From: "Noel Camron Hastings" Subject: Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 05:27:55 -0700 ******************************************************************* * APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY * * 3.5-m Telescope Observing Log * * Sunday, May 7, 2000 * ******************************************************************* ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- K.Krisciunas K.Krisciunas SPIcam,GRIM 5/07 20:10 00:48 Z.Tsvetanov Z.Tsvetanov DIS-Low 5/08 01:13 05:11 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UW02/R 20:40 01:00 0 0 0 0.3 1.2 2.8 - 0 0 DD05/R 01:00 05:11 3.0 - 0 - 1.0 - - 0 - note: times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: deglman The PMSS desiccant was pink. Installed medium gratings in DIS. Somewhat cloudy, but opened on schedule. Had one rotator run away, where it started immediately going in the wrong direction and would not stop. Stopped by reinitializing axes. Reslewed and it worked fine. Had one instance of faulty guiding. Image: /export/images/lowz_sn/may8/sn2000bk.0008.fits. Guider was running but it obviously was not offsetting correctly. This led to later pointing problems of about one half arcminute, since the guider offsets are sticky. Had to zero these offsets. A bit later, SPIcam stopped responding and threw the remote observer out of Dryrot. He had reported problems earlier of the network traffic moving very slowly at times. Switched to Grim at 23:30. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: Camron Hastings Switched to DIS and checked wavelength centers of low res gratings. Turned over to observer and focused. Noticed image elongation that looks like poor tracking to me. It came and went. Did not look like the PMSS 'hiccups' we once had, but I may be wrong. At around 02:40 MDT I tried to turn on arc lamps and found that the controller died. When I tried a 'lamps on 1' command I received an error stating: 'Error in packet' and 'general failure'. About 30 minutes later the system seemed to work again. During this time I slewed the telescope to park position, so perhaps we have some bad cabling? During the night the observer for DD05 reported very bad network conditions between Johns Hopkins and APO. I had no slow downs or trouble from here to there or anywhere else, so it is a mystery. We stopped for clouds for most the night, but when we started again the rotator would not respond. Multiple 'axis init' commands coaxed it back to life, where it overshot and then regained composure. I feel that most of our image troubles are coming from the rotator glitches. The guide camera shutter stopped working again, it is stuck open. Problem report submitted. Guiding still possible. ****** OBSERVER COMMENTS ****** None --------------- INSTRUMENT FOCUS LOG ----------------- Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM" --------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:35 SPIcam -050(813) 170 52 16.7/18.7 273 5 V 1.2" 20:45 NA2gdr -850 none 1.2" 22:50 SPIcam + 30(769) 191 49 13.8/13.7 241 16 V 1.2" 23:45 Grim + 25(903) 159 56 13.3/13.4 269 13 J 1.1" 01:20 DISslit +200(931) 214 52 12.1/12.3 272 17 none 1.2" #First temp is air, second temp is telescope structure. ------------- WEATHER CONDITIONS ------------ Wind Precip. or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions -------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:01 65 19 27 258 (WSW) 820 cirrus none 19:01 61 16 24 268 (W) 1081 cirrus none 20:01 58 14 23 256 (WSW) 1008 cirrus none 21:01 58 14 17 258 (WSW) 960 hvy cirrus none 22:01 57 13 15 260 (W) 936 half cldy none 23:01 57 12 19 267 (W) 1101 ptly cldy none 00:01 55 11 14 268 (W) 1085 cirrus none 01:01 55 11 16 264 (W) 1094 cloudy none 02:01 54 10 16 273 (W) 1203 cloudy none 03:01 53 8 13 274 (W) 1399 cloudy none 04:01 53 8 14 285 (WNW) 1252 cloudy none 05:01 51 8 13 261 (W) 1266 cloudy 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 2.2.5. - Frank Deglman, Camron Hastings