Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 06:39:16 -0700 (MST) From: Frank Deglman Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20000314 TUESDAY MARCH 14, 2000 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Turner Turner, Tanaka, Grim 3/14-15 19:04 05:50 Yamada, Casey, InSb Monosmith, Rauscher, Kutyrev INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B PU08/S 19:04 05:20 0 0 0 0 2.2 8.0 0 0 0 (note: times listed include instrument change time) ACTIVITY LOG Observing Specialist: McMillan, Deglman The night was clear, with moderate to poor seeing. We opened just before sunset with InSb mounted, and we were able to acquire a star and focus almost immediately after sunset. After this auspicious beginning, we had considerable difficulty with the instrument block. The first fit to the data made the pointing worse. Attempts to acquire new ring data showed that the motions were not repeatable. The reason for this was unclear; it might be that something was moving inside the instrument, the instrument was improperly mounted, or simply that the pointing was so far off that tracking differences became apparent in a few minutes. GRIM was mounted at 21:30 to do some science while we consulted over the phone with Russ Owen. Russ discovered a bug in the Inst Data Fit software which affected not only the InSb instrument block, but all of our other Nasmyth2 instruments including the guider. Once Russ takes a closer look at the code tomorrow, we will re-analyze the instrument block data from the past few months. This should produce a significant change in pointing with GRIM and in tracking with DIS in horizon rotation. Thin high clouds started moving in around 02:00, and the seeing improved correspondingly. At 02:30 we changed back to InSb and tried the ring portion of the instrument block again, using the new Inst Data Fit. This went smoothly; we finalized the instrument block around 03:15 and were ready for science. The NA2 guider could not be set to track on a particular star using the "old" TCC commands. Seeing was reported as low as 0.48 arseconds with the InSb. Had a rotator run away at about 04:35. The net change was from 3 degress to 8 degrees (mount). Isn't the InSb suppose to be constrained between -50 and +20 degrees?. Well during the runaway the rotator went up to 38 degrees before recovering back to the "requested" 8 degrees. It ran away again to about -13 degrees from +6 while parking telescope (rot 0 mount) for closing. Closed at 05:50. OBSERVER COMMENTS FOCUS LOG MARCH 14 2000 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 18:40 InSb -125(86) 138 56 5.8/8.7 318 12 J 2.4 18:45 guider 4000 21:55 GRIM(f/5) 0(603) 78 36 6.8/5.6 295 8 K' 1.89 22:00 guider -3000 02:55 InSb -25(-18) -141 67 5.4/4.9 243 12 K 0.52" 03:00 guider 2000 0.8" #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER MARCH 14 2000 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 17:01 47 1 3 348 (NNW) 950 clear none 18:01 45 0 9 301 (WNW) 1005 clear none 19:01 43 0 5 2 (N) 1067 clear none 20:01 43 -1 4 357 (N) 1002 clear none 21:01 44 -6 6 315 (NW) 799 clear none 22:01 44 -8 5 292 (WNW) 516 clear none 23:01 44 -7 6 279 (W) 604 clear none 00:01 43 -4 6 271 (W) 998 clear none 01:01 41 0 11 272 (W) 950 clear none 02:01 42 -2 8 246 (WSW) 887 cirrus none 03:01 42 -1 10 240 (WSW) 1008 mstly clr none 04:01 41 -1 12 241 (WSW) 884 ptly cldy none 05:01 41 1 9 257 (WSW) 819 mstly clr none 06:01 42 3 12 272 (W) 831 mstly clr 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