Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2010 23:40:52 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: 2.5m obslog 20101105 (MJD 55506)
From: alaina@apo.nmsu.edu
Yes, it was good the rest of the night.
> Did the Ne lamp #1 (I assume the SW corner lamp when telescope is at
> zenith) work okay for the remainder of the night on all 8 cartridges?
>
> Unlike all other calibration lamps, the Helical Ne/Ar lamps do not have
> filament heaters, and they can tend to be a little more sluggish the
> "first" time they are turned on in colder weather.  It is my understanding
> that this behavior is most likely due to the the slowness of gas
> ionization by the 990V power supply in colder weather.   However, once the
> Ne/Ar lamps have been initially turned on, and the gas has been officially
> ionized (i.e. during preflight afternoon checks), they have always
> invariably worked fine for the remainder of the day or night.
>
> Wendell
>
>
>
> On Nov 6, 2010, at 6:52 AM, alaina@apo.nmsu.edu wrote:
>
>>
>>                       APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY SDSS 2.5M
>>
>>                                 OBSERVING LOG
>>                            Friday November  5, 2010
>>
>>                                  (MJD 55506)
>>
>> ---=== OBSERVING TEAM ===---
>>
>> Elana Malanushenko
>> Alaina Shelden
>> Kaike Pan (afternoon)
>>
>> Support: Craig Loomis (online)
>>         Jon Brinkmann
>>
>> ---=== OBSERVING PLAN ===---
>>
>> BOSS Science!
>>
>> ---=== OBSERVING SUMMARY ===---
>>
>> Clear weather and good seeing all night.
>>
>>
>> Problem:
>>  Ne lamp #1 was found very dim during afternoon checkout. But turned it
>> off,
>> and turned on for a few times, it comes out as bright as others. French
>> was
>> noticed this, and he thinks that it might be power suplly problem, and
>> will
>> investigate this on Monday.
>> Note:  it had no further problems that we saw throughout the night.
>>
>>
>> Ticket #1140 against the guiderActor.  guider off changed the guider
>> status to
>> off but did not actually stop the guider.  Craig found a bug, and filed
>> the
>> ticket.
>>
>> Please look at the sn2 plots for Cart 15 and 13.  They look similar to
>> each
>> other, and both are different from the rest.  They look partially
>> blocked...?
>>
>> By visual approximation, we see light in all cartridges except 12 and
>> 17.
>> Those look better than the others.
>>
>>
>> Observed the following:
>>
>> Cart 10   plate 4097   DONE
>> Cart 11   plate 4277   DONE
>> Cart 16   plate 4304   DONE
>> Cart 17   plate 4311   DONE
>> Cart 14   plate 4273   DONE
>> Cart 12   plate 4264   DONE
>> Cart 15   plate 3758   DONE
>> Cart 13   plate 3762   not done yet.  :(
>>
>> ---=== OBSERVING LOG ===---
>>
>> Afternoon:
>> ----------
>>  All systems and actors was checked and confirmed be okay except for Ne
>> lamp
>> #1 (see below). Bias, dark, calibrations, collimation were taken on
>> cartridge
>> 16, and they are good.
>>
>>  23:00Z Started ventilation, mounted cartridge 10 for the beginning of
>> night. Take calibrations on cartridge 10.
>>
>>  All calibration exposures were declared as test.
>>
>>  During visual check, I found that Ne lamp #1 was on but very dim. It
>> was turned off and turned back on, it was still very dim. Before I made
>> decision whether swap it out, Jon went to the site with me, both of us
>> think that it need to be swaped. Just before I did so, Alaina joined us,
>> turned Ne lamps on, this time Ne lamp #1 came out good, just as bright
>> as
>> others. Consulted with French, he thinks that it might be some problem
>> with
>> power supply, not Ne lamp bulb itself. So we decide not to swap it.
>> Frech will
>> took a look on it on Monday.
>>
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