Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 06:39:39 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 981107 SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7, 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Turner Gloria SPIcam 11/7 18:31 19:21 Johnson Johnson, Harrison GrIm2 11/7-8 19:21 23:55 York Mallouris SPIcam 11/8 00:25 05:03 INST SCHEDULED OBS WEATH EQUIP DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B PU01/S 18:31 19:21 0.6 0 0 0 0.2 0 0 0 0 NM10/R 19:21 00:10 1.3 3.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 UC11/R 00:10 05:03 4.9 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) 1st half observing specialist: Karen Gloria The telescope was opened at 17:00 MST. I saw some image oscillations early in the evening, during the lens monitoring run. I was seeing one about every 5 minutes during the first hour of observing. I saw a few more after that. Not very often, though. The seeing looked good (1.0") in the few stars I could see in my last twilight flats, but by the time I ran my focus frame about 45 min. later, the seeing had degraded to 1.8 arcsec. Seeing did improve a bit during the evening, though. 2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan Second half went very smoothly as well, with clear skies until I closed at 06:15. The cloud camera images stopped updating after 01:27. At some point near that time, the connection with dione was dropped. I re-established the connection and did a few scanstops and scanstarts, but that didn't appear to correct the problem. The connection with washington was fine, the weather data page was updating, and the cloud camera was going through its scans just fine, but somehow the data wasn't making it through. Since the moon was bright, it wasn't difficult to ascertain that there were no clouds. I let the cloud camera continue to scan in hopes that the data could be retrieved and processed later. As on previous nights, Chris Mallouris reported a slow connection with UChicago, prohibiting him from inspecting his own images as they were taken. I checked the images over to look for any trails or jumps -- none persisted longer than two images. Here is a list of times when PMSS glitches were noted throughout the night. There does seem to be some evidence for a 5-minute frequency, especially allowing for the inherently incomplete sampling. The instrument change at midnight may also have unsettled something, since the PMSS seemed more stable during the latter parts of both evening and morning. 18:15 22:44 02:46 18:25 22:49 02:53 18:30 00:42 03:18 18:35 00:51 03:24 18:41 01:38 18:55 01:56 21:30 02:06 OBSERVER COMMENTS Joni Johnson: Another good night of observing. GRIM behaved nicely, the seeing started out so-so but improved over the night. We obtained a good amount of photometry to complete the project that GRIM's earlier problems cut short. Chris Mallouris: Since the files are so big and scp is slow (at least the connection to chicago . . .don't know if it is the same everywhere)...it makes it hard to monitor the images from here...I am guessing scp is slower than ftp??? Thanks for monitoring the images from there...it was very helpful. FOCUS LOG NOVEMBER 7 1998 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 18:30 SPIcam -100(6065) 152 57 2.6/3.1 239 16 r' 1.5 18:35 guider 51704(6064) 152 58 2.4/3.1 232 14 R 1.4 19:40 GrIm2 -100(6204) 359 60 2.5/2.5 237 14 f/5 J 1.2 22:45 guider 55857(6289) 65 46 3.6/3.1 280 23 R 1.4 00:30 SPIcam -100(6067) 170 57 3.4/3.1 170 57 g' 0.97 03:45 SPIcam -125(6088) 111 42 2.3/2.8 272 14 g' 1.3 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER NOVEMBER 7 1998 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 43 21 4 224 (SW) clear none 17:01 38 21 14 241 (WSW) clear none 18:01 37 18 15 236 (SW) clear none 19:01 37 18 15 239 (WSW) clear none 20:01 37 18 13 241 (WSW) clear none 21:01 38 16 16 275 (W) clear none 22:01 38 16 18 269 (W) clear none 23:01 38 18 17 259 (W) clear none 00:01 39 18 25 267 (W) clear none 01:01 39 18 21 253 (WSW) clear none 02:01 39 20 18 268 (W) clear none 03:01 38 20 13 262 (W) clear none 04:01 36 18 17 261 (W) clear none 05:01 37 19 12 247 (WSW) clear none 06:01 37 21 19 265 (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, Russet McMillan