FLWO Tillinghast 60-inch Telescope Log
2019a January-April

Tillinghast Telescope Log for the Month of January 2019

December 2018 January February March April May 2019 Schedule Schedules TDC
Date Observer Inst Obs Lost Weather Inst Tel Obs Comments
01/01/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0 Fog and clouds all night with intermittent snow. Never opened
01/02/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night but with poor to below average seeing throughout. Cleared roughly 8-inches of snow from the roof this afternoon to allow both scopes to operate without dragging dome parts through the drifts. The fan (?) in the white computer in the chart room (furthest from the door) made a squealing noise for about 10 minutes in the middle of the night before stopping on it's own. It looks to still be running despite the noise. No other problems.
01/03/2019 MCalkins FAST 12 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies and excellent seeing... The dome is struggling to rotate. It wasn't terribly cold last night, so I don't blame ice and snow. It more seems like one of the motors isn't functioning. The c/b's are good. Could there be something else to check?
01/04/2019 MCalkins FAST 10 2 2 0 0 0 Lost some time to clouds, otherwise observed with mostly good seeing and through thin cirrus
01/05/2019 None FAST 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0
01/06/2019 None FAST 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0
01/07/2019 MCalkins FAST 4 8 8 0 0 0 Observed mostly through thin cirrus but excellent seeing
01/08/2019 MCalkins FAST 8 4 4 0 0 0 Observed through and around clouds (when able) in good seeing
01/09/2019 MCalkins FAST 3 9 9.0 0 0 0 Observed during a temporary clearing in good seeing. Roll-around dewar for FAST went dry while filling FAST this morning. I've placed dewar near loading dock so that some LN2 could be transferred over to it ASAP and used to fill FAST
01/10/2019 MCalkins TRES 9.0 3.5 3.5 0 0 0 Once clouds cleared, observed in clear skies and good seeing which blew up at the end of the night.... To Emilio and Ted, I looked for the spare fiber in question in the octagonal room with no luck. I do a more thorough search this afternoon
01/11/2019 MCalkins TRES 11 1 1 0 0 0 Observed through thin cirrus for much of the night in slightly soft seeing
01/12/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0.5 12 12 0 0 0 Mostly clear to start quickly becoming cloudy then foggy. Light rain late
01/13/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0 Fog and clouds all night. Never opened
01/14/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 11.5 1 1 0 0 0 Pesky clouds early then again on two other occasions later in the night. Seeing was good at times, but usually average to below average. Otherwise, no problems
01/15/2019 MCalkins TRES 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0
01/16/2019 MCalkins TRES 11 1.5 1.5 0 0 0 Lost beginning of night to clouds, observed in clearing skies and good to excellent seeing for the remainder of the night
01/17/2019 MCalkins TRES 5.5 7 7 0 0 0 Clouds for most of the night... When able, observed in soft seeing
01/18/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 11.25 1.25 1.25 0 0 0 Gusty wind early and cloud/fog from the saddle kept me closed very early on. Clear skies after that but with poor seeing early and late while only OK in the middle. Strange weather night. Otherwise, no problems
01/19/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 11.75 0.75 0 0.75 0 0 Mostly clear with poor seeing most of the night becoming quite good at the very end
01/20/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 10 2.5 2 0 0.5 0 Variable cirrus clouds all night making for a frustrating session when combined with the bright moon. Idle for first 30 minutes making tests of possible backup ThAr lamps then later for a couple hours with the bright moon high overhead. I was able to ob
01/21/2019 MCalkins TRES 7.5 5 5 0 0 0 When clouds allowed, observed in murky skies with horrible seeing and high wind
01/22/2019 MCalkins TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies with blustery conditions and poor seeing the first half of the night which dramatically improved for the second half ending the night with good seeing..... Borrowed a Photron lamp from MMT this morning and placed it in the dust hoo
01/22/2019 MCalkins TRES 0 0 0 0 0 0 Additional log entry.... Forgot to add that at the beginning of last night comp counts had dropped from ~28k to ~22k. Then, at some point, counts returned to previous levels, ~27k
01/24/2019 MCalkins TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in blustery but clear skies and moderate seeing. New lamp averaged ~29k counts
01/24/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 12.0 0 0 0 0 0 Very light cirrus to start that quickly departed leaving clear skies. Seeing was quite good most of the night until a wind direction change and increase in speed softened things up for the last couple hours
01/25/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 12 0 0 0 0 0 Clear most of the night with a brief band of cloud rolling through after the first few hours of observing. Seeing was generally poor with a gusty wind from the north all night. No problems
01/26/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 12.25 0 0 0 0 0 Clear early with very thin cirrus in the last third. Terrible seeing with a strong and gusty east wind until just before 1:00 AM when the wind direction shifted and speed decreased. Seeing was very good after that time
01/27/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 12.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with only very thin cirrus to start. Generally good, but variable seeing. No problems
01/28/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 4.5 8 4 0 0.5 0 ThAr lamp in TRES produced a low count exposure around 7:00. After a few test exposures and attempts to re-seat the connector, I decided to change it out for the Cathodeon lamp we had been using for a couple days before this one was put in. No problems
01/29/2019 DLatham TRES 1 11 11 0 0 0 Heavy overcast all night, observed through a couple of sucker holes. When on radio control, the shutters open but then immediately close, so I opened using local control. Dome homing is not working. Used local control to line up the tab with the sensor
01/30/2019 DLatham TRES 10 2 2 0 0 0 Overcast at sunset. I worked through clouds and sucker holes until about 3 hours before sunrise, when it mostly cleared. The shutters closed immediately after opening on radio, so I opened with local again
01/31/2019 DLatham TRES 02 10 10 0 0 0 Overcast early,it thinned enough to work for a couple of hours, then closed us down. High humidity and mountain cloud after midnight. The dome shutters worked on the radio. The water cooler in the kitchen leaked itself dry onto the floor

