Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 07:12:20 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Lof 981219 SATURDAY DECEMBER 19, 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Wyder Wyder SPIcam 12/19-20 18:29 00:10 York Richards DIS 12/20 00:10 05:33 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B UW10/R 18:29 00:10 0 - 0 - 5.7 - 0 0 - UC01/R 00:10 05:33 0 - 0 - 5.4 - 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 sky was quite cloudy this afternoon. It cleared off just before the end of twilight, which meant Ted Wyder wasn't able to get his twilight flats. The telescope was opened at 18:15. No problems to report, other than a stiff SW wind which caused some wind shake when the telescope was pointed in that direction. Ted noticed some uneven sky illumination when the telescope was pointed towards the WNW. 2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan Second half was remained clear, and the wind was strong but steady. The telescope and instrument behaved well, and DIS showed no sign of cryogen overuse. At 02:25, there was a glitch in the network both globally and locally. I lost communication with the observer and the guider monitor crashed, but also Remark's ability to communicate with the mcnode was affected. At the same time, the extra monitor in the control room hung up, although tycho was fine. I had to type in offsets manually through the mcnode for a while to keep the target centered on the slit. After I restarted Remark, the offset trouble cleared up. The observer had to restart his own Remark to resume communications. After this (about fifteen minutes of difficulties), everything seemed normal. Craig Loomis examined the network behavior and concluded that an internal router at NMSU was at fault. I had a little trouble with the guider also; it made the "center is not highest pixel" complaint unusually often. This was in horizon rotation, and occasionally some defect was apparent in the subframe to cause the complaint -- but it also occurred with short exposures on nice, bright stars that produced round images with no obvious problem. During the network difficulty, this error message appeared with almost every guider image, forcing me to guide manually on that target. Later the incidence of the error decreased, but it still appeared more often than usual. OBSERVER COMMENTS T.Wyder (UW10): Tonight was a productive night and I was able to obtain many useful images. Spicam, the telescope and the guider were all working well. Tonight there were no problems with the net and I was able to ftp images over with no problems. Two of my targets happened to be in the northwest. Observing the first at a zenith angle of about 33 degrees, I noticed the same strange sky pattern as on previous nights. The scattered light disappeared when I went to the second field later which I was observing at a zenith distance of 50 degrees. G.Richards (UC01): Things went rather smoothly during the second half of the night. We had a minor network glitch, but no time was lost. No problems with gratings, lamps, or anything of the sort. All in all about as well as one can expect a half night to go. FOCUS LOG DECEMBER 19 1998 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 18:20 SPIcam -225(5902) 277 70 2.1/3.2 189 20 V 1.1 18:25 guider 51250(5894) 277 69 1.9/2.8 196 21 R 1.4 20:10 SPIcam -150( ) 162 61 2.1/2.0 206 23 V 1.1 21:10 SPIcam -150(5925) 208 74 2.3/2.2 201 24 V 1.3 00:15 DIS -090(6044) 230 60 0.9/0.8 215 22 none 1.46 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER DECEMBER 19 1998 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 36 12 15 245 (WSW) overcast none 17:01 37 12 14 241 (WSW) mstly cldy none 18:01 37 9 16 193 (SSW) mstly cldy none 19:01 37 14 22 193 (SSW) clear none 20:01 36 16 23 198 (SSW) clear none 21:01 36 14 21 192 (SSW) clear none 22:01 34 16 25 207 (SSW) clear none 23:01 34 17 24 204 (SSW) clear none 00:01 34 17 23 202 (SSW) clear none 01:01 34 13 25 219 (SW) clear none 02:01 33 14 20 239 (WSW) clear none 03:01 32 14 21 224 (SW) clear none 04:01 32 15 16 201 (SSW) clear none 05:01 31 15 20 216 (SW) clear none 06:01 30 14 25 215 (SW) clear none 07:01 31 13 24 226 (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 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