From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20000103 Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 06:33:23 -0700 (MST) SUNDAY JANUARY 03, 2000 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Turner Deglman SPIcam 01/03 18:07 18:45 Hogan Hogan, Stubbs SPIcam 01/03 19:10 23:58 Golimowski Tsvetanov DIS 01/03-04 00:23 06:08 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B PU05/O 18:07 18:57 0.6 - 0 - 0.2 - 0 0 - UW11/R 18:57 00:10 2.2 - 0 - 3.0 - 0 0 - JH02/R 00:10 06:08 0.1 0.2 0 0 5.1 0.6 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: Deglman The telescope was opened at 16:45 under clear but windy skies. Craig Hogan obtained twilight flats for his later UW11 program. Service observing for PUW07 was started and eventually lost due to high wind gusts. The first part of UW11 was lost due to high winds. DIMM was reporting excellent seeing, at times as low as one half arcsecond. This was not corroborated in SPIcam images, probably due to wind buffeting of the 3.5m. 2nd half observing specialist: McMillan Second half remained clear, with moderating winds and very cold temperatures. * The telescope temperature sensors bottomed out at a minimum of -10.7 C, which had an effect on the automatic focus routines. Fortunately (for the telescope, not for those of us cowering indoors with impaired heating), the airtemp remained fairly steady for the majority of the night, so the effect was not as severe as it might have been. * DIS aborted an exposure (fortunately a short one) without being told to do so. This occurred on the first exposure after a deliberate abort, so possibly some flag was left on. Halfway through the morning it was discovered that the medium resolution spectra were blank in the blue. Since the red spectra were the main interest, the observers elected to defer any attempts at diagnosis that might affect wave calibrations. A front came through shortly after 5:00 and caused high winds, a rapid warming, and terrible seeing. The telescope was closed from 05:10 to 05:30 for high winds. OBSERVER COMMENTS Chris Stubbs (observing for UW11) reports noticeable astigmatism in SPIcam focus images, e.g. /export/images/lowz_sn/20000104/focus.0019.fits. He also comments that the DIMM needs to be calibrated by using it in parallel with the 3.5m to really produce reliable seeing figures. FOCUS LOG JANUARY 03 2000 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 18:00 SPIcam -150(94) 239 44 -10.4/-10.1 170 9 g' 2.54 21:20 SPIcam -100(104) 178 62 -11.7/-10.7 16 16 V 1.4 00:30 DIS -120(134) 160 55 -12.5/-10.7 10 15 none 1.4 00:35 guider 372(52375) 160 55 -12.5/-10.7 10 15 none 1.8 01:30 DIS -60(207) 253 52 -12.3/-10.7 6 17 none 1.4 01:40 guider 4644(57696) 254 51 -12.3/-10.7 13 12 Red 1.6 04:05 DIS 0(220) 182 64 -10.7/-10.7 39 23 none 1.4 05:45 DIS -150(471) 143 50 -5.4/-9.4 22 26 none 2.4 (See note above concerning telescope temperatures!) #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER JANUARY 03 2000 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 16 -8 14 324 (NW) 359 clear none 17:01 15 -9 15 311 (NW) 338 clear none 18:01 14 -8 12 50 (NE) 249 clear none 19:01 12 -7 18 25 (NNE) 182 clear none 20:01 12 -9 29 9 (N) 94 clear none 21:01 11 -6 17 357 (N) 131 clear none 22:01 11 -6 24 10 (N) 345 clear none 23:01 10 -7 11 10 (N) 190 clear none 00:01 11 -9 10 12 (NNE) 397 clear none 01:01 9 -6 3 8 (N) 190 clear none 02:01 10 -7 12 9 (N) 256 clear none 03:01 12 -12 11 14 (NNE) 313 clear none 04:01 13 -16 20 19 (NNE) 177 clear none 05:01 18 -27 25 27 (NNE) 102 clear none 06:01 22 -25 15 44 (NE) 70 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: 2.2.1. - Frank Deglman, Russet McMillan