From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 19991231 Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2000 07:11:32 -0700 (MST) FRIDAY DECEMBER 31, 1999 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Krisciunas Krisciunas SPIcam 12/31 18:05 20:28 Strauss, Fan Deglman SPIcam 12/31 20:53 21:42 Gonzales McMillan Echelle 12/31-01/01 21:42 00:47 Rhoads McMillan Grim 01/01 00:47 06:08 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B UW02/R 18:05 20:40 0 - 0 - 2.6 - 0 0 - DD05/O 20:40 21:30 0 - 0 - 0.8 - 0 0 - DD07/O 21:30 22:13 0 - 0 - 0.7 - 0 0 - DD06/O 22:13 01:40 0.9 - 0 - 2.5 - 0 0 - DD07/O 01:40 06:08 0 3.5 0.3 0 0.6 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: Deglman The telescope was opened at 16:55 under partly cloudy skies. Kevin Krisciunas observed for UW02 with SpiCam. Service observing for DD05 was performed with SpiCam. Unscheduled service observing was then performed for DD07 with SpiCam. This effectively pushed back the DD06 start time, which was compensated by using later DD07 time. Service observing for DD06 was performed with the Echelle after a weather delay. * Once again the Remark window failed to initially slew the telescope to valid coordinates. Additionally, slews failed from the mcnode until a second slew was done in the tcc window. After a sucessful slew in the mcnode, Remark was then working normally. 2nd half observing specialist: McMillan The telescope was closed from 22:35 to 23:30 due to clouds. We managed to get usable data for DD06 with the echelle despite the difficulty of guiding in high winds and intermittent clouds. * When we switched to GRIM for DD07, we had a little trouble communicating with the instrument at first, which caused a delay; this was eventually solved by restarting the MC. After that, we struggled for half an hour to focus GRIM through clouds before giving up and closing as the humidity was close to the limit. The telescope remained closed for the rest of the morning due to humidity and clouds. * Both the cloud camera and DIMM are extremely sensitive to humidity, collecting dew and/or frost at levels when it is still possible for the telescope to be open. In the case of the cloud camera, this is partly a result of the fact that the dewar is colder than the air; but in both instruments might be improved by dew shields. Aside from the communication difficulty with GRIM, we had no software problems at all, and in fact we didn't notice when 0h arrived. The internet actually seemed a little faster than it has been for most of the holiday season. OBSERVER COMMENTS FOCUS LOG DECEMBER 31 1999 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 18:10 SPIcam -75(677) 132 53 1.8/2.9 248 16 R 1.0 19:25 SPIcam -50(650) 163 62 2.0/2.0 238 16 V 0.93 20:10 SPIcam -25(690) 215 59 2.6/2.2 260 13 R 0.89 21:15 SPIcam 0(185) 185 58 3.1/2.6 227 18 i' 1.03 23:45 Echelle 65(738) 199 50 2.7/2.7 220 21 clear 1.05 02:40 Grim -20(991) 227 30 1.4/1.5 227 19 J 1.1 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER DECEMBER 30 1999 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 40 30 16 261 (W) 363 cloudy none 17:01 36 29 11 248 (WSW) 308 p cloudy none 18:01 35 30 13 264 (W) 238 clear none 19:01 35 29 15 231 (SW) 302 clear none 20:01 37 30 15 247 (WSW) 314 clear none 21:01 37 30 21 238 (WSW) 243 cirrus none 22:01 38 31 18 232 (SW) 239 cirrus none 23:01 38 31 13 240 (WSW) 213 cloudy none 00:01 37 31 22 215 (SW) 312 cirrus none 01:01 36 30 23 220 (SW) 566 cirrus none 02:01 35 31 18 214 (SW) 420 p cloudy none 03:01 34 30 19 229 (SW) 313 cloudy none 04:01 34 30 19 245 (WSW) 272 overcast none 05:01 33 28 17 252 (WSW) 212 overcast none 06:01 33 26 18 263 (W) 192 overcast none 07:01 33 27 14 237 (WSW) 189 overcast 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. Current TCC version: 2.2.1. - Frank Deglman, Russet McMillan