| Telescope: Mayall 4m Instrument: RC Spectrograph Targets of Interest: Seyfert Galaxies Telescope Elevation: 2120m |
| Click here to see pictures from the trip |
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Rain, fog and storm. The monsoon seems to have caught us. Our first night observing is turning out to be a waste as the storm won't give us a break. I've spent the night preparing flat field images for the data reduction. So once we've taken data, we'll be ready to reduce it.
The flight from Rochester was ok. It went rather uneventfully. After arriving, Andy and I drove to the observatory and checked in. We spent most of the afternoon wandering around the site, getting oriented. We also checked out the 4m telescope which we're using for our observations.
Adam came in this afternoon, and we got the final few setup things done for the telescope. Then.. the clouds rolled in. We were treated to a spectacular view of a thunderstorm off in the distance (after the storm had passed right through the observatory site). It was a sight to see! Unfortunately, the clouds persisted, so we won't be able to do any observing tonight. Hopefully tomorrow night will work out in our favor.
After a good night's sleep, we're back in the dome. I managed to get some work done earlier today, which is good. The weather is still cloudy, but hopefully it clears up later tonight.
The sun is going down. There's some cirrus clouds overhead and some threatening storms near Tucson, so we'll see. We might get something, but it probably won't be pretty..
We were able to open the dome for about 30mins last night and we took spectra of.... lightning! So, another unsuccessful night of observing. After a decent storm this morning, the skies are starting to clear, so hopefully we'll have a good shot at getting some data tonight. We'll be heading up to the telescope in another 45 minutes or so..
Well, the clouds have come back and there seems to be more moving in from the North. We might not have much luck again tonight, but we'll certainly try.
I'm back in the Tucson airport. My flight leaves in a little over an hour. Unfortunately the entire run was a wash and we were unable to get any data. It ended up being too stormy. We spent last night in Tucson. We had dinner at a cool steak house. It's been raining fairly non-stop since last night. It doesn't seem to be affecting the flights though.