Tillinghast Telescope Log for the Month of February 2019

December 2018 January February March April May 2019 Schedule Schedules TDC
Date Observer Inst Obs Lost Weather Inst Tel Obs Comments
02/01/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 3.5 9 9 0 0 0 Mostly clear to start with variable clouds and soft seeing until capped in by humidity and fog at 11:00 PM. A productive few hours open. No problems
02/02/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 2 10.5 10.5 0 0 0 Mostly clear to start before being closed by over limit humidity and fog. No problems
02/03/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0 Fog all night with regular rain showers and elevated wind. Never opened
02/04/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0 Another night in fog with elevated wind and scattered showers. Never opened. A disappointing end to the TRES run
02/05/2019 None FAST 0 12.5 12.5 0 0 0
02/06/2019 MCalkins FAST 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies but horrible seeing
02/07/2019 EFalco FAST 9 1 0 0 0 1 Tracked into limit, took time to recover, Mike helped. No problems otherwise
02/08/2019 MCalkins FAST 6.5 5 5 0 0 0 Observed mostly through thin cirrus and decent seeing. No problems 2/9/2019 MCalkins FAST 0 11.5 0 0 0 0 Clouds....
02/10/2019 MCalkins FAST 9.0 2.5 2.5 0 0 0 Observed through thin cirrus and seeing that started out soft - improving nicely by the end of the night
02/11/2019 MCalkins FAST 11.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies and mostly excellent seeing. End of FAST run
02/12/2019 PBerlind TRES 5 5 5 0 0 0 TRES ok, Stars shaped like / on one side of focus, shaped like \ on other side of focus.
Got 4,000 counts in Vega exposure, normal is 40,000 counts. Partly cloudy night.
02/13/2019 PB TRES 3 7 7 0 0 0
02/14/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 12 12 0 0 0 Fog and rain all night with gusty wind. Never opened
02/15/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 7 5 5 0 0 0 Clouds pretty much all night, thin enough to work through for larger chunks of time, but then periods of dense overcast. Seeing was generally soft to poor throughout
02/16/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 10.5 1.5 1.5 0 0 0 Partly cloudy at sunset with a block of thick cloud a little while in, shutting me down for 90 minutes. Cleared after that becoming mostly clear to completely clear for the rest of the night. Poor seeing all night. No problems
02/17/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 12 0 0 0 0 0 Clear most of the night with clouds appearing near the end of the night. Poor seeing throughout. A frustrating but fairly productive night. No problems
02/18/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 12 12 0 0 0 Clouds, fog and light snow throughout. Never opened
02/19/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 12 0 0 0 0 0 Clear and cold all night with better than average seeing early, then soft near the end. No problems
02/20/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 4.25 6.75 6.75 0 0 0 Clear at the start ahead of the incoming storm. Observed until the clouds shut me down. No problems
02/21/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 11.5 11.5 0 0 0 First night of snowpocalypse. No observer & never opened
02/22/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 11.5 11.5 0 0 0
02/23/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 11.5 11.5 0 0 0 Telescope not accessible due to snow on the road. No observer present on the mountain
02/24/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 0 11.5 11.5 0 0 0 Telescope not accessible due to snow on the road. No observer present on the mountain
02/26/2019 MCalkins TRES 0 11.5 11.5 0 0 0 Clouds all night... Chamber A/C was blowing ambient air, doesn't appear to be chilling
02/27/2019 MCalkins TRES 11.0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 init's
02/28/2019 MCalkins TRES 11.0 05 0.5 0 0 0 Observed in mostly clear skies and decent seeing

