Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 07:01:30 -0600 From: Atsuko Nitta Kleinman Subject: 25m obslog 20000824 (MJD51781) Apache Point Observatory SDSS 2.5m Observing Log Aug. 24, 2000 (MJD 51781) OBSERVING TEAM: =============== Atsuko Nitta Kleinman (APO) Scott Burles (UC) Bing Chen (JHU) -- PT VISITORS: ========= David Schlegel (PU) Scot Kleinman (APO) Steve Kent (FNAL) Craig Loomis (APO) -- phone Dan Long (APO) --- phone THE PLAN: ========= Science, check skippy, take FASTT field imaging data. SYNOPSIS FOR NIGHT: =================== Bad night. We could not find stars. (I actually never had such hard time finding stars since I took this job in Feb. ) TELESCOPE STATUS: ================= Stowed at 30 deg alt INTERLOCKS: =========== None bypassed SOFTWARE USED: ============== IOP/SOP: v3_17_5a Watcher: v2_8_3 MCP: v4_3_2 TPM: v2_0_0 AstroDa: 14_33 TCC: 2.4.0b2 WEATHER SYNOPSIS (see below for hourly data): ============================================= cloudy at the beginning, clearing later. GENERAL COMMENTS (see Problems below for details): ================================================== Afternoon/Early Evening ************************ While installing the new version of iop (v3_17_5_1), we found out that there was a line missing in the v3_17_5_1.version, a line, UPS_DIR = ups was missing. (Thanks Jon for finding this.) We are not sure how this could have happened. There was a dependency (astroDA) that was not set correct in v3_17_5_1. Therefore we went back and used v3_17_5a. I believe this is the same problem Scot K. had when he cut v3_17_5. We will consult with him tomorrow afternoon. All the crates and MCP were rebooted after Craig disconnected the old tcc25m which was confusing some of the programs. David S. took specFlats in the afternoon. Night ***** We opened around 10:30pm or so. As we started to set up to observe, we had "time out port LTA19" messages in TCC. We called Craig. He has found that mcp.login file used TCC's IP address which pointed to the tcc25m which we used for the last dark run. So he fixed that to the correct one and said will sent us email later on whatever else he finds (please see a copy of email at the "Problem" section below). We put on a new cart (cart.5 plate 373) at this point as the one we had on (cart 2 plate 352) was longer optimal. We could not find any stars when we slewed to the field, nor could we find the fk5 star even using the spiralPattern (25" radius). We were also seeing watcher errors on large alt fiducial corrections. We did see similar errors the past couple nights, but it did not come very often, and it did not seem to have any effects on our observing until tonight. Since MCP froze on us while fiducializing earlier, we went ahead and refiducialized. We found the fiducial for all axis were off, alt being the largest with about a degree or so. We then reslewed to the field. Again, no stars and again more large alt correction messages. At this point, we decided to use Dan's instruction on how to apply large fiducial corrections, After this, we went to a fk5 near Andromeda and we found it. We were able to also check that the focus we were using seem to be ok. We then went back to our field hoping to find stars, but again, no stars. At this point, we called Dan at home to ask for advice. Dan suggested to refiducialize, check telescope balance and try again with another cartridge and also look for mirror oscillation. We decided to put cart9 plate 174 which we got data without any problem two nights ago (btw this cart was not on the cart bay but inside the cart building). We had trouble bringing the telescope to the instChange position because after all the large correction applied in ALT, the ALT value given in clinometer did not agree to what MCP menu was giving. We had to fiducialize before we could bring the scope up to ALT=90. We checked the telescope balance and moved the counter weights from 270 to 250 (yes we were aware of French's email suggesting using 290, but we thought 270 and later 250 to be better), refiducialized all axis and slewed to the field. We had to do spiralPattern of 30" radius before we found a fk5 star close to the field. The calib offset in TCC gave, AZ=0.0097degree and small value in ALT (about 4"). We went back to the field and finally were able to find stars. By the time we got to this point it was less than an hour before twilight. So during the remaining time, Scott B. did some engineering tasks using TCC commands and checked some improved sop commands. We have no idea why tonight's telescope pointing was so poor. We have been keeping eyes on the Murmur messages on the fiducial corrections and find there were many many many of them through the night. Some of it is in the problem section. It shows that one large correction was applied to ALT, and then later complaining about much smaller correction being too big to apply. endNight -doTpm ran successfully (closed PR1153) After running endNight for TPM, we ran it for Spectro separately and successfully (and we rejoice every time it runs successfully). Last time specFlats