Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 06:35:34 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990222 Apache Point Observatory, Sunspot, NM Monday, February 22nd, 1999 3.5-meter Night Observing Log Actual ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie D.York, Mallouris Echelle 2/22-23 19:17 05:16 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EN02/S 19:17 05:16 0 0 0 0 4.3 5.7 0 0 0 -------------- Activity Log -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: N.C.Hastings We opened at 16:30 for cooling. I came in early to help Armin Rest, from UW, with the search for extra electrons in SPIcam. We tried various tests to no avail. Then the echelle fun started. First we had trouble with the motors from last night. Connie was on in Chicago and confirmed my thoughts of last night that the motors were lost, and even though we moved them back they were somewhere else. Connie showed me how to home the motors, and then returning them to the correct values fixed the problem. After that fiasco, the echelle ICC started failing. We tried many things, but could not find the cause. We had the same error in both versions of the ICC, #33 and #35. Bob got online and after some rooting around we found that the 'Images' window cannot be closed on the ICC or the whole thing fails. When you start the ICC the images window pops up and covers the other window, so it gets closed or moved so you can see the other windows. We found that closing it is bad. That will be fixed by Bob tomorrow (today). The observing started at 20:20 and all was smooth from there out it seemed. Another great night for the seeing monitor. Eric Deutsch has beefed up the seeing monitor page, and Armin continues to test the various aspects of the system to be sure it safe. The seeing measurements agreed with the focus values of the echelle to within 0.1" or so. After the first run of calibration frames the MC slowed down and then dies on us. Craig has looked at this already. We restarted and all worked for the rest of my shift. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Second half was very peaceful. The Obs1 Mac crashed once at the shift change, when we tried to change names in Remark by hanging up under one name, then connecting under another. But the crash did not affect the remote users, and after that everything was remarkably smooth. OBSERVER COMMENTS Feb. 22/23, York/Mallouris (with help from a cast of thousands). A truly wonderful night. Milestones reached. 1. Eight hours of continuous remote operation with the echelle, no problems. All acquisition and guiding was done remotely. Camron focused (and very quickly) at the beginning of the observing night, and that was it. There was an MC crash just as we were going. 2. 5 one-hour integrations on AGNs, 15-16 mag. 3. Numerous bugs, found over the previous commissioning nights fixed and now tested. The problems last night with motor motions (apparently spontaneous) were due to operator error (mine), though it took a while and a lot of people to run it down. The error path has been closed, or is being closed. A logical operational issue between echelle ICC and MC was fixed early on by (lots of folk who gave up having a life, big events, to help out, thanks to all). We did a number of stars (interstellar lines, spectral standards) plus calibrations (flux, wavecal). Duty cycle was very high (ratio of exposure minutes/set-up, flush, read, acquire was between 5/1 and 10/1 all night). Essentially all of our commissioning goals for the echelle were met when the results of this last night are included. The only major thing left is the evaluation of operational issues once the tertiary rotation is implemented. Thanks to all who helped so very much. FOCUS LOG February 22nd 1999 Best Telescope Temp Wind Seeing Time Instrmnt Focus Az El Air/Truss Dir MPH filter FWHM" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:20 Echelle -0952(5112) 180 60 1.3/1.0 313 16 ND1 1.20" WEATHER LOG February 22nd 1999 Wind Time Temp-F Dewp-F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 35 -4 2 81 (E) 649 Ptly Cldy none 17:01 35 -7 12 314 (NW) 566 Ptly Cldy none 18:01 34 -9 7 325 (NW) 407 Ptly Cldy none 19:01 34 -9 9 337 (NNW) 300 Ptly Cldy none 20:01 35 -9 18 335 (NNW) 222 Mstly Clr none 21:01 34 -10 12 344 (NNW) 190 Mstly Clr none 22:01 32 -10 9 339 (NNW) 271 Clear none 23:01 32 -10 14 326 (NW) 278 Clear none 00:01 32 -8 18 340 (NNW) 233 Clear none 01:01 33 -9 13 359 (N) 206 Clear none 02:01 32 -10 20 345 (NNW) 206 Clear none 03:01 32 -10 9 289 (WNW) 188 Clear none 04:01 34 -8 14 303 (WNW) 223 Clear none 05:01 33 -8 18 329 (NNW) 127 Clear none 06:01 34 -9 18 320 (NW) 165 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 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: 2.54b4 Current guide software version: GIm Ctrl v3.0b 17.out - NCH, RM