Subject: 2.5m obslog 19991011 (MJD 51463) Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 06:58:50 -0600 (MDT) From: hayes@apo.nmsu.edu (Jeffrey Hayes) Monday October 11, 1999 Apache Point Observatory SDSS 2.5m Observing Log (MJD 51463) Observing Team: Stephanie Snedden (APO) Jeffrey Hayes (APO) Steve Kent (FNAL) -- PIC David Schegel (PU) Eric Neilson (JHU) Scott Berles (UC) On for tonight, imaging on strips 76, 82, and 86. We started the the TPM logging at 19:00, and opened the sky camera and the DIMM at the same time. Steph was to fly "iop" tonight. During the initialization tonight, we had to reboot the VME crates by hand -- we tried an "initNight -crateReboot" to no effect. The error message was a verbose "Error: Shan't". We started taking data at 20:00. Data runs are: 1015 -- bias exposures -- simple test of aliveness 1016 -- bias exposures -- real bias for the night 1017 -- eqScan -swindle -N at 318.868484, 0.001172 we started the focus loop when we got to a focus of -1400. We then found that, due to the seeing (which was pretty bad), that a focus = -1250 was best. We then did a "findRotator" and obtained an angle of 0.004 degrees. We noted that the focus changed over the next hour. It appears that the there was termal effects from the telescope being left out, the seeing (about 2.5'' at 21:20), and residual coma(?). At 21:20 we found a new best focus at -1150 and when we did another "findRotator" on frame 105 and found a angle of 0.022 +/- 0.26. The images were reasonably decent considering the seeing. We then slewed to: offset boresight 0.104833,0.,0.,0. /PAbsolute /Wait track 311.2339,0.00076 FK5 /rotty=obj /rota=0 /ScanVel=(0.004178,2.2821e-07) /Name="stripe 100-N" /Keep=(Boresight) but we seem to have the problem that the boresight offset not taking effect. 1018 -- using the above track command, we started a real science scan. The focus (before the focus loop was set up) was -1250. Seeing improved to ~1.5''. and then bounced up to 3''. The focus we moved to -1350. We did another lskip at 22:40 and found that the rotator needed to be moved by 0.089 +/- 0.004 degrees By Frame 72, we started to see doubled images, so we decided to relax the mirror. This run is now engineering, NOT science. 1019 -- back to -40.30,49.97,56.85 (TCC mount co-ordinates) after the relaxing of the primary. This was engineering data. The images still were doubled, and the question about whether or not the astigmatism correctors being on was asked. Neither Steph or Jeffrey were aware of this being a possible problem, and so it is asked as a question to the daytime folks (i.e. can the astigmatism correctors be turned off accidentally?). The astigmatic pattern has a PA ~ 120 degrees, assuming N to the right of the monitors and E to the bottom. 1020 -- imaging on the FASTT field at 22h30m. The seeing and the doubling of the stars persist. Started at 00:00, and ended at 00:30. We classified this data as good, calibration. 1021 -- stripe 76 (+15 degrees) N was started at 00:40. We found a rotator correction of -0.080 in the initial try. The focus was set to -1650.00 and started up the focus loop. We classified this as engineering data. 1022 -- stripe 76 (+15 degrees) N. We started at 01:10. Classified as science data(!). Seeing at about 1.2''. We tweaked the focus to -1750. At 01:20 we noticed that the entire right side of the camera (i.e CCD n4, CCD n5 and CCD n6, n=1, 5) were all 20 degrees warmer that the left side of the camera. We waited a further 10 minutes as Steph had just forced a fill sequence, and noticed that the right side cooled down by 10 degrees. We tried to moved the focus -50 (relative) at frame 44, but the command "setFocus -50" does not appeared to have done anything. Certainly the focus value as reported by the TCC was not updated. We finished this stripe at 03:00. 1023 -- stripe 86 N was started at 03:15. We did a "findRotator" and moved -0.081 degrees. This is ignore/engineering data. 1024 -- stripe 86 N was started at 03:25. This is the science scan. The seeing was about 1.3''. At 04:05 the teamster in "iop" died and had to be restarted by hand. It was back on line by 04:35 but still did not seem to be transfering files. We stopped scanning on this stripe at 05:03. We ended up having to transfer the gang files by issuing a "getGangs -1 imager". However, when we tried to start a focus sweep with a last "goDrift", we had a series of problems which all stemmed from the fact that we could not get a teamster to run. We also had the message: " Waiting for command response from id4 (crate 2, ICC 0), data server (client 1)" when we tried to start another teamster when we issued the "goDrift". A Ctrl-C gave the message: "You should probably consider the system messed up", but it allowed the transfer of gang files to continue again. 1027 -- forward focus sweep started at 05:30. For focus = -1920, frame = 22 For focus = -1720, frame = 25 For focus = -1670, frame = 28 For focus = -1620, frame = 31 For focus = -1570, frame = 34 For focus = -1520, frame = 37 For focus = -1320, frame = 40 -- reverse focus sweep started at 06:00. For focus = -1920, frame = 53 For focus = -1720, frame = 56 For focus = -1670, frame = 59 For focus = -1620, frame = 62 For focus = -1570, frame = 65 For focus = -1520, frame = 68 For focus = -1320, frame = 71 At 02:15 we successfully performed the midevening tape swap. LN2 fill schedule: SP1: 22:50; 06:45 SP2: 00:00; 06:55 Imager Dewar: 18:45, 23:40 TMP file names: /mcptpm/tpm-51463.dat Seeing: From the DIMM the seeing started at about 2'' and wandered up to 3'' and down to 1.2''. Weather: Clear and light winds from SW. No dust and humidity at 58% when we first opened and down to 38% by 01:00. Problems: After we exited from the TCC, the MCP still was waiting for "next command to end" and would not allow control via the Menu, until a hard reboot was done. The second problem was a run-away in ALT that got to 19.75 degrees in the building. The interlock stopped the motion but we had to use the manual paddle to back the ALT off the limit. Steph reported a bug in the "endNight" script: it was looking for a given file and couldn't find it. She will submit a full bug report later today. We finished up at 06:15. Steph and Jeffrey