From: Russet McMillan
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990324
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 06:43:43 -0700 (MST)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
                         WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 1999
                         APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY
                              OBSERVING  LOG
                                                          ACTUAL
ASTRONOMER      OBSERVER(S)        INSTRUMENT   DATE   START FINISH
Rodgers           Rodgers             DIS       3/24   19:40 20:40
Williams       Mason, Williams       GrIm2    3/24-25  20:40
 INST        SCHEDULED     WEATH     EQUIP      OBS    DAY   NOTUSED
I/RS/DN    START FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B   USE   D    B
UW03/R     19:40 20:40    -    0    -   0.1   -   0.9   0    -    0
NM03/S     20:40 04:38   1.0  2.3   0    0   1.6  3.1   0    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 18:30, after Bernadette's spectral cals.
The sky was clear, but the seeing was pretty poor.  *We had one hiccup
with DIS during her run.  After an exposure was resumed (after being
paused) the DIS pc spit out a bunch of "checking shutter" error
messages.  These were preceded by a "starting readout" message.  The
chips weren't supposed to be reading out, however.  Bernadette was
able to salvage her image by requesting an early readout.  The shutter
messages stopped as soon as this command went through and the chips
read out.
Tom Williams (UNM) and Paul Mason were on-site to observe for NM03.
The GrIm2 focus was constantly fluctuating between -225 and -400 on a
time scale of a couple minutes!  It was impossible to keep up.  The
seeing continued to worsen and the humidity rose until we had to close
at 23:00 MST.
2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan
Second half had very unstable humidity, popping up and down with every
change of the wind.  We opened at 00:45, only to close again at 01:30,
then reopen at 03:00.  The GRIM focus was *somewhat* more consistent
than first half, with changes that were easily explainable by the
changing temperatures.  The only problems seen were old and familiar
ones: the cloud camera got stuck once in the north; there were
occasional no-flush errors on GRIM, with an odd image or two before
and after; and the interior and exterior dust counts were radically
different.  The latter problem is getting to the point where it
seriously impacts decision making; tonight the two counters differed
by a factor of two at times, even with the louvers closed and the
telex and intex fans off (because of the changing humidity, it's
unclear what the state of the pressurization fans was at various
times).
                            OBSERVER COMMENTS
                                FOCUS LOG
                              MARCH 24 1999
						 Wind
Time   Inst        Focus     Az  El   #Temp    Dir  MPH  filt  FWHM "
19:00 slitcam  - 50(6450)   270  55  6.5/9.0    41   7   none   1.7
19:00 guider  57234(6464)   272  51  6.5/9.0    51   8   R+ND2  1.6
20:20 slitcam  -200(6228)   315  49  5.2/6.7    79  18   none   1.5
21:10 GrIm2    -275(6209)   225  47  3.5/5.2    79  15    K     1.2
21:20 GrIm2    -325(6149)   225  47  3.1/4.7    89  13    K     1.3
22:30 GrIm2    -200(6107)   274  50  1.6/2.4    83  16    K'    2.1
00:55 GRIM     -200(6103)   140  50  2.2/1.0    65  11    J     2.4
03:30 GRIM      -75(6219)   316  47  3.0/0.9   151  15    J     1.8
04:15 GRIM     -175(6151)   271  43  3.3/0.9   133  14    K'    1.14
#First temp is air, second temp is telescope.
                                 WEATHER
                              MARCH 24 1999
                               Wind
     Time   Temp F Dewp F  MPH  Direction    Dust      Sky      Precip.
     16:01    51    18     11   328  (NNW)   1432     clear      none
     17:01    50    15     13   302  (WNW)   1625     clear      none
     18:01    45    16      1   280  (W)     1527     clear      none
     19:01    44    13      8    51  (NE)    1565     clear      none
     20:01    42    17     12    84  (E)     1413     clear      none
     21:01    40    16     24    73  (ENE)   1382     clear      none
     22:01    37    26     19    77  (ENE)   1220     clear      none
     23:01    34    30     18    74  (ENE)   1361     clear      none
     00:01    33    29     18    72  (ENE)   1864     clear      none
     01:01    35    24      7    72  (ENE)   2065     clear      none
     02:01    31    29     11    89  (E)     3352     clear      none
     03:01    37    21      3   108  (ESE)   2871     clear      none
     04:01    36    20      6   118  (ESE)   1891     clear      none
     05:01    41    15      8   181  (S)     1701     clear      none
     06:01    39    17      5   180  (S)     1933     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