Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 06:46:06 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20001219 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, December 19th, 2000 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- E.Turner R.McMillan SPIcam 16:30 18:43 C.Stubbs G.Miknaitis,A.Miceli SPIcam 18:45 22:00 M.Strauss X.Fan DIS-Low 22:00 00:10 H.Tran Z.Tsvetanov,H.Tran DIS-Low 00:10 01:00 DIS-Medium 01:00 03:00 05:20 06:03 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- PU04/O 17:59 18:44 0 0 0 0 0.8 0 0 0 0 UW05/R 18:44 22:00 0 0 0 0 3.2 0 0 0 0 PU02/R/D 22:00 00:10 0 0 0 0 2.2 0 0 0 0 JH08/R 00:10 06:03 0 2.3 0 0 2.0 1.5 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist, 1st Shift: Russet McMillan The telescope was opened shortly before sunset under widespread cirrus. Seeing proved to be moderately good, occasionally subarcsecond but varying with cloud cover. The observer for UW05 elected to give part of his time by request to PU02, since they had lost a lot of time to weather a few nights ago. This required moving the instrument change a little earlier, but aside from that no changes to the schedule. I advised them to file an official swap request ex post facto. The DIS observations went fairly well despite degraded seeing. In four minute dark-subtracted exposures with approximately 3-arcsecond seeing, the slitviewer was reaching 23rd magnitude in i'. Better seeing would improve the sensitivity significantly. Observing Specialist, 2nd Shift: Jack Dembicky Since DIS was already mounted, I just turned the instrument and slitviewer (per observers request) over at 00:10. It was a little windy at around 00:00 but the winds calmed a bit by 01:00. The winds picked up again around 03:00 and the enclosure was closed due to sustained winds over 30MPH and gust over 35+. We also had clouds moving thru at the same time. The observers took flats during the closure. I re-opened the enclosure around 05:10 once the wind gusts died below 35 MPH and turned the instrument back over to the observer. --------------- INSTRUMENT FOCUS LOG ---------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM" --------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:55 SPIcam 150(999) 212 57 2.9/3.0 276 8 r' 1.15 19:15 SPIcam 100(952) 190 70 4.6/3.5 274 11 r' 0.73 19:18 NA2gdr 301 191 70 4.7/3.6 276 9 none 1.03 22:13 DISslit 0(835) 42 38 4.9/4.0 277 16 - 2.2 ------------- WEATHER CONDITIONS ------------ Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 38 -6 12 261 (W) 77 cirrus none 17:01 37 -7 15 282 (WNW) 83 cirrus none 18:01 38 -7 11 266 (W) 89 cirrus none 19:01 40 -5 16 276 (W) 65 cirrus none 20:01 40 -4 8 276 (W) 79 mstly clr none 21:01 41 -3 14 267 (W) 77 clear none 22:01 42 -6 19 272 (W) 71 clear none 23:01 40 -7 27 299 (WNW) 81 clear none 00:01 37 -9 19 289 (WNW) 80 clear none 01:01 37 -7 16 306 (NW) 91 clear none 02:01 35 -10 23 294 (WNW) 66 lt. cirrus none 03:01 36 -10 21 303 (WNW) 76 cirrus none 04:01 39 -10 17 326 (NW) 95 cirrus none 05:01 38 -8 20 334 (NNW) 57 lt. cirrus none 06:01 36 -5 22 317 (NW) 56 lt. cirrus 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 > 1u per 0.1 cubic feet. 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: 2.62. Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b27. Current TCC version is 2.4.1 Current MC version: v1_7_3. - Russet McMillan, Jack Dembicky