From: "N.C. Hastings" Subject: 3.5m Night Log 990530 Date: Mon, 31 May 1999 04:48:24 -0600 Apache Point Observatory, Sunspot, NM Sunday, May 30th, 1999 3.5-meter Night Observing Log Actual ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- K.Krisciunas K.Krisciunas SPIcam 5/30 --:-- --:-- M.Neuforge M.Neuforge Echelle 5/30-31 --:-- --:-- D.York D.York Echelle 5/31 02:15 04:15 E.Turner C.Hastings SPIcam 5/31 --:-- --:-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UW02/R 21:44 22:44 - 1.0 - 0 - 0.0 0 - 0 NM04/R 22:44 01:10 - 2.4 - 0 - 0.0 0 - 0 UC03/R 01:10 03:47 - 1.0 - 0.6 - 1.0 0 - 0 PU03/S 03:47 04:17 - 0.0 - 0.5 - 0.0 0 - 0 -------------- Activity Log -------------- Observing Specialist: N.C.Hastings I opened the telescope at 17:45 for cooling, but clouds were opaque. We closed again at 21:50 when cooling seemed futile. The clouds cleared up again enough to open at 02:10. Pointing on the NA1 port was within 3 arcsecs tonight. At 03:10 the MC seemed to choke up. Don's Mac crashed and it seems that it left an auto-expose routine running on the guide camera. When we tried to do anything else it would cause a problem and we could not stop it in any way. While working on this the Mac crashed again on Don's end and the MC stopped. I had to restart the MC and my REMARK (because of another problem with my 'Offset' window). This wasted about 20 minutes of time, then the clouds moved in again.... It seemed to Don that there were multiple expose commands going to the guide camera. In the middle of his auto expose of the guide camera he would see 'CAMERA BUSY...' warnings. His interval was way over his exposure time, so this did not make sense. Anyway, it seems that this kept building up and screwing things up. Once we finally got it to run again we realized that we were getting the same image over again out of the cache. It finally was remedied through moderate frustration and discomfort! FOCUS LOG May 30th 1999 Best Telescope Temp Wind Seeing Time Instrmnt Focus Az El Air/Truss Dir MPH filter FWHM" --------------------------------------------------------------------- 02:20 Echelle +215(5988) 186 60 12.9/13.4 265 06 ND2 3.24" WEATHER LOG May 30th 1999 Wind Time Temp-F Dewp-F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 69 25 17 211 (SSW) 1340 Cloudy None 17:01 71 26 11 246 (WSW) 1130 Cloudy None 18:01 65 21 14 225 (SW) 1238 Cloudy None 19:01 62 20 13 229 (SW) 1413 Cloudy None 20:01 60 19 11 237 (WSW) 1504 Cloudy None 21:01 60 18 7 207 (SSW) 1432 Cloudy None 22:01 60 18 8 307 (NW) 1115 Cloudy None 23:01 58 16 9 203 (SSW) 1453 Cloudy None 00:01 57 16 9 222 (SW) 1564 Cloudy None 01:01 56 15 10 212 (SSW) 1547 Cloudy None 02:01 54 17 8 268 (W) 1709 Ptly Cldy None 03:01 56 16 5 273 (W) 1845 Clear None 04:01 55 15 9 324 (NW) 1681 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: 2.55b5 Current guide software version: GIm Ctrl v3.0b 17.out - NCH