Subject: 2.5m obslog 19990919 (MJD 51441)
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 06:31:10 -0600 (MDT)
From: hayes@apo.nmsu.edu
			Sunday September 19, 1999
                   Apache Point Observatory SDSS 2.5m
                           Observing Log
                           (MJD 51441)
Observing Team:
		Jeffrey Hayes (APO)
		Ellyne Kinney (APO)
		Scott Burles (UC)
                Scot Kleinmann (APO)
On for tonight, more of last night -- mapping the focal plane, and if we
can spectroscopy.
We completed the pre-flight check-out of the telescope, set fiducials, &c.,
by 18:00.
We started the TMP logging at 19:45 (the log file is named tmp_51441.dat), and
the all-sky camera and the DIMM.  Initially the seeing was ~2''.
Weather-wise, the prognosis was not really good -- partly cloudy skies and
scattered showers.  The humidity was 56% when we opened, but it has been
trending upwards all evening.  Also, a large system was on its way from
Arizona.  Here's hoping...
We opened the telescope and changed to the approriate plate (185 on cartridge 2)
on which to do focal plane mapping at 20:30.  We were centred and ready to
go at 21:15.  We took flats at this position and then went back to getting
focal plane data points.
At 22:00, we had the focus for the initial set of points and from the TCC the
mirror positions were:
PrimCmdMount=5113.,-2701.,188.,-6057.,7319.,7017.; CmdDTime=4.2
PrimOrient=0.0, -7.8, 7.8, 427.0, 427.0
SecCmdMount=2104953.,2189718.,2130645.,5502.,6949.; CmdDTime=0.4
SecOrient=1700.0, 5.8, 25.0, 0.0, -112.5
The MIG positions were:
[MIG,tMIG,0,I] MIG Channel 1 = 1.930500
[MIG,tMIG,0,I] MIG Channel 2 = 0.558000
[MIG,tMIG,0,I] MIG Channel 3 = 0.556500
[MIG,tMIG,0,I] MIG Channel 4 = -0.083000
[MIG,tMIG,0,I] MIG Channel 5 = 1.907500
[MIG,tMIG,0,I] MIG Channel 6 = 0.407500
[MIG,tMIG,0,I] MIG Channel 7 = -7.192000
[MIG,tMIG,0,I] MIG Channel 8 = -0.604000
For the above data, the focus was commanded to 1700 and was not changed for
any of the focal plane mapping.  We did leave the collimation task running
on the TCC.
At 23:30 we completed getting the data needed for the focal plane map, and
went to change the cartridge.  We issued an "axis stop" in the TCC and
then an "axis init", and then a "track 120.7,90 mount" command.  The AZ
slewed to its position but the ALT stopped at 62.51 degrees.  We then did
another "axis stop", "axis init", "track 120.7,90 mount" triplet and
the AZ was at the correct position, but the ALT only moved to 67.68.  We
left this to look at later and proceeded to issue an "axis stop", "axis init",
"rot 0 mount" which successfully completed.  I then did an "axis stop" so
that Ellyne and Scot could move the telescope in ALT to 90 degrees for the
instrument change using the MCP.  Scot then mentioned that when setting the ALT
fiducial tonight with the MCP Menu, he had a series of problems:  he commanded
the ALT axis using the "d" and "v" commands, the axis would move a few degrees
and then stop.  This happened 3 times before the fiducial could be set.
We completed the instrument change by 00:00 but then the clouds came in
quite thouroughly -- completely obscuring the sky.  Counterweights were
set to 290V for cartridge 1 and plate 214.
We decided not to close as the the humidity did not rise very much (to was
60% at this time).  At 00:10 we did an "axis stop", "axis init" and a
'track 14.32,56.43,191.98 /rottype=obj /rotang=0" through "sop" and
again we had the ALT axis stop after moving a few degrees (it stopped
after moving from 89.16 to 54.59 (i.e. it over shot but did not correct)
We then did the same 3 TCC commands over again, and this time we did get
the ALT axis to move to where it was commanded and seemed to start the
track fine.  We then did a guide camera exposure and saw no stars -- the
cloud cover being too thick to punch holes through.  Scott then
decided to obtain some flats in the event that the cloud cover would pass
us by.
At 00:30 condensation appeared on the roof of Jeffrey's car.  Checking down
by the 2.5m, we found no condensation, and the humidity reading was still
only 60%, so we kept a very close watch on things.  At 01:00 the humidity
was about 62% and the cloud cover still thick.
At 01:35 Scott took a guider image and managed to see stars.  He worked on
getting the rotation angle correct before the clouds came back.
At 01:45 we started a science integration for 900s on plate 214.  During
the integration, the focus was changed to 1475.   The seeing from the
guider was about 1.9''.  At 02:00 we saw science spectra on the monitors,
and did another 900s integration on the same field; and then a 3rd and 4th 900s
integration on the same field at 02;15.  At 02:10 Jeffrey went out and
corrected the centring for the DIMM.  (It appears that if it becomes
cloudy for more than 30 minutes the DIMM can't keep its centring up and
so one is required to recentre Polaris.)  Seeing was reported to be
~1.3'' according to DIMM.  At 02:50 we were done with the science integrations
and obtained flats and line lamps.
At 03:00 we slewed to instrument change so that we could install cartridge 4
and plate 202.  We again saw the failure of the ALT axis to go to its commanded
position from the TCC. We again did an "axis stop", "axis init" and a
"track 120.7,90 mount" and the ALT axis stopped moving at 51.35 degrees.
We slewed the rotator back to 0 mount and then did an "axis stop" so that
the ALT could be commanded by the MCP menu.  Again clouds moved in while
we were doing the swap, and the humidity went up to about 70%.
We also had the same problem with losing the ALT axis when we issued the
track command to go to the field -- the ALT axis stopped at 55.14
degrees.  This behaviour has been logged as a TCC bug report via the
Princeton gnats page.  Also, a gnat report has been sent about an odd
sound made by cartridge 4 when it was mounted to the telescope.
At 03:15 we started taking guider images and adjusting the focus, but the
clouds again came in and made this process more difficult than neccessary.
Scott integrated on the field for 900s, but the spectra were very faint
due to the clouds.  The first spectra from this plate appeared on the
monitors at 04:05.  When a sizable hole opened up, Scott started another
integration at 04:15, but the mechanicals did not seem to be working and
so Scott cycled the power on them.  Some science data were taken on this plate
after the power cycle, but it was a rush as clouds started to come in on
us again.  The power was again cycled on the spectrographs at 04:45
as Scott was having trouble getting them to respond to "sop" commands.
A 3rd integration was carried out at 04:50.  The seeing was bouncing between
1.3'' and 1.8'' during this time.  The 4th and last integration ended at
05:20 and the flats were taken thereafter.
Ellyne had problems with the "endNight" script -- it would not "scp" the
PPD files to FNAL.  A gnats bug report was filed.
LN2 schedule:  SP1:  14:10; 20:00; 06:00
               SP2:  14:15; 20:10; 06:00
We had 2 false fire alarms around 21:30 in Zone 6 (New Dorm).  The fire brigade
at Sunspot called to make sure we were okay.
We finished up at 06:15.
Jeffrey for all