09/12/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Light clouds in the afternoon broke around sunset giving way to clear skies throughout. Seeing was OK early but softened with the change in wind direction. I did find the door to the loading dock wide open when I came to the telescope this afternoon to
09/13/2017 PBerlind FAST 11 0 0 0 0 0 FAST ok
09/14/2017 PBerlind FAST 8 3 3 0 0 0 _
09/15/2017 MCalkins FAST 0 10 0 0 0 0 Fog, humidity, some precip...
09/16/2017 MCalkins FAST 6.5 3.5 3.5 0 0 0 rolling
09/17/2017 MCalkins FAST 8.5 1.5 1.5 0 0 0 rolling
09/18/2017 PBerlind FAST 6 5 5 0 0 0 mountain fog cap
09/19/2017 PBerlind FAST 7 4 4 0 0 0 mountain fog again
09/21/2017 MCalkins FAST 10 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 Clouds at very end of night. End of FAST run
09/20/2017 MCalkins FAST 9.5 1.0 1.0 0 0 0 No problems
09/22/2017 MCalkins TRES 9.0 2.0 2.0 0 0 0 Observed most of the night in good to variable seeing with occasional bands of cirrus sliding through before thicker clouds at end of night. Pointing is noticeably much better with tres and Ted's adjustments
09/23/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 no problems
09/24/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 _
09/25/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with good seeing in the second half. No problems
09/26/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 10.5 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 Clear all night until the very end when clouds came in, ending the night early. Soft and variable seeing all night. No problems
09/27/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with soft seeing first half then improving, becoming quite good for the last third of the night. No problems
09/28/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with average seeing. Humidity spiked at the end of the night but but never got high enough to have to shut down. No problems
09/29/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 9.75 1.25 1.25 0 0 0 Clear most of the night but debris clouds from storms very far to the east came through early in the night keeping me idle for over an hour. Once that broke, skies were clear with good seeing most of the night. No problems
09/30/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with good seeing most of the night. Guider was improved after dismounting the

Tillinghast Schedule for the Month of October 2017

August September October November December January 2018 Schedule PDF Schedules TDC
DateObserverInstObsLostWeatherInstTelObsComments
10/01/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night. Seeing was average to start the night, but degraded as gusty winds came in starting a while after midnight. No problems problem discs but still has the quirks from before, just less frequently now. No problems
10/02/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with slightly better than average seeing. No problems
10/03/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night. No problems
10/04/2017 MCalkins TRES 7 4 4 0 0 0 Observed through, in between clouds, in good seeing... DSS server was flaky throughout the night (on their end). Last two Parson objects were done without the benefit of a finder chart due to trying to get them done in declining twilight. Otherise, the ES
10/05/2017 MCalkins TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clouds cleared at sunset. Observed in clear skies and excellent seeing that got a little soft at end of night. No problems
10/06/2017 MCalkins TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies and initially variable seeing that became very good by end of night
10/07/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 _
10/08/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 _
10/09/2017 MCalkins TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies with variable seeing. No problems
10/10/2017 MCalkins TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies and variable, but mostly decent seeing. No problems
10/11/2017 MCalkins TRES 9.5 2.0 2.0 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies and good to variable seeing until over-run by clouds at the end of the night. No problems
10/12/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.25 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with good seeing for the second half. No problems
10/13/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with good seeing in the second half again. No problems
10/14/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Very light and variable cirrus all night, especially the second half of the night. Despite the weather, this didn't really impact the Doppler tomography experiment I observed most of the night
10/15/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 mostly clear night, end of TRES run
10/16/2017 PBerlind FAST 10 1 1 0 0 0 FAST ok
10/17/2017 MCalkins FAST 0 11 11 0 0 0 Clouds....
10/18/2017 MCalkins FAST 11 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night through thin cirrus and soft seeing. No problems
10/19/2017 MCalkins FAST 4.5 6.5 6.5 0 0 0 In an out of clouds... Observations obtained through thin cirrus and moderate to good seeing
10/20/2017 MCalkins FAST 7 4.5 4.5 0 0 0 Observed through thin cirrus and moderate to good seeing
10/21/2017 Warren Brown FAST 11 0 0 0 0 0 Great night of observing. FAST was sluggish when taking afternoon calibrations. Ted killed duplicate processes which solved the problem; probably leftover from when I logged out as Mike and logged in as Observer. Had one instance of TCS hang during a C
10/22/2017 PBerlind FAST 11 0 0 0 0 0 nice night, osft seeing, end of FAST run
10/23/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.25 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night. Variable seeing due to a gusty north wind. No problems for the first night of the TRES run
10/24/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.25 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night. Poor seeing from an east wind early that improved to just being on the soft side to end the night. No problems
10/25/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.25 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night. Seeing was improved over last night but still a bit on the soft side. No problems
10/26/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.25 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with variable seeing c/o gusty winds from the northwest. Strange haze visible in all sky camera for the second half of the night and visible by eye over Nogales. Not sure if it was dust from the wind or something else (humidity was stabl
10/27/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 8.75 2.5 0 2.5 0 0 Clear all night until the clocks on Harvey (UT and LST) were frozen just after 3:00. A reboot of Harvey and a restart of the realtime system was done but after this, the scope would not slew to any commanded targets, either via the realtime system or Har
10/28/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 No problems. 60" drive system ok, pointing ok
10/29/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 _
10/30/2017 MCalkins TRES 3 8.5 6 2.5 0 0 Telescope pointing was non-existent prior to start of night. It took a considerable amount of time to regain pointing. The dome is not tracking. This was true at the beginning of the night, but I was able to briefly get it to track again. Then dome tracki
10/31/2017 MCalkins TRES 3.25 8.25 8.25 0 0 0 Observed (when able) through clouds and in poor/moderate seeing. No problems with dome or Harvey PC

