Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 07:06:15 -0700 (MST)
From: Russet McMillan
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 981212
		     Apache Point Observatory, Sunspot, NM
		         Saturday, December 12th, 1998
                     3.5-meter Night Observing Log
				  Actual
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ASTRONOMER       OBSERVER(S)     INSTRUMENT      DATE     START  FINISH
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E.Turner         C.Hastings      DIS            12/12     18:26  19:16
D.York           G.Richards      DIS            12/12-13  19:16  05:29
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 INST       SCHEDULED      WEATH     EQUIP      OBS     DAY    NOTUSED
I/RS/DN   START  FINISH    D    B    D    B    D    B   USE    D    B
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PU01/S    18:24  19:16     0    -    0    -   0.8   -    0     0    -
UC01/R    19:16  05:29     0    0    0    0   6.8  3.4   0     0    0
               -------------- Activity Log --------------
1st Half Observing Specialist: Camron Hastings
The dome was opened at 17:50 for cooling to begin. The 2.5-meter
mirror returned from the aluminization in Tucson tonight at 17:45 and
the unloading of it delayed any activity with the 3.5-meter until they
finished at about 18:30. Never-the-less, I still managed to get a few
lens images with poor seeing.
Gordon began his run at 19:15 and the net congestion of the past few
days seems to have abated some. All went smoothly first half.
2nd Half Observing Specialist: Russet McMillan
Second half started out clear.  The seeing deteriorated shortly after
midnight, and around 02:00 some cirrus appeared for a couple of hours.
The net was reasonably fast, but we encountered some trouble with the
calibration lamps when the observer's netscape crashed *after* the
lamps had been turned on, but without releasing the connection to the
lamp web page.  We had to wait ten minutes for the connection to time
out before we could turn off the lamps and start centering on the
target.
Jon Davis was around until late in the evening getting Spicam cooled.
We started taking some darks to check the instrument status around
23:00.  Even by 04:00, the images showed significant dark current
(25-30 counts per minute).  The temperature sensors claimed the chip
was cold, but the results certainly *looked* like dark current, with a
reasonable noise distribution, counts increasing pretty much linearly
above bias with exposure time, and the only structure being a diagonal
ramp across the chip that could be due to the readout time.
              ------------ Observer Comments ------------
UC01 (G.Richards):
A pretty good night in general.  The skies were very clear to start,
the seeing was only so-so at times, but we managed to get 7 hours of
spectra on 6 targets.  However, if I have done my math right, that
also means that we spent 3 hours doing something else.  I'd guess that
half of that was target acquisition (i.e. waiting for the slit viewer
to read out), the rest being taken up by network problems, focusing
and chip readout.
			       FOCUS LOG
                           December 12th 1998
                   Best    Telescope    Temp      Wind          Seeing
 Time  Instrmt    Focus     Az   El   Air/Truss  Dir MPH  filter FWHM"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
18:45  DIS     -160(6058)  215   55   1.6/2.3    030  15   g&r   1.17"
19:10  Guider 52997(6058)  229   50   1.9/1.9    035  13   none  1.09"
                               WEATHER LOG
                           December 12th 1998
                                  Wind
     Time   Temp-F Dewp-F MPH   Direction    Dust      Sky      Precip
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
     16:01    36    12      0   109  (ESE)            clear      none
     17:01    34     7     11    10  (N)              clear      none
     18:01    35     2     16    27  (NNE)            clear      none
     19:01    35     0     14    35  (NE)             clear      none
     20:01    35    -3     15    22  (NNE)            clear      none
     21:01    35    -3     18    19  (NNE)            clear      none
     22:01    35    -1     11    27  (NNE)            clear      none
     23:01    35     0     10    35  (NE)             clear      none
     00:01    37     1      9    57  (NE)             clear      none
     01:01    38     1      0    22  (NNE)            clear      none
     02:01    36     0      8    86  (E)              cirrus     none
     03:01    34    -3      9    80  (E)              cirrus     none
     04:01    34     1     12    70  (ENE)            clear      none
     05:01    34     2      9    75  (ENE)            clear      none
     06:01    36     3      6    69  (ENE)            clear      none
     07:01    37     3      6    82  (E)              cirrus     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
- NCH, RM