Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 05:06:07 -0700 (MST) From: Pete Newman Subject: 2.5-m Obslog 20001121 (MJD 51870) Tuesday Nov 21 2000 Apache Point Observatory SDSS 2.5m Observing Log (MJD 51870) OBSERVING TEAM: =============== Steph Snedden (APO) Pete Newman (APO) Bing Chen (JHU) - PT Craig Loomis (APO) VISITORS: ========= David Schlegel (PU) - by phone Karen and Vivian Z. Loomis (APO) PLAN: ===== Science. Imaging if possible, else spectroscopy. SYNOPSIS: ========= Based on evening skies and satellite weather data, we prepared for spectroscopy, but never opened. TELESCOPE STATUS: ================= Stowed at 30 deg alt with cartridge 7 on. Counterweights at 280. INTERLOCKS: =========== none bypassed SOFTWARE USED: ============== IOP/SOP: v3_19_1 Watcher: v2_8_6 MCP: v4_3_9 TPM: v2_1_3 AstroDa: 14_34 TCC: 2.4.1 WEATHER SUMMARY (see below for hourly data): ============================================ Thin overcast skies from before dusk, with heavier cloud building from SW. Precipitation on radar within the county but passing west and north of APO. GENERAL COMMENTS (see Problems below for details): ================================================== A night of watching the weather and waiting for it to clear, which it didn't, so we spent most of it training Pete in the true meaning of various telescope systems message arcana, and in log writing. For practice, we tried the fast scan ("Apache Wheel") procedures with the camera in the doghouse but did not succeed in getting it to work. See the problems section for what happened. Our visitor, V.Z. Loomis, burst in to tears when she was forced to look at IRAF windows, but then she's less than two months old and not a hardened astronomer yet. DATA ACQUISITION (see IOP/SOP output below): =========================================== IMAGING: -------- Run Frames Type --- ------ ---- 1872 43 bias - in doghouse 1873 0 Apache Wheel attempt 1874 0 Apache Wheel attempt 1875 27 bias - in doghouse SPECTROSCOPY: ------------- Exposure Type -------- ---- 7098 bias 7099 bias TAPES: ====== Shipped to FNAL: none At APO: none MIRRORS: Values taken at track 121,70 in enclosure at 01:35am ======== PRIMARY: -------- MIGS Axial A= 0.0309 Axial B= -0.0320 Axial C= 0.0020 Transverse D= 0.2319 Lateral E= 1.8999 Lateral F= 0.3995 GALILS Commanded: 4890., -2485., 195., -6642., -103., -334. Actual: 4900., -2500., 200., -6650., -100., -350. SETMIR VALUES PrimDesOrient=0.00, -4.40, 5.97, 326.41, 240.71; PrimConstRMS=0.00 PrimOrient=0.00, -4.56, 6.14, 325.99, 240.03 SECONDARY: ---------- Focus: -150.0 (not on sky) Temp: 3.9C Altitude: 70.0 MIGS Axial A=-1.0629 Axial B=-0.9950 Axial C=-1.0269 Transverse D=0.2450 GALILS SecCmdMount=1236990.,1236990.,1236990.,9401.,10601.; CmdDTime=20.4 SecMount=1237099., 1236922., 1236960., 9400., 10600. SETMIR VALUES SecDesOrient=981.25, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, -328.89; SecConstRMS=0.00 SecOrient=981.25, 0.01, -0.06, -0.04, -328.87 FOCUS LOG: ========== No changes - not on sky LN2 SCHEDULE: ============= Spectro dewars: - filled at: 04:30 - 180-l dewar weight: 133 lb at 04:50 Imager 180-l dewar weight: 271 lb at 04:50 PROBLEMS: ========= During preflight checkout, watcher reported that spectro serial comms were not responding. Steph quickly found that the LED display on the Xyplex on the back of the spectro indicated it was not working correctly. We phoned Craig and he confirmed that was the case. He decided to come in to check that the spare Xyplex was configured correctly, which it was. The units were swapped and this solved the hardware problem. We had to reboot the spectro mechanicals to get control of them from SOP again. In the lower enclosure, we noted that the first rotating rack to the right of the steps (when the telescope is at Az=121), has a box labeled 'PMSS pump controller (Unity 1)'. This has a display that was reading 238 +- 2. What does this number mean? Is there nominal value we should care about? 