Tillinghast Schedule for the Month of November 2017

August September October November December January 2018 Schedule PDF Schedules TDC
DateObserverInstObsLostWeatherInstTelObsComments
11/01/2017 MCalkins TRES 4.75 7.25 7.25 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies and mostly good seeing until clouds, fog, and humidity rolled in.... Telescope dome got lost during afternoon calibrations. The dome will not initialize consistently, if at all. Suspect a bad home sensor. Email sent out to appropri
11/02/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 No problems, fog stayed at summit, dome behaved itself
11/03/2017 PBerlind TRES 0.5 11 11 0 0 0 Cloudy
11/04/2017 PBerlind TRES 1.5 10 10 0 0 0 thick fog then cleared
11/05/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear early but cirrus clouds of varying thickness for the last 2/3 of the night. Frustrating with the bright moon but still a fairly productive night. No problems
11/06/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 6 5.5 5.5 0 0 0 Clouds all night but thin enough early I could work until finally ending my night around midnight. The bright moon didn't help! No problems
07/11/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 3.5 8 8 0 0 0 Clouds and rain until midnight when the rain stopped. At 2:30 the clouds cleared and I was able to open and observe. but with poor seeing. No other problems
11/08/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 7 4.5 4.5 0 0 0 Clouds all night, thin enough for the first half that I could observe brighter targets through it. Thicker clouds came through in waves starting around 1:00 where it would mostly clear for a short while then cloud over again making any attempts at observ
11/09/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Essentially clear all night with only very light cirrus on occasion, increasing at the very end of the night. Good seeing and an otherwise very productive night. No problems
11/10/2017 PBerlind TRES 9.5 2 2 0 0 0 _
11/11/207 PBerlind TRES 0.5 1 1 0 0 0 _
11/12/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 10.0 1.75 1.75 0 0 0 Variable cirrus most of the night from being on the edge of a system to the north and west. I did sit idle for a couple separate stretches when thicker clouds came through. A rather productive night considering the conditions. No problems
11/13/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 10.75 1 1 0 0 0 Clouds of various thickness all night with one batch early keeping me idle for an hour. A surprisingly productive end to the TRES run
11/14/2017 MCalkins FAST 11.0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 Observed through almost continuous, thin cirrus but with decent seeing. No problems
11/15/2017 MCalkins FAST 11 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 Lost a little bit of time to clouds - otherwise observed in clearing skies and good seeing
11/16/2017 MCalkins FAST 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night through some cirrus and variable-good seeing
11/17/2017 MCalkins FAST 10.5 1.25 1.25 0 0 0 Observed most of the night through thin cirrus and good to variable seeing. Guide camera video fluctuates - image goes from normal to washed-out in repetitive waves. almost as if the telescope were continuously being swept by a light source. Seems like so
11/18/2017 MCalkins FAST 8.5 3.0 3 0 0 0 Wash-out
11/19/2017 PBerlind FAST 10.5 1 1 0 0 0 no problems
11/20/2017 PBerlind FAST 9 3 3 0 0 0 _
11/21/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Thicker cirrus early becoming mostly clear for the second half. Seeing was poor most of the night. No problems
11/22/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night. Soft seeing early but gradually improving as the night progressed. No problems
11/23/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with good seeing, becoming very good at the end of the night. No problems
11/24/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Mostly clear with only extremely light cirrus for the middle third of the night. Seeing was good to start but softened once the clouds appeared. No problems
11/25/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with good seeing throughout. No problems
11/26/2017 PBerlind TRES 11 0 0 0 0 0 _
11/27/2017 PBerlind TRES 7 4 4 0 0 0 _
11/28/2017 MCalkins TRES 6.0 6.5 6.5 0 0 0 Observed half the night with cirrus and decent seeing
11/29/2017 MCalkins TRES 0.25 12.25 12.25 0 0 0 Clouds and moon
11/30/2017 MCalkins TRES 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0 t have the correct address to vnc in). I eventually did a hard reboot and things came up normally. Then after about 5 minutes and approximately a minute of not using the KVM, everything went to sleep again and would not wake up. I sent Ted an email tellin

