Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 07:20:26 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990210 WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 10, 1999 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Diercks Diercks SPIcam 2/10-11 - - Norman Norman SPIcam 2/11 05:00 05:27 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B UW04/R 19:07 00:10 5.1 - 0 - 0 - 0 0 - UW09/R 00:10 05:27 3.0 1.9 0 0 0 0.5 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 Due to wind and dust, the telescope was not opened. We had gusty westerly winds today, 30 - 40 mph with occasional gusts up to 50 mph. This brought a lot of Gypsum dust up the mountain to the observatory. Dust in the basin completely obscured the lights of Holloman Air Force Base this evening. Dust count readings taken at the cloud camera reached 60,000 part/0.1 cu ft. I estimate during the peak of the storm we were getting about 1.5 magnitude of extinction from the dust. 2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan At midnight, the dust count (measured with a hand-held counter at ground level) was below the limit of 2000, the lights of El Paso were visible, but dust was still visible in a flashlight beam. By 01:00, the counts had stayed down for over an hour, and the flashlight test was clear. However, the windspeed was over the limit. I opened the cloud camera at 01:15, but the wind gusts remained high until 05:00, when we opened for an hour to extremely poor seeing (surprise!). I encountered one problem during closing, which started out as a user error. I closed the dome in a hurry when the wind rose again, without taking time to slew to the home position. After the dome and mirror covers were closed, I started to slew. I erroneously issued a "track 98,10 phys" command instead of the "track 98, 60 phys" I meant to send. I realized that this would be harmful to the motors with the mirrors closed, so I issued an "axis stop" before the telescope had moved below 45 degrees. The telescope stopped, but the Remark coordinates kept blinking. I let the slew countdown finish, and the numbers were still blinking. Repeated "axis stop" and "axis reset" commands (with a stop button pushed) didn't clear the Remark window. It wasn't until I released the stop button and issued a new move command (which was succesful) that the Remark window cleared. Since this was basically a problem in recovering from an error that I shouldn't have made in the first place, it might not be terribly important. Then again, it's nice if the software is robust. OBSERVER COMMENTS FOCUS LOG FEBRUARY 10 1999 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 05:10 SPIcam -200(5383) -136 48 -12.0/-10.3 12 22 g' 2.2 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER FEBRUARY 10 1999 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 49 16 30 244 (WSW) clear dust 17:01 45 14 35 257 (WSW) clear dust 18:01 42 15 31 237 (WSW) clear dust 19:01 40 15 36 238 (WSW) clear dust 20:01 34 25 30 248 (WSW) clear dust 21:01 30 22 22 261 (W) ptly cldy dust 22:01 27 2 17 289 (WNW) ptly cldy dust 23:01 25 -3 22 290 (WNW) clear dust 00:01 19 -10 20 312 (NW) clear none 01:01 14 3 21 339 (NNW) clear none 02:01 15 -5 17 358 (N) clear none 03:01 14 -5 16 12 (NNE) clear none 04:01 14 -12 28 333 (NNW) clear none 05:01 11 -6 21 343 (NNW) clear none 06:01 9 -13 29 25 (NNE) clear none 07:01 11 -23 29 19 (NNE) 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: 2.52 Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b17. - Karen Gloria, Russet McMillan