were taken, the files did not archived and were erased before David S. could take a detail look therefore we archived them this time. I did not think of archiving until Scott told me what happened to the last specFlats. So that is why we ended up running endNight twice. DATA ACQUISITION (see IOP/SOP output below): ============================================ IMAGING: -------- Run Type --- ---- SPECTROSCOPY: ------------- Frame Type ------ ----- 6208 bias 6209 bias MIRRORS: ======== PRIMARY: -------- MIGS Axial A= 1.9309 1.9310 Axial B= 0.5580 0.5585 Axial C= 0.5550 0.5560 Transverse D=0.4065 0.4065 Lateral E= 1.9155 1.9165 Lateral F= 0.4165 0.4170 GALILS Commanded: Actual: SETMIR VALUES primDesOrient: primOrient: SECONDARY: ---------- Focus:-200.0 Temp:11.8 Altitude:30 MIGS Axial A=-1.136 Axial B=-1.0369 Axial C= -1.0750 Transverse D= 0.17 GALILS Commanded: Actual: SETMIR VALUES secDesOrient: secOrient: FOCUS LOG: ========== M1 Piston M2 Piston Temp Wind Time Inst setmir TCC setmir Az Alt C Dir MPH filt FWHM LN2 SCHEDULE: ============= Spectro filled at 6am WEATHER DATA: ============= Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust DIMM Sky Precip. ---- ----- ----- -------------- ---- ---- --- ------ 16:01 63 45 1 190 (S) 740 17:01 61 48 0 210 (SSW) 628 18:01 61 45 0 216 (SW) 504 19:01 61 41 6 177 (S) 536 20:01 59 41 11 160 (SSE) 492 cloudy 21:01 58 42 11 175 (S) 561 cirrus 22:01 57 42 10 175 (S) 570 cirrus 23:01 57 43 8 173 (S) 748 cirrus 00:01 57 43 12 174 (S) 710 cirrus 01:01 58 43 10 179 (S) 729 cirrus 02:01 57 43 11 177 (S) 753 cirrus 03:01 56 43 12 153 (SSE) 885 cirrus 04:01 56 44 10 180 (S) 831 cirrus 05:01 54 44 6 164 (SSE) 929 cirrus 06:01 53 44 1 139 (SE) 1100 cirrus [pmt]cl = partly, mostly, totally cloudy PROBLEMS: ========= Craig's email on "Notes on tonight's MCP problem" The MCP was found running, but unresponsive to commands on the TCC port. When the crate was rebooted, I noticed that the mcp.login file explicitly (and incorrectly) defined the tcc25m address. Also, when the TCC sent the MCP commands following from an AXIS INIT, both TEL1 INIT and TEL2 INIT succeeded, but the SET.TIME did not even echo and the port was subsequently unresponsive. So I changed the address of tcc25m in /p/mcpbase/etc/mcp.login. After another reboot, the MCP behaved (at least through the AXIS INIT.) If the MCP cannot be configured to use the name servers (is "tcc25m" used too early to access the vxworks resolver?), we should think about how best to reconfigure the mcp should the tcc machine have to be swapped. The boot output is in sdsshost:/data/scratch/cloomis/ if someone wants to look for other problems. - craig ************************************* Few Murmur messages on the fiducial ************************************* Aug 25 03:39:29 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo alt fiducial 60.03 deg Aug 25 03:39:29 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo err = 132 poserr = 236 ticks Aug 25 03:39:39 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo alt fiducial 75.16 deg Aug 25 03:39:39 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo err = 138 poserr = 293 ticks Aug 25 03:39:55 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo alt fiducial 89.81 deg Aug 25 03:39:55 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo err = 137 poserr = 1893591376 ticks Aug 25 03:46:39 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_E_trcErr Invalid barcode in azimuth: fididx = 12507144, pos = 1098749 ------> It looks as if huge correction of poserr = 1893591376 ticks was applied. Aug 25 03:52:54 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo alt fiducial 75.16 deg Aug 25 03:52:54 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo err = 119 poserr = 412 ticks Aug 25 03:52:56 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_S_trcSucc failed to read latch position: status = 0 axis 0x4 Aug 25 03:56:06 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo alt fiducial 60.03 deg Aug 25 03:56:06 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo err = 145 poserr = 381 ticks Aug 25 03:56:09 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_S_trcSucc failed to read latch position: status = 0 axis 0x4 Aug 25 03:58:05 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo alt fiducial 60.03 deg Aug 25 03:58:05 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo err = -98 poserr = 283 ticks Aug 25 03:58:07 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_S_trcSucc failed to read latch position: status = 0 axis 0x4 Aug 25 03:58:13 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo alt fiducial 60.03 deg Aug 25 03:58:13 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo err = 135 poserr = 418 ticks ---> most corrections seem to be small here. ug 25 04:07:16 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_I_trcInfo Applying correction -237 to altitude Aug 25 04:07:16 sdssmcp tLatch dsc_E_trcErr correction for altitude -237 is too large ---> here it says -237 is too large a correction when it had no problem correcting 1893591376 ticks earlier!