Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 06:33:32 -0600 (MDT) From: Frank Deglman Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20000407 Thursday, April 07, 2000 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY Observing Log ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- D.York Adler Pl. SPIcam 4/07 19:15 19:58 J.Brown J.Brown SPIcam/Echelle 4/07-8 19:59 ??:?? R.Kim R.Kim DIS 4/08 03:25 06:22 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UC09/R 19:23 20:23 - 0 - 0 - 0 1.0 - 0 WS02/R 20:23 01:00 2.1 2.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 PU02/R 01:00 05:47 2.4 - 0 - 2.4 - 0 0 - (note: times listed include instrument change time) -------- ACTIVITY LOG -------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: Camron Hastings (Sorry so long!) Karen Loomis came in this afternoon to help sort out last night's DIS problems. We found the main problem with DIS and corrected it. We recalibrated the gratings and all seemed very good with it. In addition, Armin Rest made some upgrades to DIMM software and it seems to work well. (More about this later.) The mirror issue with the Echelle from last night is still under investigation. I recommend cycling the mirror any time something seems incorrect. It is easy to use the guider to check mirror position against the REMARK information. Tonight started out well, then the winds kicked up. We opened the dome at 19:00 but closed again for wind and dust (mostly wind) at 20:00. Adler had some time to use SPIcam during this, then Jeff Brown took the rest of the time for Echelle calibrations and flats. We had some power fluctuations during the wind storm. I tried the new DIMM software tonight and the new procedure appears to work well. There were some problems, but not software related. I opened DIMM early and found the telescope tracking as it should. The laptop had 4 FTP servers trying to run. I closed them all down and opened the requisite single server. After that, I started the new DIMM software (that can now be left running permanently). I returned to the control room, and once dark enough, I issued and then . DIMM responded correctly, found Polaris and attempted to start seeing measurements. Unfortunately there was a large rate of image rejection. I went outside to see why. I found two causes reasons. First, the seeing was SO bad that DIMM could not fit a PSF to the images. The few measurements it made were around 3-4". The photometric telescope had a measurement of 6" during this time. It seems that turbulence above 3-4" is beyond DIMM's ability to measure as the images are so blurred out DIMM cannot fit a PSF. The second problem was that the optical wedge was mis-aligned and the seeing images were being taken at a 45 degree angle, not horizontal as required. I re-adjusted the wedge so that the images were horizontal. This could explain two things. One, this could contribute to the large amount of image rejection I was seeing. DIMM often displayed the error "Images Not Horizontal". Two, the large disparity in seeing between DIMM and Sloan observations last night. DIMM seemed to always get better than all the scopes on sight. In general, I now believe that DIMM is operating normally. I would suggest looking into a more stable and robust optical wedge assembly as this one has a history of coming loose. 2nd-Half Observing Specialist: Frank Deglman Some DIS calibration was done during the closure. Opened at 03:25 when wind dropped below limit. While trying to focus, things looked the same between 0 and 1000 microns (on the secondary). Finally called previous night's values good. Got a very broad gaussian blob that measured over seven (and no, there is no decimal point) arcseconds in width. This made faint object acquisition not possible. The PU02 observer then went back to last night's brighter (13th mag) object. Some success here and on a standard. Closed at 05:50. SOme DIS calibration spectra were done afterwards. OBSERVER COMMENTS Adler Planetarium (UC09): None Jeff Brown (PU02): None Rita Kim (PU02): None FOCUS LOG April 07 2000 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El Temp* Dir MPH filt FWHM " ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 04:00 DISslit +50(297) 214 52 -3.8/-1.0 70 30 none 7.74 *First temp is air, second temp is telescope superstructure. WEATHER April 07 2000 Wind Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:01 60 14 5 318 (NW) 704 clear none 17:01 58 13 14 328 (NNW) 586 clear none 18:01 59 14 8 316 (NW) 567 clear none 19:01 52 24 15 64 (ENE) 2347 clear none 20:01 46 25 31 72 (ENE) 2192 clear none 21:01 41 25 22 71 (ENE) 1975 clear none 22:01 37 24 32 66 (ENE) 1518 clear none 23:01 34 22 18 78 (ENE) 1892 clear none 00:01 31 21 27 69 (ENE) 1940 clear none 01:01 29 18 25 65 (ENE) 1907 clear none 02:01 28 17 30 72 (ENE) 1759 clear none 03:01 26 16 29 70 (ENE) 1305 clear none 04:01 25 14 28 73 (ENE) 1183 clear none 05:01 24 12 26 75 (ENE) 1080 clear none 06:01 24 12 17 75 (ENE) 1143 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. - Camron, Frank