Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 07:08:58 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 981215 TUESDAY DECEMBER 15, 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Anderson Anderson, Williams SPIcam 12/15-16 18:27 00:10 Wyder Wyder SPIcam 12/16 00:10 05:31 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B UW04/R 18:27 00:10 0 - 0 - 5.7 - 0 0 - UW06/R 00:10 05:31 0 0 0.5 0.3 4.1 0.5 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. Scott Anderson and Ben Williams observed remotely from UW. SPIcam is back in operation, although without temperature regulation, as there is a problem with the heater. The net between APO and UW experienced several periods of excruciating slowness. 2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan We saw several extreme slowdowns of the net at the beginning of second half. Although there have been slow net complaints for over a week now, this is the first time we've seen it at such a late hour. The telescope was pointing and tracking very well, but we saw one image with definite evidence of PMSS motion. SPIcam was well behaved at first, but it had some readout problems that increased as the night went on. Check out images dec15.0042, 65, and 66 for two different problems, possibly occurring in the readout process. Several other images showed streaking in the background. At first these problems only lasted for one or two images, then cleared up. At 05:15, SPIcam stopped producing useable images altogether, instead putting out fancy noise patterns. I tried the reset switch and checked the seating of the cables, but nothing seemed to help. The observer was unable to obtain any more data images or twilight flats. OBSERVER COMMENTS S.Anderson (UW04): There were net problems again tonight for UW remote observers, and again most severe early in the evening, but with occasional problems throughout the 1st half. Otherwise however, telescope and instrument (SPIcam) performance was excellent. Special thanks to Karen and Russet for extra assistance during slow-net intervals. T. Wyder (UW06): For most of my time everything went extremely well. The pointing, tracking and guiding were all working very well. Starting around 2:30 am MST, we began to have problems with spicam. All of the images I took tonight are in the /export/images directory on tycho. Image dec15.0042.fits showed a few horizontal streaks across the image, some which extended into the overscan. The problem then seemed to go away after the next image. Everything weemed to be fine again until image #65. In the upper third of the image, stars are visible. No stars were visible in the bottom third of the image where the average count level was 80 ADU with a standard deviation of 3 ADU. The entire next image showed this same count level with nothing from the sky visible. Then everything seemed fine again until near twlight. Then starting with image #86, we began getting these same blank images with a mean count level of 80. Russet tried resetting spicam and checked a few of the cables but nothing helped. I was not able to get any more images after that. FOCUS LOG DECEMBER 15 1998 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 18:25 SPIcam -200(5941) 155 55 1.4/2.5 107 9 H-alpha 1.0 18:40 guider 52700( ) 165 55 1.0/2.2 110 9 R+ND2 1.4 20:45 SPIcam -175(5961) 217 52 1.9/1.8 128 12 H-alpha 0.93 21:00 guider 51178(5923) 200 61 2.2/1.8 145 13 R 1.5 21:50 SPIcam -175(5907) 193 57 2.0/1.6 160 17 H-alpha 1.8 00:20 SPIcam -175(5926) 144 51 0.8/1.1 125 1 V 1.6 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER DECEMBER 15 1998 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 40 22 3 253 (WSW) clear none 17:01 37 22 1 133 (SE) clear none 18:01 34 21 7 95 (E) clear none 19:01 36 20 8 110 (ESE) clear none 20:01 37 20 13 138 (SE) clear none 21:01 36 22 13 144 (SE) clear none 22:01 35 22 13 146 (SE) clear none 23:01 36 24 9 182 (S) clear none 00:01 34 24 5 143 (SE) clear none 01:01 33 25 5 169 (SSE) clear none 02:01 34 25 6 181 (S) clear none 03:01 33 24 5 186 (S) clear none 04:01 34 24 3 241 (WSW) clear none 05:01 35 21 4 256 (WSW) clear none 06:01 35 20 5 263 (W) clear none 07:01 35 20 5 279 (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