Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 06:25:04 -0700 (MST) From: Pete Newman Subject: 2.5m obslog 20010325 (MJD 51994) Apache Point Observatory - SDSS 2.5m Observing Log 2001 March 25 - MJD 51994 PEOPLE ====== 2.5m Observers: Pete Newman (APO), Jurek Krezsinski (APO) Support: Steph Snedden (APO) Visitors: Douglas Tucker (FNAL) OBSERVING PLAN ============== Science. Imaging as priority, then spectroscopy. OBSERVING SUMMARY ================= Spectroscopy all night with variable clouds and occasional clear spells. Plates 500, 514, 293, 533 and 309 done. Plate 367 partly done. A good night with no new major problems but some interesting old ones possibly solved. OBSERVERS' LOG ============== Thin patchy cirrus at sunset so we began with spectroscopy. About 01:00 MST, we hoped to switch to imaging (after plate 293) as the satellites said the clouds had gone for the night, and the seeing was good. But 10 minutes before the end of 293, and after going through all the decision making needed, the gods moved against us and cloud and worse seeing returned. Ho, hum. We managed to observe: Cartridge 7, plate 500. Finished in 3 exposures. All axes halted during the first smear, so we took another one - see Problems section for details. Also see Problems section re the serious cartridge 7/plate 542 problems encountered earlier in this dark run. Cartridge 6, plate 503. Possibly no usable data. See Problems section for details. The end of the usable exposure time for the plate passed, so we moved on. Cartridge 2, plate 514. Finished in 3 exposures. Clouds clearing and seeing improved. Cartridge 4, plate 293. Finished in 3 exposures. Mostly clear skies and good seeing. Cartridge 9, plate 533. Finished in 3 exposures. Clear skies. Cartridge 5, plate 309. Finished in 3 exposures. Clear skies. SoS reported Red Monster in all three r1 exposures. We are sure the hand paddle _was_ turned off. See Problems section. Cartridge 8, plate 367. Not complete after 3 exposures. See Problems section. IMAGING DATA ============ Run Stripe Strip Flavor Lambda Last Frame # Begin End ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2212 100 O bias -120.63 -103.18 47 doghouse bias SPECTROSCOPY DATA ================= UT Exp Time flavor comment =============================================== ------ sequence 9289, plate -9999 ------- 23:14 9289 0.0 bias {{}} 00:11 9290 0.0 bias {{}} ------ sequence 9291, plate 500 ------- 02:26 9291 10.0 flat pre-flat 02:28 9292 2.0 arc pre-arc 02:47 9293 900.0 target science 03:04 9294 901.0 target science 03:22 9295 900.0 target science 03:28 9296 240.0 smear {{Smear Pattern, axes halted in 2nd exposure}} 03:37 9297 240.0 smear {{Smear Pattern}} 03:40 9298 10.0 flat post-flat 03:42 9299 2.0 arc post-arc ------ sequence 9300, plate 503 ------- 03:59 9300 10.0 flat pre-flat 04:01 9301 2.0 arc pre-arc 04:19 9302 901.0 target science {{Is the poor SoS S/N is really poor?}} 04:37 9303 900.0 target science {{Is the poor SoS S/N is really poor?}} 04:56 9304 901.0 target science {{Is the poor SoS S/N is really poor?}} 05:04 9305 240.0 smear {{Smear Pattern}} 05:07 9306 10.0 flat post-flat 05:09 9307 2.0 arc post-arc ------ sequence 9308, plate 514 ------- 05:29 9308 10.0 flat pre-flat 05:31 9309 2.0 arc pre-arc 05:50 9310 900.0 target science 06:07 9311 900.0 target science 06:25 9312 900.0 target science 06:32 9313 240.0 smear {{Smear Pattern}} 06:35 9314 10.0 flat post-flat 06:37 9315 2.0 arc post-arc ------ sequence 9316, plate 293 ------- 06:55 9316 10.0 flat pre-flat 06:57 9317 2.0 arc pre-arc 07:16 9318 900.0 target science 07:34 9319 901.0 target science 07:51 9320 901.0 target science 07:58 9321 240.0 smear {{Smear Pattern}} 08:01 9322 10.0 flat post-flat 08:03 9323 2.0 arc post-arc ------ sequence 9324, plate 533 ------- 08:19 9324 10.0 flat pre-flat 08:21 9325 2.0 arc pre-arc 08:39 9326 901.0 target science 08:57 9327 901.0 target science 09:14 9328 900.0 target science 09:21 9329 240.0 smear {{Smear Pattern}} 09:24 9330 10.0 flat post-flat 09:26 9331 2.0 arc post-arc ------ sequence 9332, plate 309 ------- 09:42 9332 10.0 flat pre-flat 09:44 9333 2.0 arc pre-arc 10:02 9334 900.0 target science 10:20 9335 900.0 target science 10:37 9336 901.0 target science 10:44 9337 240.0 smear {{Smear Pattern}} 10:46 9338 10.0 flat post-flat 10:48 9339 2.0 arc post-arc ------ sequence 9340, plate 367 ------- 11:02 9340 10.0 flat pre-flat 11:04 9341 2.0 arc pre-arc 11:22 9342 900.0 target science 11:39 9343 900.0 target science 11:57 9344 900.0 target science 12:04 9345 240.0 smear {{Smear Pattern}} 12:06 9346 10.0 flat post-flat 12:09 9347 2.0 arc post-arc Plate 500 was observed in sequence(s) 9291 for a total of 2701 seconds Plate 503 was observed in sequence(s) 9300 for a total of 2702 seconds Plate 514 was observed in sequence(s) 9308 for a total of 2700 seconds Plate 293 was observed in sequence(s) 9316 for a total of 2702 seconds Plate 533 was observed in sequence(s) 9324 for a total of 2702 seconds Plate 309 was observed in sequence(s) 9332 for a total of 2701 seconds Plate 367 was observed in sequence(s) 9340 for a total of 2700 seconds TAPES ===== To FNAL: JL3825 At APO: JL3824 PROBLEMS ======== Watcher reported a critical error at 17:38 - Secondary Dewar Pressure (10 : Mar 25 17:38:07 MST) error. We did cc stopfillseq, cc startfillseq to force a fill, and did not see a recurrence. The observations with cartridge 7, plate 500, let us determine that the problem with the plate 542 observations on this cartridge over the last few nights is probably _not_ due to the cartridge, and may be due to a problem with the positions of the holes in plate 542. A discussion email to sdss-plates and sdss-obs has been sent. Plate 500, exposure 9296: We saw all axes halt on the second smear exposure on the first plate. We repeated the smear. At the same time, the watcher reported the following errors: TCCStatus:alt (axis halted by a problem: Mar 25 20:25:07 MST) TCCStatus:rot (axis halted by a problem: Mar 25 20:25:07 MST) TCCStatus:az (axis halted by a problem: Mar 25 20:25:07 MST) Plate 503: although the clouds increased somewhat when this plate was mounted, we expected decent S/N based on the efficiency meter readings of > 70% on the guider monitor and obvious emission lines seen on the spectro camera displays. We were therefore surprised by S/N^2 values i4l SPECTROSCOPY DATA: iop> sc4l, then s4l MIGS: iop> m4l, start of run, track 121,30, focus=0, scale=1 FOCUS LOG: iop> f4l AXIS OFFSETS: iop> i4l LN2 180-LITER DEWARS: from TPM display at time noted. WEATHER DATA: from 'wlf Weather-yyyymmdd' on wx@marmot:~/data MAIL TO: obs-report-25m@apo.nmsu.edu SUBJECT: 2.5m obslog yyyymmdd (MJD xxxxx)