Tillinghast Schedule for the Month of December 2017

August September October November December January 2018 Schedule PDF Schedules TDC
DateObserverInstObsLostWeatherInstTelObsComments
12/01/2017 PBerlind TRES 0 12 12 0 0 0 persistent storm clouds
12/02/2017 PBerlind TRES 6 6 6 0 0 0 kepcam started to warm up, big dewar was empty. kepcam on manual fill with 50l dewar. filled 6:15am sunday morning. Wayne will come with more ln2
12/03/2017 MCalkins TRES 9.5 3.0 3.0 0 0 0 In and out of clouds for most of the night with good seeing... The network UPS failed at ridge dorm. I removed it and plugged items into a power strip.
12/04/2017 MCalkins TRES 3.0 9.5 9.5 0 0 0 Worked for a few hours through clouds with decent seeing until clouds became too thick
12/05/2017 MCalkins TRES 2.0 10.5 10.5 0 0 0 Another night trying to work through holes and thin clouds... Managed one exposure of a K2 object in a clear hole with good seeing. Most other objects were Giants or standards
12/06/2017 PBerlind TRES 9 3 3 0 0 0 soft stars could not get sharp focus
12/07/2017 PBerlind TRES 3 9 9 0 0 0 high wind, gusts to 70mph
12/08/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 12.25 0 0 0 0 0 Clear most of the night with only very light cirrus at the end. Seeing was quite variable and mostly poor, making for a night of brighter targets and long exposures. Productive, but frustrating at times. No problems
12/09/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0.75 11.75 11.75 0 0 0 Fairly useless attempt to observe at the start of the night between poor seeing from strong east winds and increasing cirrus. I estimate throughput was down by a factor of 25! Never re-opened
12/10/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 0.5 12 12 0 0 0 Cloudy all night. I entertained what looked like a possible clearing part-way through which I promptly regretted when it became apparent it was just a sucker hole. No problems
12/11/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 6 6.5 6.5 0 0 0 Clouds early then again later in the form of a lazy cap cloud hindering observations. Gusty winds from the east came in not long after the cap cloud came in, lasting for the rest of the night. Frustrating end to a generally frustrating TRES run
12/12/2017 MCalkins FAST 12 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies. Seeing at beginning of night was almost unworkable but improved dramatically by dawn
12/13/2017 MCalkins FAST 12 0 0 0 0 0 Clear skies throughout the night; seeing was a bit sluggish at first but tightened up nicely by the end of the night
12/14/2017 MCalkins FAST 12 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies but horrible seeing.
12/15/2017 PBerlind FAST 12 0 0 0 0 0 _
12/16/2017 PBerlind FAST 0 12 12 0 0 0 1" of snow
12/17/2017 MCalkins FAST 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0 Winter storm
12/18/2017 MCalkins TRES 6 7 7 0 0 0 Stop and go observing in between humidity pulses and clouds but with good to great seeing
12/19/2017 MCalkins TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies with good seeing.... At around 4am the 48" dome became stuck when the lower slit drooped to low to clear the observatory wall/roof. I was able to close the slit (so obviously the hydraulics are functional) but I was unabl
12/20/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Mostly clear all night but with soft seeing. No problems
12/21/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 1 0 0 0 0 on two separate occasions. Details on those problems sent by email. No problems on the 60
12/22/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear most of the night with only very light cirrus at the very end. Improved seeing compared to the past couple of nights let me work fainter targets than before. No problems
12/23/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 1 1 0 0 0 Varying clouds all night from thick enough to sit idle for the first hour to essentially clear at the end. Fairly good seeing all night. No problems other than one projector arm hang
12/24/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Light cirrus early then mostly clear for the remainder. Good seeing most of the night. No problems
12/25/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night except for the very end when thin cirrus started to come in. Seeing was quite good which let me work on fainter targets than usual. No problems
12/26/2017 GEsquerdo TRES 1.25 11.25 11.25 0 0 0 Clouds all night. Had a sucker hole for over an hour early on, then mostly cloudy the remainder. A welcome break after a stretch of long winter nights
12/27/2017 PB TRES 8 4 4 0 0 0 _
12/28/2017 PB TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 _