Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1999 07:16:57 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990102 SATURDAY JANUARY 2, 1999 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Turner Gloria SPIcam 1/2 18:37 19:22 Zucker Zucker SPIcam/GrIm2 1/2-1/3 19:22 00:10 Offutt McMillan SPIcam 1/3 00:10 02:00 Staff McMillan DIS 1/3 02:00 05:00 Diercks Magnier GrIm2 1/3 05:00 05:38 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B PU02/S 18:37 19:22 - 0 - 0 - 0.8 0 - 0 UW07/R 19:22 00:10 - 0 - 0 - 4.8 0 - 0 DD01/S 00:10 01:30 - 0 - 0 - 1.3 0 - 0 EN01/S 01:30 04:39 - 0 - 0 - 3.2 0 - 0 UW08/R 04:39 05:38 - 0 - 0 - 1.0 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 16:30 MST. We had beautiful clear skies until 22:00. After that we had a lot of high clouds. I observed for PU02 (lens monitoring) and Dan Zucker observed for UW07. 2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan The clouds cleared off shortly into second half. During the night, the humidity rose almost to the closure limit, then dropped off. I noticed in the morning that this was still sufficient to get frost on the cloud camera, although no ill effects were apparent inside the dome. Bias images with SPIcam showed the same diagonal noise pattern we've seen before, at a level of about 3 DN around bias. John Briggs and I obtained some observations of a Centaur asteroid for Warren Offutt. We did not try for the two fainter objects he had sent us, because they were much too close to the moon. As it was, the asteroid had significant scattered light as well. It was also in a very empty field, meaning that there were only a few reference stars available for astrometry, and no chance of guiding at all. None of the objects in the field showed motion that was immediately apparent over the course of an hour, but one had an interesting asymmetry that may or may not have been a gas jet. I took some pinhole images with SPIcam pointed near the moon to try to identify sources of scattered light; these are saved in /export/images/pinhole.* The images were taken in pairs: a short exposure with the dome lights on so that the various structures would be clearly visible for comparison, followed by a longer exposure in the same position (various directions and distances from the moon). I left printouts in the control room. I also obtained some throughput data for DIS on the standard Feige 66. Unfortunately, I got started late and there were various delays, and I didn't have a chance to check the calibration images fully before changing instruments. The dome flats taken in imaging mode were over-exposed. The changeover to UW08 was slightly delayed, but the data taking went quickly enough, and everything was done before the sky got light. OBSERVER COMMENTS D.Zucker (UW07): The telescope worked well tonight, although there were some ugly scattered light patterns (probably due to the full moon) and a pattern of diagonal lines in some of the SPIcam images. Soon after switching to GRIM, clouds started to roll in, only letting up a bit at the end of my run (midnight MST). FOCUS LOG JANUARY 2 1998 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 18:25 SPIcam -150(5827) 239 44 -3.2/-2.8 237 10 r' 1.2 18:30 guider 53575(5821) 240 43 -3.4/-3.0 239 10 R+ND2 1.6 19:30 SPIcam -150(5741) 197 59 -2.6/-3.1 252 10 V 0.92 21:25 GrIm2 - 80(5997) 2 60 -1.8/-2.8 259 12 J 0.75 22:55 GrIm2 -150(6059) 323 34 -2.3/-2.9 268 8 J 1.1 00:45 SPIcam -400(5655) 128 51 -4.3/-3.9 264 5 r' 1.4 04:20 slitcam -150 05:15 GRIM -200 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER JANUARY 2 1998 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 32 16 9 265 (W) clear none 17:01 28 17 8 223 (SW) clear none 18:01 26 17 8 234 (SW) clear none 19:01 27 14 9 253 (WSW) clear none 20:01 28 12 10 256 (WSW) clear none 21:01 28 11 10 266 (W) clear none 22:01 29 10 9 256 (WSW) cirrus none 23:01 28 11 6 267 (W) ptly cldy none 00:01 26 13 6 268 (W) ptly cldy none 01:01 24 15 7 269 (W) clear none 02:01 23 14 4 266 (W) clear none 03:01 24 14 3 356 (N) clear none 04:01 23 14 2 344 (NNW) clear none 05:01 21 15 6 359 (N) clear none 06:01 21 15 8 16 (NNE) clear none 07:01 21 14 8 7 (N) 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