Subject: obs log 20000306 (mjd 51610) Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 05:06:42 -0700 (MST) From: hayes@apo.nmsu.edu (Jeffrey Hayes) MONDAY MARCH 6, 2000 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY SDSS 2.5M OBSERVING LOG (MJD 51610) OBSERVING TEAM: =============== Dan Long 1st (APO) Steph Snedden 1st (APO) Jeffrey Hayes 2nd (APO) Ellyne Kinney 2nd (APO) Eric Neilsen -- PT (JHU) Visitors: Andy Connolly (FNAL) THE PLAN: ========= Spectro all night if possible to open. Imager biases ( not archived to tape ), and spectro commissioning tasks within building when closed. SYNOPSIS FOR NIGHT: =================== Closed first half. Took spectro biases and darks. Took imager biases. Opened at 03:15, closed at 04:00 due to clouds and winds. Called it a night at twilight (roughly 05:00). TELESCOPE STATUS: ================= DIMM: ----- No data. INTERLOCKS: ----------- None bypassed. SOFTWARE USED: -------------- IOP/SOP: v3_10_1 Watcher: v2_6_7 MCP: v4_0_1 WEATHER SYNOPSIS (see below for hourly data): ============================================= Mostly cloudy to cloudy first half. Winds often over limit, mostly from the south to southeast. Faint smell of smoke around 22:00. Winds picked up after 03:00. GENERAL COMMENTS (see Problems below for details): ================================================== During the afternoon checkout, we noticed the primary was not in its nominal position. Apparently it was left in the "offset" position listed in MIR.DAT. Firing up COLLIMATE and relaxing the primary got it back to where it should be according to the MIG data. Also during the afternoon checkout it was noticed that the brakes do not come on when an axis goes out of closed loop ( at least when a stop button is pressed or an "s" is issued at the menu ). The brakes work fine when explicitly requested to engage or clear. An axis init will clear any set brakes as it should. So the problem appears to be limited to the monitor process on the MCP which in the past has set the brakes when an axis has gone out of closed loop. The Menu shows the monitor process to be running. The version of the MCP running was v4_0_1. The tapes which were in the drives this afternoon were put in the recycle bin and new ones put in and mounted. The first half of the night was spent taking biases and darks with the spectrographs and filling the pool with imager bias data so that the day crew would have some data to test the archiver with. It should be noted that the archiver started writing to tape at the start of the first bias run despite having already issued an archPause. A second archPause indeed paused archiving. At about 19:30 we installed cartridge 3, plate 260 (being optimists, we thought we might actually take spectra through a sucker hole, but the wind had other plans...). We did take some biases and darks with this cartridge on, to look for light leaks. At about 00:00 we switched to cartridge 5, plate 317. This is a partially plugged plate, to be used for flat-fielding, avoiding bleeding from adjacent fibers. At 03:00 we put cartridge 1/plate 305 on and opened up, but withis 30 minutes had to close due to clouds and winds. We stayed closed from 04:00 till dawn. We stopped the imager bias scans at 05:00. More trouble with the pressure relief valve on the spectro fill system was encountered tonight when filling the spectrographs. Several liters of LN2 was lost out the pressure relief. DATA ACQUISITION (see IOP/SOP output below): =========================================== IMAGING: -------- Run 1244: short bias drift stopped when errors occurred. Run 1245: bias drift started at 18:30 SPECTROSCOPY: ------------- Sequence of darks. Cartridge 3, plate 260 mounted. frame 2852: bias frame 2853: bias frame 2854: bias frame 2855: bias frame 2856: bias frame 2857: 900 s dark frame 2858: 900 s dark frame 2859: 900 s dark frame 2860: 900 s dark frame 2861: bias frame 2862: bias frame 2863: bias frame 2864: bias frame 2865: bias ---------------- Sequence of flats, cartridge 5, plate 317 mounted. frame 2866: bias + init frame 2867: bias frame 2868: bias frame 2869: bias frame 2870: bias frame 2871: bias frame 2872: 10 s flat frame 2873: 10 s flat frame 2874: 10 s flat frame 2875: 10 s flat frame 2876: 10 s flat frame 2877: 10 s flat frame 2878: 10 s flat frame 2879: 10 s flat frame 2880: 10 s flat frame 2881: 10 s flat frame 2882: 900s exposure, cables to Slithead door disconnected and foam over plate frame 2883: 900s