Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 07:17:28 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990221 Apache Point Observatory, Sunspot, NM Sunday, February 21st, 1999 3.5-meter Night Observing Log Actual ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie D.York Echelle 2/21-22 19:16 05:17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EN02/S 19:16 05:17 0 0 5.3 0.3 0 4.4 0 0 0 -------------- Activity Log -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: N.C.Hastings We opened at 17:30 for cooling. The heat pump in the computer room failed due to icing of the heat exchange. It appears that only the uppermost section is functioning. I de-iced it and all was fine. A problem report has been submitted. I reset the temperature to 78 degrees to avoid icing during the night. Don York was observer. Bob Lowenstein was also on for test purposes and to work on programming the new version of REMARK with the 'point and click' feature. We had multiple failures of various systems, including the ICC, The obs Mac in the control room, and the MC. Once we had it running again around 19:20 things went smoothly, until the clouds showed up... 2nd Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan The weather during second half was pretty crummy, but we hardly noticed because we were busy dealing with a spontaneous fit the echelle had . . . * Sometime around 23:30 (as far as we can tell), something happened to reset all the echelle instrument settings. We don't know what set it off. The slit focus went to -3200 (should be +3200), and the tip, tilt, and ccdfocus all went to 0. Each line on a ThAr spectrum then showed an image of the primary mirror. Restoring the settings improved the focus along the dispersion, or X direction, but each row of the spectrum was still much too fat and apparently doubled in the Y direction. Upon examining the headers, we found that the GRATING setting had changed from -1 to 1 at the same time as the other parameters. Don York was quite sure the grating could not have moved, however, because the motor was supposed to be disconnected, and also because the spectral lines had not moved aside from becoming fatter. Nevertheless, we figured out how to issue a grating move command through the mcnode (it can't be done through remark), and this restored the setting in the image headers to its previous value of -1. Now, with all the header parameters matching the values that had worked earlier, the spectra were still messed up. Example images: before everything changed: ech990221.0011.fit . Bad images: myEImage.0001.fit , ech990221.0013.hhh tip, tilt, and ccd focus reset (but not slit focus): ech990221.0018.fit slit focus reset: ech990221.0019.fit grating reset: ech990221.0024.fit We gave up around 03:30. Don said he would notify Connie, Shu-i, and Bob, and he requests computer access to try to work on the problem during the day. OBSERVER COMMENTS D. York (EN02): Spent the night under a cloud. Could not keep a star after 10pm for more than 10 min.Debugged new version of remark that makes it easy to center star on slit. Various issues with ICC crashes (aborting sequences). Bob worked with us most of the first half. A very strange problem occurred after midnight. The cals were badly distorted and flats were out of focus. Somehow, the ccd tilt, tip and focus position were set to zero, and the slit focus was set to -3200 from +3200. When all was reset, the cal lines (TH-AR) were focused along the dispersion, but doubled perpendicular to the dispersion. Camron and Russet reported that another bit, having to do with the grating, went from -1 to +1. All settings were reset, including grating bit, but doubling did not change. FOCUS LOG February 21st 1999 Best Telescope Temp Wind Seeing Time Instrmnt Focus Az El Air/Truss Dir MPH filter FWHM" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:20 Echelle -0996(5153) 243 69 3.1/3.7 190 12 ND1 1.09" WEATHER LOG February 21st 1999 Wind Time Temp-F Dewp-F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 41 19 12 183 (S) 837 Mstly Clr none 17:01 39 19 13 182 (S) 1015 Mstly Clr none 18:01 37 19 15 188 (S) 1023 Mstly Cldy none 19:01 37 21 16 182 (S) 1130 Mstly Clr none 20:01 38 21 21 214 (SW) 1816 Mstly Cldy none 21:01 38 21 21 209 (SSW) 1730 Mstly Cldy none 22:01 39 21 13 207 (SSW) 1735 Cloudy none 23:01 38 21 16 196 (SSW) 1664 Cloudy none 00:01 39 19 14 211 (SSW) 1825 Cloudy none 01:01 39 20 20 217 (SW) 1450 Cloudy none 02:01 39 20 16 210 (SSW) 1260 Cloudy none 03:01 37 21 22 238 (WSW) 1470 Cloudy none 04:01 37 21 16 258 (WSW) 1427 Cloudy none 05:01 37 19 23 255 (WSW) 1346 Cloudy none 06:01 36 19 17 267 (W) 1121 Cloudy none 07:01 37 16 25 288 (WNW) 810 Cloudy 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: 2.54b3 Current guide software version: GIm Ctrl v3.0b 17.out - NCH, RM