Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 07:57:55 -0600 (MDT) From: Karen Gloria Subject: 3.5-m obslog 971016 THURSDAY OCTOBER 16, 1997 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Turner DIS 10/16 - - Trammell GRIM2 10/16-17 - - Skelton GRIM2 10/17 00:50 05:47 INST SCHEDULED OBS WEATH EQUIP DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B PU01/S 19:51 20:21 - 0 - 0 - 0.5 0 - 0 UC06/R 20:21 00:50 - 0 - 0 - 4.5 0 - 0 UW08/R 00:50 05:47 - 5.0 - 0 - 0 0 - 0 (note: times listed include instrument change time) ACTIVITY LOG (* means a trouble report has been issued or appended to) Charles Corson was the observing specialist for the first half of the night. Charles ran a 15 point telescope pointing map in twilight and used this to create an updated pointing model. Some serious focusing problems prevented the first two programs from doing science. Unstable focus, unexpected focus jumps, and hypersensitivity of fwhm on focus setting were some of the problems encountered. Jon Davis came in and checked the primary mirror lvdt readings. He and Charles also checked the primary mirror support system for oscillations and unusual behavior. Jan has also checked the gap between the primary mirror and the earthquake bumpers. Charles remapped the secondary mirror controller. No problems were found with any of the systems mentioned above. The focus stabilized around midnight and remained so. At this writing it isn't known what caused the problems the first half of the night. The affected programs were PU01 (Observer, Charles Corson) and UC06 (Observers Susan Trammell and Andrew Dimeo). Brooke Skelton (UW08) observed for the second half of the night. Here are Brooke's comments on her observing run. I haven't gotten feedback from the UC observers but will be working with them tonight and will include their comments in tomorrow's log. Brooke (UW08): "Everything went smoothly, it was great that the telescope was focused when I was ready to go. I only had one glitch with controlling GRIM from an mcnode: during a dither script (one that Gene Magnier and I cobbled together) I got the message "Starting exposure" and then nothing more happened. But GRIM didn't get hung up, I just offset back to the central position and started over. It's nice that that cloud cam is working again! I got some good data, I believe, which should go nicely into my thesis." FOCUS LOG OCTOBER 16 1997 Best Telescope Wind Seeing Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filter FWHM " 20:48 GRIM2 -475( ) 254 68 4.4/5.3 50 12 K 0.9 23:07 GRIM2 -465(6403) 82 57 5.2/4.8 15 3 K 1.0 23:07 GRIM2 -440(6417) 82 57 5.2/4.8 15 3 2.122 0.9 00:47 GRIM2 -430(6370) 86 76 4.4/4.6 3 7 2.122 0.9 02:25 GRIM2 -430(6393) 271 70 3.3/4.6 15 9 2.122 1.2 #The first temp is air, the second is truss, both in degrees Celsius WEATHER OCTOBER 16 1997 Wind Time Temp F Dewp. F MPH. Dir. Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 52 20 6 265 (W) 333 clear none 17:01 47 18 5 288 (WNW) 301 clear none 18:01 46 19 3 267 (W) 355 clear none 19:01 43 18 4 348 (NNW) 383 clear none 20:01 41 25 14 62 (ENE) 578 clear none 21:01 40 26 14 61 (ENE) 613 clear none 22:01 42 21 10 14 (NNE) 520 clear none 23:01 40 20 2 15 (NNE) 711 clear none 00:01 41 20 5 5 (N) 543 clear none 01:01 41 20 8 13 (NNE) 616 clear none 02:01 41 20 1 345 (NNW) 582 clear none 03:01 39 21 5 4 (N) 542 clear none 04:01 39 21 12 27 (NNE) 462 clear none 05:01 40 18 12 40 (NE) 481 clear none 06:01 40 18 10 12 (NNE) 511 clear none 07:01 40 20 10 45 (NE) 505 clear none note: the wind was coming from the azimuth listed. The convention used is north=0 degrees, east=90 degrees. The dust count is particles > 1 micron per 0.1 cu. ft. TELESCOPE STATUS Primary, secondary, and tertiary mirrors in place and collimated. Primary support system operational. Mirror ventilation system in place. Telescope drives operational. Current Remark version: 2.36. Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b11. -Karen