Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 07:43:52 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 981203 Thursday, December 3rd 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5-meter Observing Log ACTUAL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Turner C.Hastings SPIcam 12/03 18:24 19:14 Harper R.Evans GRIM II 12/03-04 19:14 05:23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PU01/S 18:24 19:14 - 0.8 - 0 - 0 0 - 0 UC06/R 19:14 05:23 - 0 - 0.5 - 9.8 0 - 0 -------- ACTIVITY LOG -------- 1st half Observing Specialist: Camron Hastings I opened the dome today at 19:00 to cool telescope. The humidity has been high all night, but just started to drop. The clouds miraculously cleared at around 5pm although SPIcam was still inoperative. The CryoTiger is not cooling, and plans for repair have already been taken care of by Mark Klaene, thus PU01 did not happen tonight. We hope to have SPIcam back online tomorrow. GRIM was misbehaving right from the start (19:30). As a note, the humidity was high (70-90%) and it was cold (-1C - 3C), supporting the original hypothesis that water is condensing on the electronics somehow. The symptoms were the same as before, no flush, integrate forever, then get a bizarre 3-d looking surface frame, then possibly a good frame. This was after 60 dark exposures that appeared OK according to the observer. I continued to try and focus GRIM, and eventually we were able to take reliable frames again. It seemed most unreliable at 1.0 second exposures. Other than the equipment issues, the sky was photometric and the humidity dropped to below 50% during the first half. Bob Lowenstein and Craig Loomis worked feverishly on the programming issues on the echelle. Progress is being made every day. 2nd half Observing Specialist: Russet McMillan Second half was blissfully uneventful. ------------ Observer Comments ------------ FOCUS LOG December 3rd 1998 Best Telescope Temp (C) Wind Seeing Time Instrmt Focus Az El Air/Truss Dir MPH filter FWHM" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:50 GRIM II -150(6249) -022 46 3.1/2.9 345 18 f/5 Kp 0.94" WEATHER LOG December 3rd 1998 Wind Time Temp-F Dewp-F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 32 31 13 328 (NNW) clear none 17:01 32 31 8 355 (N) clear none 18:01 34 29 13 345 (NNW) clear none 19:01 35 28 12 13 (NNE) clear none 20:01 38 27 14 350 (N) clear none 21:01 39 26 12 344 (NNW) clear none 22:01 38 27 9 354 (N) clear none 23:01 39 23 9 354 (N) clear none 00:01 39 20 0 187 (S) clear none 01:01 39 21 8 350 (N) clear none 02:01 36 27 7 350 (N) clear none 03:01 38 26 9 278 (W) clear none 04:01 37 26 6 269 (W) clear none 05:01 41 20 11 266 (W) cirrus none 06:01 39 20 10 274 (W) clear none 07:01 42 15 17 289 (WNW) 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 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