Nightlog Summary | Gemini North

The observing team at Gemini keeps a detailed log of each night's science observing, also noting weather issues, technical faults and any time spent in planned engineering. It is read by Gemini staff early each morning. A summary of the night is written at the end of observing and included at the top of each night log. That summary is posted here, unedited, to give interested users a feel for what we're doing.

UT DATE	NIGHT PLAN	NIGHT SUMMARY
Aug 17, 2022	We plan to observe time critical Band 1 and 2 NIRI and GMOS programs in addition to completing NIRI on-sky checkouts in good conditions, with GNIRS, GMOS and NIRI B2-B3 filler.	We were able to finish the NIRI on-sky checkouts (pending daytime confirmation/analyses) and the other two high priority observations for the night, despite some time loss to faults.
Aug 16, 2022	Multi-instrument queue observing with GMOS and GNIRS as well as NIRI on-sky checkouts. Forecast is for good seeing and clear skies.	A productive night with great seeing and mostly clear skies. Minimal faults but an error with LGS PAM file ingestion prevented us from doing a LGS ENT.
Aug 15, 2022	Multi-instrument queue observing with GMOS, GNIRS, and Maroon-X. Forecast is for good seeing and clear skies, but is also two days old.	A very good night with mostly clear skies, good seeing and a well behaved telescope.
Aug 14, 2022	Multi-instrument queue observing with GNIRS, GMOS and Maroon-X. Forecast is for clear skies and good seeing.	A productive night in spite of worse than expected seeing. Some GMOS faults forced us to change plans in the morning and led to some time loss.
Aug 13, 2022	Queue observing with MAROON-X GNIRS and GMOS. IQ70 CC50 plan variant includes a 4h long MAROON-X observation of a planetary transit. The forecast suggests clear skies, IQ70 and high water vapor.	CC50 all night, IQ70 for the most part, IQ20 at the start and short spells of IQ85 around 21:30. Observed many MAROON-X B1-2 targets including the long planetary transit, and one high priority GNIRS observation at the start of night.
Aug 12, 2022	Queue observing with MAROON-X, GNIRS and GMOS. Forecast is for IQ85, CC70 and small chance of fog.	Dome closed until 2:30am because of smoke coming from the brush fire at Pohakuloa Training Area west from Mauna Kea. West wind was bringing smoke to the mountaintop, exceeding our particle limit. After the smoke cleared, we observed B1 & B2 MAROON-X targets in IQ70 CC50 while relative humidity was lingering around 75%.
Aug 11, 2022	MAROON-X run is ongoing filled with high priority targets in tight timing windows. However, the weather looks to be getting worse in terms of clouds and chance of fog.	A decent night with a mix of all conditions with all Bands taken! What started as very unstable IQ85 turned into very stable IQ70 later. However, we did have to close for a few hours due to high humidity.


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UT DATE

NIGHT PLAN

NIGHT SUMMARY

Aug 17, 2022

We plan to observe time critical Band 1 and 2 NIRI and GMOS programs in addition to completing NIRI on-sky checkouts in good conditions, with GNIRS, GMOS and NIRI B2-B3 filler.

We were able to finish the NIRI on-sky checkouts (pending daytime confirmation/analyses) and the other two high priority observations for the night, despite some time loss to faults.

Aug 16, 2022

Multi-instrument queue observing with GMOS and GNIRS as well as NIRI on-sky checkouts. Forecast is for good seeing and clear skies.

A productive night with great seeing and mostly clear skies. Minimal faults but an error with LGS PAM file ingestion prevented us from doing a LGS ENT.

Aug 15, 2022

Multi-instrument queue observing with GMOS, GNIRS, and Maroon-X. Forecast is for good seeing and clear skies, but is also two days old.

A very good night with mostly clear skies, good seeing and a well behaved telescope.

Aug 14, 2022

Multi-instrument queue observing with GNIRS, GMOS and Maroon-X. Forecast is for clear skies and good seeing.

A productive night in spite of worse than expected seeing. Some GMOS faults forced us to change plans in the morning and led to some time loss.

Aug 13, 2022

Queue observing with MAROON-X GNIRS and GMOS. IQ70 CC50 plan variant includes a 4h long MAROON-X observation of a planetary transit. The forecast suggests clear skies, IQ70 and high water vapor.

CC50 all night, IQ70 for the most part, IQ20 at the start and short spells of IQ85 around 21:30. Observed many MAROON-X B1-2 targets including the long planetary transit, and one high priority GNIRS observation at the start of night.

Aug 12, 2022

Queue observing with MAROON-X, GNIRS and GMOS. Forecast is for IQ85, CC70 and small chance of fog.

Dome closed until 2:30am because of smoke coming from the brush fire at Pohakuloa Training Area west from Mauna Kea. West wind was bringing smoke to the mountaintop, exceeding our particle limit. After the smoke cleared, we observed B1 & B2 MAROON-X targets in IQ70 CC50 while relative humidity was lingering around 75%.

Aug 11, 2022

MAROON-X run is ongoing filled with high priority targets in tight timing windows. However, the weather looks to be getting worse in terms of clouds and chance of fog.

A decent night with a mix of all conditions with all Bands taken! What started as very unstable IQ85 turned into very stable IQ70 later. However, we did have to close for a few hours due to high humidity.

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