WIYN 3.5m WHIRC Observing Report for 2012/10/28 Summary: A good successful night observing 8 supernovae, 1 SN host galaxy from 2011, and one comet. Observer: Michael Wood-Vasey Telescope Operator: Doug Williams, Malanka (training) Conditions: Clear, cloudless sky Low-level haze on horizon Full Moon 15 deg C. 35% humidity. Wind speed 5-10 mph. Summary of observations on 2012/10/28: Name | J,H --------------------------------- SN2012et | 34,19 LSQ12fhs | 7,18 CSS121006:2325854... | 2,31 CSS121009:011101... | 27,36 LSQ12fmx | 25,49 PS1-12bwh | 9,18 PSNJ07250042... | 9, 9 SN2011gy | 33,25 SN2012fm | 9, 9 Comet168P | 12,9,26 Took J,H,Ks flats on/off. Kept _every_ exposure taken. Did a small filter sequence at the beginning for some future automated analysis testing. Notes: * 1.25 hours of time spent on DD/ToO observations of Comet 168P on behalf of Rachel Stevenson. * All exposure times 60s in J, H. Comet168P was observed in J,H,Ks. The majority of the Comet168P Ks exposures were 40s to reduce the sky background to an acceptable level. * Yes, I accidentally took 2 J-band exposures of CSS121006. Then I remembered that we were only supposed to do H-band. * The standard dither pattern used was the 3x3_30arcsec that we have generally used. For exposure sequences longer than 9 exposures, I often (but not always) requested a telescope operator shift of 10",10" or 15",15" between dither sets. * I experimented with different dither patterns. In particular I used the 5x5_10arcsec standard pattern for the longer exposures (that previously would have been 3 sets of 3x3_30arcsec). I agree with this and think we should do something like this in the future. Note that the 5x5_10arcsec used was only 40", not an extra 1'. * For the 18-exposure sequences, I constructed a new dither pattern script, "mwv_dither_3x3grid_30arcsec_18.obs". (I draft _9.obs and _27.obs versions, the former for clarity to stript out the extra silly commands WHOMP puts in and the later for considering a 3-shift pattern; I decided that the 25 from 5x5_10 was better. * If we want the same effective 4.5' field of view regardless of total exposure time then we should construct a set of dithers that cover this effective view so that we get the same field size regardless of exposure time so that we have the same stars. 3x3_30arcsec (3-1)*30" = 1' 4x4_20arcsec (4-1)*20" = 1' 5x5_15arcsec (5-1)*15" = 1' I would suggest that these scripts be created and listed in the standard scripts for the MOP pull-down menu. This seems like a reasonable thing to provide. I think as a survey we have the pull to ask for this simple change. * Having this pre-done dithers will be more efficiently (while it only took about 15" for the TO to jog the telescope, it did take time and mean that the OA and astronomer but had to be connected at the same time in the middle of what was otherwise a 30-minute sequence. * If there are positional offsets or a traditional place we put the supernova on the array, we should clearly remind the non-Weyant observers about this so that we always get the same field. I would be tempted to upload this offset position into the cache to enable really simple brain-dead observing. We should discuss this further. * Seeing ranged from 0.4-0.7" in J,H. * 550 images taken (9 GB) * I learned the full name of the training OA: Malanka Riabokin. * I occasionally forgot to change imgtype to "Object" and left it as "Acquire" (from when we were doing focus on a star). This happened with at least LSQ12fhs, SN2012fm, PSNJ0725004+234703. * Lost about 20 minutes in the middle of the night (roughly 05:20-05:40) when we had to restart PAN and MOP. Exposure appeared to be taken but was not completing. Happened on two successive images. Dick Joyce later speculated that it was the DHE that lost connection. A similar, but perhaps slightly different error happened the night previously when I was sitting in with Brodwin et al. As best I remember, to recover we Quit MOPS Stop PAN Start PAN Start MOPS - waited and hung. Killed MOPS Stop PAN Start MOPS -- We waited for a while again as MOPS was taking a while, but then Doug Williams (the OA) Acknowledged window that was hidden somewhere, then MOPS came fully up.