Tillinghast Telescope Log for the Month of March 2019

December 2018 January February March April May 2019 Schedule Schedules TDC
Date Observer Inst Obs Lost Weather Inst Tel Obs Comments
03/01/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 7.5 3.5 3.5 0 0 0 Clouds of various thickness all night from mostly clear at times to completely overcast. Some interrupted observations mid-sequence as part of this. Otherwise, no problems
03/02/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 1.5 9.5 9.5 0 0 0 Clouds early then fog and over-limit humidity until about 4:30. Opened up to get a few observations in before closing for the night. No problems
03/03/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9.75 1.25 1.25 0 0 0 Thin clouds at sunset gave way to clear to mostly clear skies despite repeated bands of overcast to the north. Two batches halfway through had me sitting idle while they passed. Good seeing early, then poor for the remainder of the night. No problems
03/04/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 10.5 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 Highly variable clouds all night under a steady stream of Pacific pineapple express garbage. Painful night
03/05/2019 MCalkins TRES 5.5 6.5 6.5 0 0 0 First half of night lost to clouds... Observed 2nd half with occasional bands of clouds and okay seeing
03/06/2019 MCalkins TRES 7 4 4 0 0 0 Observed in skies with increasing cirrus and decent seeing until the clouds won out
03/07/2019 MCalkins TRES 0 11 11 0 0 0 Thick clouds...
03/08/2019 MCalkins TRES 10.5 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 Had to briefly wait for clouds to move out, then observed in clear skies and initially soft seeing which improved dramatically by the end of the night
03/09/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 3 7.5 7.5 0 0 0 Clouds early and again late with a clearing near the beginning of the night. Squeezed in a few higher priority targets before getting shut down for the night. No problems
03/10/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 3.75 6.75 6.75 0 0 0 Fought clouds for the first third of the night or so until finally getting shut down by high wind and the first of the clouds and snow in this storm
03/11/2029 GEsquerdo TRES 0 10.5 10.5 0 0 0 Clouds all night with high humidity and waves of rain and the first hints of snow. Never opened. Used the time to make test exposures with two new ThAr lamps. Last night of the TRES run
03/13/2019 MCalkins FAST 6 5 5 0 0 0 Observed in mostly clear skies and soft seeing after clouds moved out
03/14/2019 MCalkins FAST 10 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in mostly clear skies with a bright moon and soft =
03/14/2019 MCalkins FAST 10 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in mostly clear skies with a bright moon and soft =
03/15/2019 MCalkins FAST 0.5 9.5 9.5 0 0 0 Clouds for most of the night. Finally able to observe at the end of the night after moon set and bright objects available to observe through clouds
03/20/2019 JLewis FAST 9 1 1 0 0 0 WE accidentally shutdown ntcs - which disturbed the pointing. Pointing was recovered
03/21/2019 JLewis FAST 5.5 4.5 1 0 0 0
03/21/2019 JLewis FAST 8 2 0 1 0 0 The pointing was very off. Eventually we ended up fixing the location by gauging the position of Arcturus along the finder scope.
03/21/2019 JLewis FAST 8 2 0 1 0 0 addendum to previous
03/22/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9.25 0.75 0 0 0.75 0 Clear skies most of the night with only light cirrus coming in at the very end. Soft-ish seeing throughout
03/23/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9.25 0.75 0.75 0 0 0 Clouds to start the night, then mostly clear for the remainder. Seeing was barely average, being a little soft at times
03/24/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 10 0 0 0 0 0 Under a steady parade of cirrus clouds most of the night, finally breaking in the last couple of hours. Seeing was rather good, making for a productive night despite the conditions
03/25/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9.75 0.25 0.25 0 0 0 Thin cirrus most of the night only becoming somewhat more thick and textured in the last quarter, effectively shutting me down at the very end. Relatively good seeing most of the night with the best parts in the second half. This never ending freight tr
03/26/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 2.5 7.5 7.5 0 0 0 Mostly cloudy all night. Worked through thinner clouds early but wrapped up after two underexposed targets on two separate tries. Got high priority targets before this time, and again at the very end of the night with a brief clearing around the start o
03/27/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 7 3 3 0 0 0 Clouds early delayed my opening then worked through cirrus of varying thickness until midnight when I was shut down for an extended stretch with thick clouds. Once those passed it was clear for the remainder of the night. Slightly below average seeing.
03/28/2019 MCalkins TRES 10.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies and initially great seeing that became somewhat soft at the end of the night. No problems
03/28/2019 MCalkins TRES 10.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies and initially great seeing that became somewhat soft at the end of the night. No problems
03/29/2019 MCalkins TRES 8 2.5 2.5 0 0 0 Mainly observed Giants through continual cirrus and good seeing.... 48" filters changed back for tonight's observers and KepCam restarted. Robot will also need to be restarted
03/30/2019 MCalkins TRES 10.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies and good seeing except for a couple of hours in the middle of the night when a front must've passed through, blowing the seeing up.... No problems
03/31/2019 MCalkins TRES 10.25 0 0 0 0 0 Observed with variable seeing and passing bands of cirrus which became thicker the last few hours of the night. No problems

