Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 06:19:42 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m NightLog 981116 Monday, November 16th 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5-meter Observing Log ACTUAL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E.Turner C.Hastings SPIcam 11/16 18:27 19:17 A.Diercks A.Diercks SPIcam 11/16-17 19:17 00:10 R.Wyse R.Wyse SPIcam 11/17 00:10 05:10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PU01/S 18:27 19:17 0 - 0 - 0.8 - 0 0 - UW02/R 19:17 00:10 0 - 0 - 4.9 - 0 0 - JH02/R 00:10 05:10 0 0 0 0 4.9 0.1 0 0 0 -------- ACTIVITY LOG -------- 1st half Observing Specialist: Camron Hastings We opened with another night of dry, clear skies. I gave Al Diercks the twilight time for some flats in exchange for him getting a minimal amount of lens flats for me which worked out well. Again we focused and discovered wonderful seeing, but by the time we started taking images it deteriorated rapidly. UW came on with variable seeing, at times good, at times not. There were no technical problems, all went smooth. 2nd half Observing Specialist: Russet McMillan Second half went very smoothly as well, with no meteor storm to interrupt observing. The connection with JHU stalled twice; both times, as noted previously, APO and JHU were able to communicate with the outside world but not with each other. Fortunately the lapses were short, lasting only a few minutes each time. We saw some interesting rapid focus changes (see focus log; note that the focus I and V should differ by about 30 steps) shortly after starting the second half, even though the telescope had been open all night and the weather was substantially stable. When we had a good focus, the seeing was excellent. ----- OBSERVER COMMENTS ----- FOCUS LOG November 16th 1998 Best Telescope Temp Wind Seeing Time Instrmt Focus Az El Air/Truss Dir MPH filter FWHM" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:30 SPIcam -150(6298) 156 59 9.6/10.3 016 9 r' 0.75" 18:40 Guider 49000(????) 172 60 8.4/9.9 032 7 none 1.19" 20:50 SPIcam -050(6347) 163 55 9.2/8.4 026 12 V45 0.80" 00:40 SPIcam -050(6322) 102 64 8.1/8.7 256 2 V 0.85 00:50 SPIcam -080(6291) 105 67 8.5/8.8 243 2 I 0.82 01:05 guider 50200(6276) 111 71 8.2/8.7 249 2 R 1.0 01:45 SPIcam -170(6183) 131 78 8.1/8.4 282 5 V 0.89 04:37 SPIcam -100(6212) 158 68 7.3/7.5 194 8 I 0.78 WEATHER LOG November 16th 1998 Wind Time Temp-F Dewp-F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 51 8 11 354 (N) clear none 17:01 49 2 11 7 (N) clear none 18:01 49 4 17 24 (NNE) clear none 19:01 48 2 10 10 (N) clear none 20:01 48 5 15 21 (NNE) clear none 21:01 46 3 6 35 (NE) clear none 22:01 48 5 5 350 (N) clear none 23:01 49 5 2 261 (W) clear none 00:01 50 5 3 263 (W) clear none 01:01 47 4 2 260 (W) clear none 02:01 45 12 2 261 (W) clear none 03:01 46 14 5 207 (SSW) clear none 04:01 46 6 8 198 (SSW) clear none 05:01 46 4 12 203 (SSW) clear none 06:01 42 16 8 220 (SW) 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 for the 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: 2.42a Current guide software version: GIm Ctrl v3.0b 15.out - Camron Hastings, Russet McMillan