Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999 07:14:30 -0700 (MST)
From: Russet McMillan
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990206
		     Apache Point Observatory, Sunspot, NM
		         Saturday, February 6th, 1999
                         3.5-meter Night Observing Log
				  Actual
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ASTRONOMER       OBSERVER(S)     INSTRUMENT      DATE     START FINISH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.Gillespie      L.Hobbs         Echelle         2/6-7    19:04 05:30
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 INST       SCHEDULED      WEATH     EQUIP      OBS     DAY    NOTUSED
I/RS/DN   START  FINISH    D    B    D    B    D    B   USE    D    B
----------------------------------------------------------------------
EN02/S    19:04  05:30     0    0    0    0   4.5  5.9   0     0    0
               -------------- Activity Log --------------
1st Half Observing Specialist: N.C.Hastings
     I opened the dome at 15:40 for cooling of the primary although we
had to close again at 17:00 for echelle flats. Today the enclosure
breakers were replaced which required the cycling of the power. It
appears that all the UPS systems nominally maintained power. The
mirror support system was cycled by Jon Davis and checked also for
oscillations. It turned out later that our pointing was nearly 40
arcsecs off, which a pointing correction fixed with no problem to
about 1 arcsec error. I would guess that the mirror position shifted
slightly when the support system was off and then turned on again.
	Lew Hobbs was again on this evening and was lucky enough to have
clear skies for his first night of data. This night concludes his 3
night training, although he will remain for one more night, and he has
picked up all necessary REMARK procedures and especially the echelle
aspects.
     While taking flats with the dome dark before twilight was
finished it was noticed that there is still enough blue light leaking
in through the louvers to show up in the echelle flats. I took a look
and would recommend painting the insides of the louvers flat black.
Although they overlap now, they are still silver and there is a
reasonable amount of reflection through them. Lew Hobbs stated that
the amount of blue light leaking may be acceptable at the moment, but
careful reduction of the flat needs to be done first to determine
this. This light leak would also be remedied by a baffle between the
echelle and the fork, a modification which has already been discussed.
     All observing went very smoothly during the first half after we
got rolling.
2nd Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan
Second half was mostly clear and trouble-free, with the echelle and
telescope showing exemplary behavior.
        		    OBSERVER COMMENTS
L. Hobbs (EN02):
The telescope, echelle spectrograph, and the observing conditions
performed well all night.  The near-zenith seeing seemed to be stable
at about 1 arcsec, and thin cirrus clouds appeared only occasionally.
Connie's repairs of the echelle shutter yesterday solved that
problem.  The gap between the telescope fork and the front end of the
spectrograph will have to be made light tight, to prevent
contamination of flats taken during twilight.
                               FOCUS LOG
                           February 6th 1999
                   Best    Telescope    Temp      Wind          Seeing
 Time  Instrmnt    Focus     Az   El   Air/Truss  Dir MPH  filter
FWHM"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
19:10  Echelle -0980(5076) -032   59  +0.2/+0.2   313  12   ND2   1.05"
20:10  Echelle -0890(5129) -092   58  +0.4/-0.3   337   7   ND1   1.03"
02:50  Echelle -0890(5265) -105   42  +1.3/+1.0   304  17   none  1.3"
                              WEATHER LOG
                           February 6th 1999
                                  Wind
     Time   Temp-F Dewp-F MPH   Direction    Dust      Sky      Precip
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
     16:01    33    14     20   304  (NW)             clear     none
     17:01    34    16     11   305  (NW)             clear     none
     18:01    32    14     14   296  (WNW)            clear     none
     19:01    33    15     16   312  (NW)             clear     none
     20:01    32    15     14   306  (NW)             cirrus    none
     21:01    32    17      6   332  (NNW)            cirrus    none
     22:01    33    16     17   306  (NW)             ptly cldy none
     23:01    34    15     18   308  (NW)             cirrus    none
     00:01    34    15     15   312  (NW)             clear     none
     01:01    34    16     19   307  (NW)             cirrus    none
     02:01    34    12     23   311  (NW)             cirrus    none
     03:01    35     8     21   308  (NW)             clear     none
     04:01    34     9     15   324  (NW)             clear     none
     05:01    35     1     10   318  (NW)             clear     none
     06:01    34     0     24   313  (NW)             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: 2.52
Current guide software version: GIm Ctrl v3.0b 17.out
- NCH, RM