Tillinghast Telescope Log for the Month of April 2019

December 2018 January February March April May 2019 Schedule Schedules TDC
Date Observer Inst Obs Lost Weather Inst Tel Obs Comments
04/01/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 8 1.75 1.75 0 0 0 Very thin cirrus at the start then mostly clear until about 3:00 when a band of thicker clouds came in. These broke at astronomical twilight allowing me to get a few brighter targets in. No problems
04/02/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Quick band of light clouds early then remaining clear for the rest of the night. Below average but variable seeing all night. No problems
04/03/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Thin cirrus most of the night with a bit on the thicker side early and again late. Seeing was not great, leading to longer than usual exposures especially when cloudier
04/04/2019 Foley+Challis FAST 4 4.5 4.5 0 0 0 No issues; cloudy
04/05/2019 Foley+Challis FAST 3 5 5 0 0 0 Cloudy and humid in the latter half of the night
04/08/2019 MCalkins FAST 9.0 1.0 1.0 0 0 0 Readout audio notification not working. Same problem from last run. No problems otherwise
04/09/2019 MCalkins TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 s but the observer appeared to have left the realtime system in a hung state (it looks like he commanded a bunch of Control c
04/10/2019 MCalkins FAST 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 redo
04/11/2019 MCalkins FAST 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 0 Clouds, no observations. End of FAST run.
04/12/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 8.25 1.25 1.25 0 0 0 Some clouds early but with nearby rain delaying opening for a while. Once open, seeing was poor early, slowly improving as the night progressed. No problems
04/13/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Clear until the very end of the night when some very light cirrus came through. Seeing was a little soft early but became quite good around 9:00 PM when the wind became calm, remaining that way for the remainder. No problems
04/14/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 8.25 1.25 1.25 0 0 0 Light clouds at sunset broke as it was getting dark, remaining mostly clear until thick clouds shut me down for a while at the end of the night. Seeing was below average keeping throughput down though the scope could also use a collimation tweak. No pro
04/15/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Mostly clear all night with clouds off to the south and west until the very end. Seeing was below average all night. No problems
04/16/2019 MCalkins TRES 0 10 10 0 0 0 Fog and rain
04/17/2019 MCalkins TRES 10 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies and initially soft seeing. Seeing improved dramatically throughout the night despite a blustery wind out of the east
04/18/2019 MCalkins TRES 10 0 0 0 0 0 Observed all night in clear skies and decent seeing
04/19/2019 PBerlind TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0
04/20/2019 PBerlind TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Observing conditions were clear all night, bright moon, blustery winds at times. Seeing was very good for most of night
04/21/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 7 2 2 0 0 0 Clear early, clouds around midnight, then clear again before a ribbon of clouds positioned over the observatory ended the night. Variable seeing dependent on where and when the clouds were. No problems
04/22/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 Clear at sunset with debris-like clouds all around, remaining clear until about 1:00 when the first of these clouds came across the observatory in batches until dawn. I was able to observe through and around these and remained open throughout. Seeing wa
04/23/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 Some dissipating debris clouds at dusk eventually led to clear skies and mostly good seeing. No problems on a productive night
04/24/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with gusty wind from the northwest causing softer than usual stars. a quite productive night with no problems
04/25/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 Clear all night with average to better than average seeing. One projector arm hang at the start, otherwise no problems on a very productive night
04/26/2019 GEsquerdo TRES 9 0 0 0 0 0 Clear skies. Gusty winds for the first half, settling some for the second. No problems
04/27/2019 PBerlind TRES 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 Full night of observing, occasional thin cirrus passing through, good seeing
04/28/2019 MCalkins TRES 7 3.5 3.5 0 0 0 Observed in good conditions with good seeing until clouds came in
04/29/2019 MCalkins TRES 9.0 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in mostly clear skies and moderate seeing. No issues
04/30/2019 MCalkins TRES 9.0 0 0 0 0 0 Observed in clear skies and good to excellent seeing