Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 08:07:46 -0600 (MDT) From: Karen Gloria Subject: 3.5-m obslog 970528 MONDAY MAY 28, 1997 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Diercks/Stubbs SPIcam 5/28-29 21:43 04:18 INST SCHEDULED OBS WEATH EQUIP DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B EN01/R 21:43 04:18 3.8 2.7 0 0 0 0.1 0 0 0 (note: times listed include instrument change time) ACTIVITY LOG (* means a trouble report has been issued or appended to) The telescope was opened at 19:30 MDT. The instrument rotator was rezeroed in the afternoon. Chris Stubbs and Alan Diercks were the observers, conducting engineering tests with SPIcam. The sky was not photometric, so we didn't take throughput data. Chris and Alan took focus data at various zenith angles to check the image quality as a function of altitude, as a test of the new primary mirror support system. I have included some of these data below. The seeing was 1.0 arcsec near the zenith and 1.3 arcsec down at 3 airmass. Alan and Chris then took instrument block data for SPIcam. I ran this through the data fitter and implemented the block. They did some test drift scanning and adjusted the instrument block, followed by extensive drift scan testing. They obtained a sub-arcsecond drift scanned frame. They lost a bit of time due to MC and TCC hang-ups. The mc had the TCC bogged down, but I got that all sorted out. SPIcam experienced a large focus shift from -100 to -350, almost instantaneously. This is interesting because the temperature had been steady for several hours and the altitude wasn't changing much. So what changed? I looked at the TCC output and didn't find any secondary mirror communication problems but this should be checked again. When I focused DIS a short while later, its focus was more negative than is usual, but had shifted by dawn (by how much, I don't know. I didn't have time for another focus sequence.). I took DIS instrument block data to help Russ Owen with his work on the problem with the instrument data fitting routine. I am not using this data to update the current instrument block. Telescope usage statistics for the period 5/22/97 through 5/28/97: DARK BRIGHT Hrs. lost to weather 2.2 9.9 Hrs. lost to equip. failure 0.0 0.1 Useful hours 9.3 25.3 Total hours 11.5 35.3 Percentages of total dark and bright hours: % lost to weather 25.9% % lost to equip. failure 0.2% % useful hours 73.9% FOCUS LOG MAY 28 1997 Best Telescope Wind Seeing Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filter FWHM " 20:45 SPIcam 0(6490) 148 82 14.3/15.9 347 5 g' 1.1 21:10 SPIcam - 50(6646) 178 42 13.8/15.6 306 6 B45 1.0 21:20 SPIcam -100(6745) 182 24 14.2/15.4 B45 1.3 21:30 SPIcam - 50(6503) 214 81 14.2/15.3 345 4 B45 0.9 22:15 SPIcam 0(6750) 175 20 15.0/14.9 274 1 B45 1.3 04:25 DIS -450(6006) 241 60 10.4/11.9 137 13 r 1.4 #The first temp is air, the second is truss, both in degrees Celsius WEATHER MAY 28 1997 Wind Time Temp F Dewp. F MPH. Dir. Sky Precip. 16:01 67 30 9 255 (WSW) ptly cldy none 17:01 65 31 4 268 (W) ptly cldy none 18:01 65 30 12 267 (W) cirrus none 19:01 62 29 8 294 (WNW) cirrus none 20:01 56 30 4 348 (NNW) cirrus none 21:01 57 26 10 308 (NW) cirrus none 22:01 59 25 1 283 (WNW) cirrus none 23:01 59 27 5 282 (WNW) cirrus none 00:01 58 28 5 266 (W) cirrus none 01:01 58 27 3 270 (W) cirrus none 02:01 57 27 3 274 (W) cirrus none 03:01 53 36 4 95 (E) clear none 04:01 51 41 16 120 (ESE) clear none 05:01 51 41 11 139 (SE) clear none 06:01 54 39 8 181 (S) clear none 07:01 54 40 12 176 (S) clear none note: the wind was coming from the azimuth listed. The convention used is north=0 degrees, east=90 degrees. 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 Ctrl SI502 6.3.96. -Karen