00:35 - Watcher reported spectro CCD4 temperature fault, but display showed temp within spec at -92.97 and plot showed temperature very steady. This followed a voltage glitch on CCD4 on 2000/11/18. A PR will be filed. During training of Pete, and while trying to understand why the MIG values on TPM were so different to those recorded in last night's log, we learned that the values when the telescope is in the enclosure will always be different to those when the telescope is on the sky because the collimate procedure is disabled. In doing this, we homed and relaxed the primary. The sky camera got mechanically stuck at the end of its scan at about 01:10am, and was reset about 02:55 - we were monitoring the satellite weather and the enclosure camera so did not miss any miraculous clear spots. For the Apache Wheel (is this a square dance?) procedures, we followed David's instructions with the exceptions that the imager was in the doghouse and the telescope was not tracking. We made two attempts, both failed. Has anything changed since Dan exercised this procedure in the doghouse? On the first, when we started a drift we got the following errors (possibly jumbled in cutting and pasting): --- 8 goDrift Flavor of this run (science, bias, calibration, engineering, ignore, help) [bias]: bias statusEntry daqBusy on node id1 is not 0 but 1 Wed Nov 22 03:01:19 MST 2000: beginData has failed: waited too long for the daqBusy Error: goDrift ends with error in beginData This error message ocurred in: im> tb Aborting: system is already busy while executing "error "Aborting: system is already busy"" invoked from within "if { [ catch {checkVmeState daqBusy 0 isgood} msg] } { echo $msg cameraDetach error "Aborting: system is already busy" }" (procedure "goDrift" line 38) invoked from within "goDrift" --- 8 source ~rockosi/iop/etc/takeData.tcl im> source ~rockosi/iop/etc/camera.tcl im> init4Bin 4 4 1 im> set cameraSet(ccdRowVis) 341 341 im> cc 14811 setls im> iccExec {ad1 ad2 ad3 ad4} statusSet aldoAnalysis 0 {ad1 {}} {ad2 {}} {ad3 {}} {ad4 {}} --- 8 track commands, as the telescope is stowed. --- 8 goDrift Flavor of this run (science, bias, calibration, engineering, ignore, help) [science]: bias Stripe, Strip (e.g, 22,N or SS,N) []: 11,O Wed Nov 22 03:28:27 MST 2000: Beginning data taking leap seconds = 32 There already is a teamster, PID 2208633, owned by prn Wed Nov 22 03:28:46 MST 2000: beginData has failed: waited too long for the daqBusy Error: goDrift ends with error in beginData im> --- 8< -------------------------------------------------------- at which point we stopped. We also noticed that watcher flagged ABORT_EVENT's on all three axes during these attempts, the last timed 13 seconds after the 'beginData' failure message above, even though the telescope was stowed, braked and e-stopped and we omitted the 'track' commands. Huh? We rebooted the crated and did a normal bias drift afterwards to check all was well again - it was. WEATHER DATA: ============= Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust DIMM Sky Precip. 16:01 42 20 1 133 (SE) 255 -- tcl -- 17:01 39 21 1 112 (ESE) 313 -- tcl -- 18:01 41 21 1 114 (ESE) 363 -- tcl -- 19:01 39 23 1 183 (S) 315 -- tcl -- 20:01 40 23 6 191 (S) 325 -- tcl -- 21:01 37 22 4 167 (SSE) 299 -- tcl -- 22:01 39 24 0 187 (S) 349 -- tcl -- 23:01 40 27 9 180 (S) 369 -- tcl -- 00:01 38 27 7 187 (S) 302 -- tcl -- 01:01 38 30 14 218 (SW) 300 -- tcl -- 02:01 39 30 10 175 (S) 416 -- mcl -- 03:01 39 30 9 179 (S) 380 -- mcl -- 04:01 40 30 7 181 (S) 273 -- mcl -- [pmt]cl = partly, mostly, totally cloudy