Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 05:52:33 -0600 (MDT)
From: Russet McMillan
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990515
                          SATURDAY MAY 15, 1999
                         APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY
                              OBSERVING  LOG
                                                          ACTUAL
ASTRONOMER      OBSERVER(S)        INSTRUMENT   DATE   START FINISH
Strauss         Strauss, Fan          DIS     5/15-16  21:30 00:58
Krisciunas      McMillan            SPIcam      5/16   01:23 02:10
Wallerstein     Hughes              SPIcam      5/16   02:10 04:29
 INST        SCHEDULED     WEATH     EQUIP      OBS    DAY   NOTUSED
I/RS/DN    START FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B   USE   D    B
PU01/R     21:30 01:10    0    -    0    -   3.7   -    0    0    -
UW02/S     01:10 02:10    0    -    0    -   1.0   -    0    0    -
UW09/S     02:10 04:29    0    -    0    -   2.3   -    0    0    -
(note: times listed include instrument change time)
                              ACTIVITY LOG
(* means a trouble report has been issued or appended to)
Observing specialist: R. McMillan
The night was clear, with moderate dust and slightly high winds.
Seeing was variable; strong windshake was apparent on some occasions
when we were in the west, but at other times the seeing dipped below
one arcsecond.  Reports from the PT indicated they were getting
similar seeing variations at around the same time.  DIMM was not in
operation because of a problem with the dome slit.  The cloud camera
got stuck in the north twice during the night, a higher rate than
usual.
No serious difficulties occurred.  Twice during the UW02 program,
Remark rejected a requested slew for no obvious reason, and then
slewed properly when the request was repeated.  This may have been
because the targets were near the meridian.  We also noticed that the
telescope position is no longer reported in spicam image headers;
perhaps an essential keyword has changed.
Ghost images seen around some bright stars in the UW09 data caused
some concern about the state of the primary mirror, but eventually we
established that they were only associated with one filter, which may
be improperly seated.  We did encounter the predictable user error of
sending the secondary on a long journey while trying to change the
guider focus; the syntax of the new command is distressingly close to
the secondary-focus command.  It also took longer than expected to
figure out the reason for the sudden drop in image quality.  This is a
potential problem that should be addressed.
                            OBSERVER COMMENTS
M. Strauss (PU01):
Another great night: clear skies, good seeing, and the telescope and
instrument behaved themselves.  We got more good spectra of
interesting SDSS objects.
                                FOCUS LOG
                               MAY 15 1999
						 Wind
Time   Inst        Focus     Az  El   #Temp    Dir  MPH  filt  FWHM "
20:30  slitcam   +80(6895)   83  40 12.7/14.1  253   32   --    1.3
20:45  guider  +4879(56879)  84  42                             1.2
01:20  SPIcam    -25(    )  157  66 10.5/10.7              I    1.04
02:30  SPIcam    -50(6500)  -77  41  9.8/9.8   271   26    y    1.24
03:00  guider  -2971(47029) -17  79  9.5/9.6   285   24         1.2
#First temp is air, second temp is telescope.
                                 WEATHER
                               MAY 15 1999
                               Wind
     Time   Temp F Dewp F  MPH  Direction    Dust      Sky      Precip.
     16:01    62    19     13   265  (W)     1220     clear      none
     17:01    65    17     18   241  (WSW)   1472     clear      none
     18:01    61    11     20   278  (W)     1350     clear      none
     19:01    60     9     18   266  (W)     1518     clear      none
     20:01    56     8     26   253  (WSW)   1607     clear      none
     21:01    55     8     25   259  (W)     1457     clear      none
     22:01    55     8     22   264  (W)     1258     clear      none
     23:01    54    10     21   261  (W)     1236     clear      none
     00:01    53    11     21   258  (WSW)   1124     clear      none
     01:01    51    11     23   272  (W)     1036     clear      none
     02:01    50     8     19   276  (W)     1320     clear      none
     03:01    49     8     17   265  (W)     1399     clear      none
     04:01    49    11      7   274  (W)     1410     clear      none
     05:01    48    12     20   272  (W)     1557     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.
- Russet McMillan