Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 06:39:22 -0700 (MST)
From: Charles Corson
Subject: 3.5m obslog 971120
                         WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 20 1997
                         APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY
                              OBSERVING  LOG
                                    ACTUAL
ASTRONOMER   INSTRUMENT   DATE   START FINISH
Engr	     spi/gdr      11/20  20:30 05:30
 INST        SCHEDULED      OBS      WEATH     EQUIP   DAY   NOTUSED
I/RS/DN    START FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B   USE   D    B
EN01/)     18:25 05:13    0.4  10.4 0    0    0    0    0    0    0
(note: times listed include instrument change time)
                               ACTIVITY LOG
(* means a trouble report has been issued or appended to)
The engineering run scheduled for WSMR was cancelled due to a prospect of
poor skies.
York Brown and Dave Woods installed the updated pumps/pump controller for
the PMS.  Work continued until about 20:00hrs.
Karen, Jeff Morgan, and I obtained more of the focal plane
characterization using the guide camera.  We also obtained some
preliminary data on several circumpolar fields for possible use as
throughput standards with the guider.  The night was not photometric so,
no photometry was done.
More work was done to fully characterize the guider/tracking
characteristics.  Open loop, the telescope tracks at about the 0.25
arc-sec rms level.  Closing the loop and guiding did improve tracking
performance, as much as a 60% decrease in rms.  Short guider exposures are
obviously best, 20sec guide exposures provide only about 10% improvement
in the rms.  -these test were performed using spicam to measure tracking
perfomance over 20min intervals.  One should expect to guide with short
exposures using 15-15.5mag stars and brighter, assuming clear skies and
reasonable focus.
A 100pnt pointing podel was also obtained.  All sky rms was 3.3arc-sec.
                                FOCUS LOG
                             NOVEMBER 20 1997
                  Best   Telescope           Wind            Seeing
Time   Inst      Focus    Az  El    #Temp   Dir MPH  filter  FWHM "
20:40	spi	+25(6062) 346 58  2.7/3.2   270 11   R       1.5
21:00   spi     +50(6086) 200 57  2.5/2.9   273 12   R       1.3
21:39   spi     +50(6082) 335 54  2.3/2.6   270  8   R       1.4
21:55   spi     +50(6085) 233 53  2.2/2.5   287  9   R       1.2
00:23   spi    -100(6021) 160 45  0.9/1.0     7 23   R       1.9
#The first temp is air, the second is truss, both in degrees Celsius
                                 WEATHER
                              NOVEMBER 19 1997
                                   Wind
    Time  Temp F  Dewp. F  MPH.   Dir.       Dust    Sky          Precip.
     16:01    45    23                        215    prtly cldy   none
     17:01    40    21     11   268  (W)      422    clear        none
     18:01    39    24      9   261  (W)      470    clear        none
     19:01    36    24     16   240  (WSW)    441    clear        none
     20:01    37    27     10   268  (W)      421    clear        none
     21:01    37    26     10   267  (W)      356    clear        none
     22:01    36    25     11   284  (WNW)    404    clear        none
     23:01    36    21      0   104  (ESE)    440    clear        none
     00:01    34    16     22     8  (N)      528    clear        none
     01:01    33    14     16    12  (NNE)    509    clear        none
     02:01    33    14     30   353  (N)      482    clear        none
     03:01    31    17     20     7  (N)      557    clear        none
     04:01    30    17     22   349  (NNW)    646    clear        none
     05:01    31    12     21    13  (NNE)    637    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.
Charles