exposure, cables to Slithead door connected and foam over plate frame 2884: bias ---------------- cartridge 1, plate 305 mounted. frame 2885: bias + init frame 2886: flat frame 2887: arcs MIRROR NUMBERS ============== Primary: setmir( cmd ): 0 -3.9 3.9 213.5 213.5 galil( act ): 4850 -2350 100 -9500 50 -100 linear gauges Tonight Nominal 1 = Axial A = 1.9315 1.9315 2 = Axial B = 0.5565 0.5570 3 = Axial C = 0.5560 0.5570 4 = Transverse = 0.4085 0.4075 5 = East Lateral = 1.8985 1.8980 6 = West Lateral = 0.3980 0.3990 Secondary: ( inst=spectro focus=1450 alt=30.0 deg T=5.9 C) setmir( cmd ): 355.55 5 -5 50 69.97 setmir( act ): 1299.99 5.01 -4.93 49.90 69.72 galil ( act ): 1649728 1637091 1626710 -6200 -10800 linear gauges 1 = Axial A = -0.280 2 = Axial B = -0.230 3 = Axial C = -0.260 4 = Transverse = -0.028 LN2 SCHEDULE: ============= Changed imager dewar at 18:00. Note: The vent was left closed to keep the 180 L dewar at its nominal 22 PSI. This makes for much more efficient transfer to the 10 L dewars. The 10 L dewars are still pressurized with the 10 PSI gas as needed. Let us know if there is something wrong with doing things this way. Filled spectro dewars around 21:30. See problem at end concerning the pressure relief valve. Filled spectro dewars at 05:00. WEATHER DATA: ============= Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 47 17 17 181 (S) 781 Cloudy 17:01 44 17 23 144 (SE) 1046 Mostly Cloudy 18:01 43 16 30 144 (SE) 908 Partly Cloudy 19:01 44 15 26 134 (SE) 751 Cloudy 20:01 44 14 24 153 (SSE) 739 Cloudy 21:01 46 9 18 159 (SSE) 687 Cloudy 22:01 47 6 28 170 (S) 641 Cloudy 23:01 44 10 26 191 (S) 2676 Cloudy 00:01 42 14 26 209 (SSW) 1659 " 01:01 40 15 13 201 (SSW) 1477 " 02:01 38 16 14 188 (S) 1090 " 03:01 36 16 16 200 (SSW) 961 " 04:01 37 14 22 183 (S) 1289 " PROBLEMS IN DETAIL: =================== PR 885: archPause didn't. We followed the usual procedures for beginning a night of imaging, with the exception of issuing an "iccExec [photoList] archPause 1" before starting a bias drift. We got the following error messages: TEXTONLY No heartbeat found from ad1 in last 500 of murmur log TEXTONLY No heartbeat found from ad2 in last 500 of murmur log TEXTONLY No heartbeat found from ad3 in last 500 of murmur log TEXTONLY No heartbeat found from ad4 in last 500 of murmur log We stopped the bias drift (run 1244) after about 23 frames, reloaded the tapes and did a poolInit to clear the pool, issued another archPause command and started a new bias drift (run 1245). Before starting the drift we checked the status of the archiver with a "statusDump archState" command and were told that the archiver was paused, however, when the drift started, the frames started archiving to tape. A PR has been filed (astroda/885). One wonders if after initializing everything and not yet having started taking data, that archPause won't pause until some data is taken first? PR 886: Brakes don't come on when axis goes out of closed loop. During the afternoon checkout it was noticed that the brakes do not come on when an axis goes out of closed loop ( at least when a stop button is pressed or an "s" is issued at the menu ). The brakes work fine when explicitly requested to engage or clear. An axis init will clear any set brakes as it should. So the problem appears to be limited to the monitor process on the MCP which in the past has set the brakes when an axis has gone out of closed loop. The Menu showed the monitor process to be running. The version of the MCP running was v4_0_1. PR 887: Significant liquid comes out of spectro fill pop-off. More trouble with the pressure relief valve on the spectro fill system was encountered tonight when filling the spectrographs. Several liters of LN2 was lost out the pressure relief. Aside from being wasteful and a nuisance, it was pouring LN2 all over the doghouse and getting on cabling and hoses. Not good. The pressure relief valve is meant to operate with gas, not a liquid. The only hope it has of working is if it is oriented vertically on a stalk at least six inches high. This way when liquid flows through the system a small amount of gas will get trapped in the stalk, keeping it operating as it should. The pressure in the fill line should not exceed the valve limit during the fill, so the gas buffer should remain. Only when the valves are shut off at the end of the fill may some liquid be forced out; that small amount should be acceptable. DATA LOGS FROM IOP/SOP: =======================