From: "N.C. Hastings" Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990311 Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 04:16:43 -0700 Apache Point Observatory, Sunspot, NM Thursday, March 11th, 1999 3.5-meter Night Observing Log Actual ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Magnier Magnier, Krisciunas SPIcam, GrIm2 3/11-12 19:30 00:10 Diercks Magnier, Krisciunas GrIm2 3/12 00:10 00:45 Ford Tsvetanov DIS 3/12 01:10 04:56 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DD01/R 19:30 00:10 3.9 - 0 - 0.8 - 0 0 - UW08/R 00:10 01:10 1.0 - 0 - 0 - 0 0 - JH05/R 01:10 04:56 1.5 2.3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -------------- Activity Log -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: Karen Gloria The telescope was opened at 18:00 MST. The sky was clear, but dust was visible down in the desert basin. We closed at 19:45 MST, when the dust reached the observatory. The telescope was reopened for a half hour from 23:30 to 00:00 MST. The focus frame taken with SPIcam showed less astigmatism in the images as compared to a couple weeks ago. In the intervening time Jon Davis freed up a transverse link rod that was pinched between the primary mirror and a flexible aluminum skirt inside the cell. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: N.C.Hastings Second half started smoothly, but with high dust and wind. I closed the enclosure at 00:00. Lightning was seen to the East-Northeast. I was told that the tower dust monitor is reading about 30-50% lower than actual. When Karen opened the dome earlier at 2500 counts the dome counter immediately shot to about 3200 is what I was told, so for the night I waited for the tower counter to read below 2k before opening again. During the dust closure the observer was trying to take bias and flat frames but we found nothing but bias frames being written. My clue to the problem was the fast readout of the chips, abnormally so. I inspected the ICC and I found that there was a memory/out of resources error on the ICC. It seems that it was reading the old bias frame off of the ICC disk. This persisted after even a reboot. Problem report submitted (ID: 1999024) Due to the high dust counts and then later the clouds, we never opened. In addition, the DIS ICC error would have kept us from observing even if the weather had cooperated. The JH observers left at 03:30 given the extremely low prospect of actually observing this evening. FOCUS LOG March 11th 1999 Best Telescope Temp Wind Seeing Time Instrmnt Focus Az El Air/Truss Dir MPH filter FWHM" --------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:00 SPIcam -250(6063) 152 53 5.9/6.2 193 26 V 1.3 " 19:15 guider 49858(6025) 106 62 4.9/6.0 201 22 none 1.3 " WEATHER LOG March 11th 1999 Wind Time Temp-F Dewp-F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 48 8 20 214 (SW) 1555 clear none 17:01 46 7 21 211 (SSW) 1474 clear none 18:01 43 3 24 208 (SSW) 1581 clear none 19:01 43 5 26 192 (SSW) 1208 clear none 20:01 41 14 24 155 (SSE) 3379 clear none 21:01 40 11 23 181 (S) 5669 clear none 22:01 39 12 27 181 (S) 3893 clear none 23:01 37 13 25 192 (SSW) 2703 clear none 00:01 36 10 21 188 (S) 2795 clear none 01:01 33 12 21 212 (SSW) 2319 ptly cldy none 02:01 30 18 12 266 (W) 3217 ptly cldy none 03:01 29 7 13 259 (W) 2145 mstly cldy none 04:01 27 10 18 262 (W) 2384 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: 2.54b4 Current guide software version: GIm Ctrl v3.0b 17.out - KAG, NCH