Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 08:38:51 -0700 (MST) From: Frank Deglman Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20000114 FRIDAY JANUARY 14, 2000 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH York Crotty SPIcam 1/14 17:16 18:11 Brown Brown Echelle 1/14 18:16 00:08 Walterbos Thilker SPIcam 1/14-15 00:13 06:09 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B UC11/R 17:16 18:16 - - - - - - 1.0 - - WS01/R 18:16 00:10 - 0 - 0 - 5.9 0 - 0 NM05/R 00:10 06:09 3.7 0 0 0 1.3 0.9 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: McMillan The telescope was opened at 17:00 for cooling under persistent cirrus. * The cloud camera was almost useless for much of the evening due to the appearance of a snakescale pattern whose cause is unknown -- possibly a problem with the chopper or possibly some form of electronic interference. The observer for the Adler program elected to use SPIcam instead of the echelle, accepting all of the instrument change time to switch back to the echelle at the end. SPIcam got good seeing, with one image giving 0.88 arcseconds in a minute of unguided integration. This occurred with the telescope in the north, almost exactly opposite from the wind. The echelle likewise showed good seeing early in the evening, and tracked well in the north. But when the observer moved to the SW (with 20mph wind in the SSE), the star persistently drifted down and right in the Mac slitview image. One target which would have passed within 2 degrees (south) of the zenith became very difficult to guide as it approached transit, so we went elsewhere for a while. 2nd half observing specialist: Deglman Dave Thilker Observed for NM05 using SPIcam. The telescope was closed at 01:55 and 04:45 due to high dust counts. Noticeable elongation of stars in SPIcam images. Had a Tycho/MCNode/Remark crash during the first dust closure. Remark was again problematic during the flat fielding time (morning twilight). It failed to slew the scope even though it had been operational after being reset for the crash. OBSERVER COMMENTS J. Brown (WS01): Guiding was ineffective starting about HA=-00:15, there. And it was pretty rough towards the south, as we had early. Things worked pretty well otherwise, though we stayed out of the wind, I guess. D. Thilker (MN05): Useful science exposures were obtained despite various problems. Dust levels were the principal enemy. In between closures I lost about 50% of integrations longer than a few minutes to apparent oscillation of the primary. The TCP link died once during a dust closure. Remark was confused at the very end of the run. Of the problems for which APO has some control, the primary movement was the most frustrating as it cost much of the time we spent on the sky. FOCUS LOG JANUARY 14 2000 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 17:50 SPIcam -75(746) -24 78 5.7/5.8 170 20 u' 1.03 18:20 Echelle 69(64) -4 72 5.4/5.5 170 17 ND2 0.88 22:30 Echelle 28(-17) 256 82 5.4/4.9 190 18 clear 1.20 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER JANUARY 14 2000 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 43 4 15 189 (S) 430 cirrus none 17:01 42 3 18 168 (SSE) 498 cirrus none 18:01 42 2 16 175 (S) 471 cirrus none 19:01 42 2 18 158 (SSE) 491 cirrus none 20:01 43 0 9 169 (SSE) 383 cirrus none 21:01 42 -1 15 213 (SSW) 373 cirrus none 22:01 41 8 12 186 (S) 880 cirrus none 23:01 42 13 14 193 (SSW) 1391 cirrus none 00:01 40 15 13 180 (S) 1378 mstly clr none 01:01 39 25 17 187 (S) 2750 clear none 02:01 38 25 13 178 (S) 2976 clear none 03:01 38 26 12 218 (SW) 3160 clear none 04:01 40 24 8 228 (SW) 2910 clear none 05:01 39 23 12 223 (SW) 2983 clear none 06:01 41 20 9 234 (SW) 2571 clear none 07:01 42 13 8 264 (W) 1696 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: 2.55b5. Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b27. Current TCC version is 2.2.2. - Russet McMillan, Frank Deglman