YALO Telescope Observer's Report for 2000 Oct 1

Observer: Jose Afonso
Observed for most of the night from 23h15 to 6h30 UTC.
Conditions were Mixed most of the night.
Problems were encountered, see the summary for details.

Seeing and Weather:
   High Winds all night.
   Beg: Seeing 1.4 arcsec, Clear, Winds High
   Mid: Seeing 1.8 arcsec, Clear, Winds High
   End: Seeing 2.4 arcsec, Clear, Winds Above Limit

Observing Summary:

Hello.
Very hectic night indeed. Started with high winds and ended with high humidity.
A bit more than half of the programme was completed. The details follow. 
Already from the start of the night, the wind was very strong. For that reason, the 
pointing was extremely difficult, specially in certain directions (North).
The initial objects were observed in acceptable conditions, despite some stronger gusts of 
wind leaving marks on some frames. 
-The SNe in N6754 was observed without any problem.
-The first observation of Aql X-1 was aborted due to impossible guiding. It would be attempted afterwards
but only the LST 23h30 observation (R-band) would be achieved.  
-For Nereid, besides the offset of +1:50, I had to add a few arcseconds (+20'') to find a guide star.
-Objects NGC232 and MrK335 were not observed (strong wind, impossible to guide)
-Object J2310-43 was interrupted due to wind over the limits near the end of the second observing file (bands I and J).
Up to that point the observation was acceptable, although the seeing was around 2.

So around 6h30 UT the dome was closed. Around 8h UT the winds were surprisingly calm, so I attempted re-start the observations,
focusing. I was impressed not to achive better than 6-7 '' (!!!) and not much later I received a call advising to close the
telescope, since the humidity had reached values above 90%. So, besides the above mentioned, nothing after Object J2310-43 was observed
(half of J2310-43, SN2000cx, QJ0240-343, NGC1083, UGC2982, A0620).

Magnitude (only) for Aql-X1: R-Band = 1.55 (but the seeing was dreadful by then)

A couple of (the usual) craches during the observation, quickly solved.

Cheers
Jose

------------------------------

Submitted by Jose Afonso on 2000 Oct 2 [6:31:47]