From: Russet McMillan
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 991018
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 05:04:04 -0600 (MDT)
                         MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 1999
                         APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY
                              OBSERVING  LOG
                                                          ACTUAL
ASTRONOMER      OBSERVER(S)       INSTRUMENT    DATE   START FINISH
Gillespie       Deglman, Loomis,  Shack-Hart, 10/18-19 10:30  03:30
		McMillan, Morgan     other
 INST        SCHEDULED     WEATH     EQUIP      OBS    DAY   NOTUSED
I/RS/DN    START FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B   USE   D    B
EN01/S     19:21  06:17   0    0    0    0   4.7  6.3   0    0    0
(note: times listed include instrument change time)
                              ACTIVITY LOG
(* means a trouble report has been issued or appended to)
Observing specialists: K. Loomis, F. Deglman, R. McMillan
After long trials and great effort by many people, the telescope was
opened to the sky tonight!  Weather was unexpectedly good, with clear
skies and the air drying quite suddenly during the evening after a
humid day.
Despite a number of problems (most notably trouble with the flex
pivots for the tertiary, which will need to be pulled during the day),
many milestones were met.  The telescope was successfully balanced and
the secondary roughly collimated.  A position for the tertiary
tip/tilt values was obtained, which we hope will be close to the
correct value after the flex pivots are fixed.  The altitude, azimuth,
and rotator axes were remapped, re-zeroed, and cleaned of a truly
appalling quantity of moth guts.
The dome was opened at around 10:30, and a very simplified 10-star
pointing model was obtained.  We didn't try for a more extensive model
due to the instability of the tertiary and the fact that we had a
rotator runaway after 10 points were obtained.  However, the rotator
runaway was caught before any damage could be done and was actually
successfully diagnosed; we anticipate no repeats.  The pointing and
tracking were unexpectedly good -- within about 10 arcseconds above 60
degrees elevation, and within 30 arcseconds down to 35 degrees
elevation despite the flopping of the tertiary.
After the pointing model, we obtained some Shack-Hartmann data.  There
were some difficulties with this as well, including low signal in the
reference image and an apparently messed-up default value for the
aperture mask stepper motor positions.  Nevertheless, Jeff Morgan and
Russet McMillan managed to obtain data on stars at 5 or 6 different
altitudes.  The primary mirror had *not* been collimated, and images
were clearly aberrated; nevertheless, Jeff reported that he could
see great improvement in the "zonal structure" previously blamed on
the secondary.  This offers real evidence that the telescope's optical
performance will be significantly improved by the new secondary.
Obviously, much work remains to be done, but tonight's achievements
are enormously encouraging.
                                FOCUS LOG
                             OCTOBER 18 1999
						 Wind
Time   Inst        Focus     Az  El   #Temp    Dir  MPH  filt  FWHM "
23:00  guider     -1900
      (secondary positioned for SPIcam)
#First temp is air, second temp is telescope.
                                 WEATHER
                             OCTOBER 18 1999
                               Wind
     Time   Temp F Dewp F  MPH  Direction    Dust      Sky      Precip.
     16:01    39    30      7    74  (ENE)    398     clear      none
     17:01    37    31      3   354  (N)      368     clear      none
     18:01    38    23      6    78  (ENE)    362     clear      none
     19:01    33    27     12    59  (ENE)    289     clear      none
     20:01    38     8      3    24  (NNE)    195     clear      none
     21:01    37     9     12    18  (NNE)    671     clear      none
     22:01    37     7      3   359  (N)       78     clear      none
     23:01    38     5      5    61  (ENE)    126     clear      none
     00:01    36     4      2    95  (E)       97     clear      none
     01:01    38     5      0   126  (SE)     133     clear      none
     02:01    37    14      2   184  (S)      182     clear      none
     03:01    38     3      0   117  (ESE)     97     clear      none
     04:01    35    18      0   232  (SW)     374     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: 2.55b5.
Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b27.
- Russet McMillan, Karen Loomis, Frank Deglman