Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 06:07:37 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 981207 MONDAY DECEMBER 7, 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Wang Thorburn, Wang Echelle 12/7-8 18:25 00:10 Staff McMillan guider 12/8 00:10 05:26 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B EN03/S 18:25 00:10 0 0.8 0 0 3.1 2.0 0 0 0 EN01/S 00:10 05:26 0 0 0 0 0 5.3 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 17:10, it was closed at 22:10 due to high humidity. On sky engineering tests were performed with the echelle. Although there is still some work to be done, a lot was accomplished. 2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan Second half remained clear, and the humidity was consistently low, unlike the wide variations seen during first half. After Karen showed me how to rotate the tertiary back to the Nasmyth2 position, I ran a pointing model using the guider. Unfortunately, the seeing was pretty bad (2-3 arcsec). The resultant output showed an RMS of 6.5 arcsec over the sky, which is on the large side. I tried the model both with and without a suspicious point that occurred when the rotator wound itself up and stopped tracking briefly. The results from the edited data (148 points) were saved in telmod.dat;87, and the results from the full model (149 points) were saved in telmod.dat;88 -- there's no significant difference between the two. Printouts of the results are in the control room. I did not apply either model in the TCC since they seemed to compare so poorly with previous models -- but maybe that was just because the tertiary was moved? Since I thought the poor seeing/focus might have contributed to the large RMS, I took the time to refocus the guider very carefully (best focus was still 2 arcsec), and tried to run another pointing model. This model had to be aborted because after 47 successful points, suddenly no stars were showing up in the guider FOV. The last image which did have a star showed some trailing, even though the exposure was only 4 seconds long. Perhaps movement in the primary due to frozen condensation in the PMSS affected the pointing? After aborting the model, I tried some manual offsets to find the star, and confirmed that it was more than 1 arcminute away from the center of the field, but it seemed to move inconsistently as I offset. That could have been the PMSS, or it could have been errors on my part -- not sure. I did not have time to run another pointing model before dawn. OBSERVER COMMENTS FOCUS LOG DECEMBER 7 1998 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 20:00 echelle -2200(3754) 236 42 -8.4/-7.5 257 2.5 none ~1.6 21:30 echelle -2800(3613) 162 72 -8.7/-9.0 257 3.6 none ~1.6 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER DECEMBER 7 1998 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 20 11 6 59 (ENE) clear none 17:01 18 10 12 55 (NE) clear none 18:01 19 -11 11 36 (NE) clear none 19:01 20 -13 2 255 (WSW) clear none 20:01 17 6 2 257 (WSW) clear none 21:01 16 8 2 258 (WSW) clear none 22:01 17 9 1 239 (WSW) clear none 23:01 17 -5 3 317 (NW) clear none 00:01 17 -7 0 269 (W) clear none 01:01 14 -7 3 352 (N) clear none 02:01 21 -24 6 86 (E) clear none 03:01 21 -23 7 117 (ESE) clear none 04:01 22 -24 9 126 (SE) clear none 05:01 24 -21 7 140 (SE) clear none 06:01 23 -23 3 141 (SE) 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