Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 06:53:03 -0700 (MST) From: Karen Gloria Subject: 3.5-m obslog 981106 FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6, 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Adler Adler DIS 11/6 - - Johnson Johnson, Harrison DIS 11/6-7 18:32 00:10 York Mallouris SPIcam 11/7 00:10 05:02 INST SCHEDULED OBS WEATH EQUIP DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B UC09/R 17:02 18:32 - - - - - - 0 - 1.5 NM10/R 18:32 00:10 1.3 4.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 UC11/R 00:10 05:02 - 3.8 - 0.7 - 0.3 0 0 0 (note: times listed include instrument change time) ACTIVITY LOG (* means a trouble report has been issued or appended to) 1st half observing specialist: Dan Long 2nd half observing specialist: Karen Gloria The telescope was opened at 16:40 MST. It was closed at 04:05, due to clouds, and reopened at 04:48 MST. The observers were Joni Johnson and Tom Harrison for NM10, and Chris Mallouris for UC11. The Adler program was canceled due to facility work at the Adler Planetarium. Dan observed some minor primary mirror support system (PMSS) twitches during the first half of the night, about once per hour. Other than that, there were no problems to report. I saw a just couple PMSS twitches during the second half of the night. During the second half of the night, the seeing became really awful due to atmospheric conditions. It took a long time to determine the best focus. It was so bad at the beginning of Chris Mallouris' time that I pulled the instrument off the telescope to check if there was condensation on the camera window causing the poor image quality. Although there wasn't any, the time it took to check this is noted as instrument down time. I had to top of the DIS transfer dewar at midnight, as it was down to 55 lbs. This means it used up 25 lbs in 7 hours, which is more than it ought to. STATUS OF GRIM2: As of this writing, Grim2 is working. I expect it to be available to the observers originally scheduled to use it this weekend (NM11 and UC07). OBSERVER COMMENTS NM10 (Johnson/Harrison): "We had a very good night. We were allowed to start early as Adler didn't want their time at twilight. We were thus able to get spectra of two recent novae before they disappeared for the season. We also obtained multiple high-res spectra of Nova Cas 1995 and CI Cam. Decent seeing, good observing conditions, no instrument faults, and quick responses from Dan made this a very productive night. FOCUS LOG NOVEMBER 6 1998 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 19:30 DIS - 60(6193) 20 51 3.4/2.8 221 20 r 1.5 01:45 SPIcam -100(6143) 258 27 1.0/1.3 243 22 g' 2.8 01:50 guider 50352(5983) 180 58 0.9/1.3 239 26 R 2.2 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER NOVEMBER 6 1998 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 43 28 8 234 (SW) clear none 17:01 39 26 13 254 (WSW) clear none 18:01 37 24 20 232 (SW) clear none 19:01 38 25 19 216 (SW) clear none 20:01 37 24 19 224 (SW) clear none 21:01 38 24 19 220 (SW) clear none 22:01 38 20 13 241 (WSW) clear none 23:01 36 19 22 235 (SW) clear none 00:01 37 19 20 261 (W) clear none 01:01 35 22 21 238 (WSW) clear none 02:01 34 25 21 255 (WSW) clear none 03:01 32 26 10 248 (WSW) clear none 04:01 33 27 15 227 (SW) mstly cldy none 05:01 32 27 23 270 (W) 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: 2.42a. Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b15. - Karen Gloria, Dan Long