From: "Camron Hastings" Subject: 3.5-meter Night Log 980809 Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 05:07:04 -0600 Sunday, August 9th 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5-Meter Observing Log ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Lutz J.Lutz DIS 8/09-10 21:25 00:58 D.Zucker D.Zucker SPIcam 8/10 01:23 04:52 INST SCHEDULED OBS WEATH EQUIP DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WS01/R 21:25 00:58 0 2.6 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 UW03/R 01:23 04:52 0 3.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ACTIVITY LOG High clouds greeted the opening tonight at 19:50. The enclosure was closed again for lamp cals, and remained so until the clouds opened up a bit at 22:25. The primary mirror support alarm sounded at 20:05 for about 5 minutes. I checked the panel, and it appears that the pressure dropped to 37psi, slightly below a limit, but then promptly climbed to 40psi again which silenced the alarm. At 22:40 John Briggs reported seeing subtle auroral activity near zenith! I ran outside and saw what I thought could have been low level auroral display, but had to run inside again to take care of DIS. The moon was so bright, and there was high cirrus, so it was hard to pick up. WS01 ran smoothly after the clouds lifted. The focus drift was extreme, within about 40 minutes we went from +350 to +50. I made adjustments based on slit images. It seemed that right after the focus, we switched to spec mode, and the slit viewer showed up drastically out of focus. Either the secondary popped, or something in DIS moved between spec mode and imaging mode. The temp was changing quickly, so I would put my money on the secondary. Once refocused, the guider and DIS performed fine throughout the evening. UW03 was next up, with Dan Zucker observing, and DIS remained on for the beginning of the night. SPIcam was mounted at 03:30 and focus started when clouds started to move in. When mounting SPIcam, I disabled the motors as usual, and upon re-enabling them, the azimuth ran away again. I stopped the motors and restarted them from the emergency stop switch, they lurched again but then stopped. After this Dan experienced the azimuth overshoot several slews again. Tomorrow I will try to calibrate the azimuth values again. -Camron Hastings FOCUS LOG August 9th 1998 Best Telescope Temp Wind Seeing Time Instrmt Focus Az El Air/Truss Dir MPH filter FWHM" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:35 DIS +350/7248 81 49 15.5/17.8 87 9 - 1.3" 23:15 Guider 55734(+50) 0 73 14.9/15.7 84 10 - 1.1" 03:50 SPIcam -050/6591 269 64 15.6/15.1 69 15 V 1.1" WEATHER LOG August 9th 1998 Wind Time Temp-F Dewp-F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 68 38 6 82 (E) 576 Cloudy None 17:01 70 45 3 220 (SW) 692 Cloudy None 18:01 67 40 3 78 (ENE) 631 Cloudy None 19:01 65 40 7 96 (E) 578 Cloudy None 20:01 63 40 11 104 (ESE) 647 Cloudy None 21:01 62 38 14 112 (ESE) 605 Ptly Cldy None 22:01 61 37 10 89 (E) 714 Clear None 23:01 59 38 8 84 (E) 787 Clear None 00:01 58 38 9 85 (E) 926 Clear None 01:01 59 39 6 83 (E) 998 Clear None 02:01 59 39 16 71 (ENE) 999 Clear None 03:01 60 33 15 65 (ENE) 624 Clear None 04:01 60 30 15 72 (ENE) 448 Clear None 05:01 59 34 11 84 (E) 566 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: 2.41a Current guide software version: GIm Ctrl v3.0b 15.out