From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990319 Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 06:29:08 -0700 (MST) FRIDAY MARCH 19, 1999 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH York Crotty SPIcam 3/19 18:36 19:36 Stubbs Gloria, Krisciunas SPIcam 3/19 19:36 20:36 Strauss Fan DIS 3/19-20 21:00 04:45 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B UC08/R 18:36 19:36 - - - - - - 1.0 - 0 UW02/S 19:36 20:36 - 0 - 0 - 1.0 0 - 0 PU01/R 20:36 04:45 0 - 0.2 - 7.8 - 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 The telescope was opened at 17:50 MST. Patrick Crotty observed for Adler. I used the first half hour of Adler's time to take twilight flats for UW02. I haven't charged Adler for this time. Both UC08 and UW02 went well with no problems to report. The 0.9 arcsec seeing we got in the focus frame was a fluke. the seeing was 1.4 arcsec pretty consistently after that. *The DIS transfer dewar is losing some pressure due to the return of a leak Camron observed a few days ago. I had to connect it up to one of the large dewars to give it a boost. This is the source of the time loss for PU01. Other than that, there were no problems. 2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan Second half was clear and productive, with only a few oddities. I did not notice any trouble with the temperature on DIS or the pressure on the transfer dewar, but the hose from the transfer dewar to the instrument was frosted in the morning even though a status check indicated it had been a long time since an instrument fill. To stow the telescope in the morning, I used the normal "track 98,10 phys" command. It was a long slew in azimuth, so rather than wait for it to finish, I added a "rot 0 phys" command while the telescope was still moving. This always worked fine in the past. This time, I immediately started getting "alt not tracking" complaints. The axis status readout indicated that the current alt position was 9.94 (where it normally finishes up on stowing), but the desired alt position was NaN. I used "track/stop" to stop the telescope, because Russ Owen had said it was the gentlest non-emergency kind of stop. I discovered that it's perhaps a little *too* gentle, with considerable overshooting and backing. The command also did not stop the rotator. With the rotator still moving, I issused another track command, and this time it was fine. OBSERVER COMMENTS FOCUS LOG MARCH 19 1999 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 19:40 SPIcam -200(5861) 124 72 1.2/1.8 357 3 V 0.9 19:50 guider 50667( ) 133 74 0.7/1.7 341 8 none 1.6 21:10 slitcam -175(6164) 255 23 1.4/1.1 358 5 none 1.8 21:20 guider 54464(6164) 255 23 1.5/1.1 0 6 none 1.8 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER MARCH 19 1999 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 36 29 1 14 (NNE) 685 clear none 17:01 37 28 0 66 (ENE) 626 clear none 18:01 37 27 3 47 (NE) 545 clear none 19:01 35 24 10 26 (NNE) 904 clear none 20:01 33 24 5 9 (N) 1103 clear none 21:01 35 22 5 358 (N) 1240 clear none 22:01 34 22 7 1 (N) 1314 clear none 23:01 37 21 2 351 (N) 1305 clear none 00:01 36 21 5 358 (N) 1299 clear none 01:01 35 22 3 337 (NNW) 1189 clear none 02:01 37 21 0 286 (WNW) 1348 clear none 03:01 37 20 1 343 (NNW) 1460 clear none 04:01 35 22 0 314 (NW) 1326 clear none 05:01 36 20 1 346 (NNW) 1466 clear none 06:01 36 20 5 27 (NNE) 1392 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