From: Russet McMillan
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20000812
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 06:03:14 -0600 (MDT)
                       APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY
                       3.5m Telescope Night Log
                       Saturday, Aug 12th, 2000
                                                          ACTUAL
 ASTRONOMER     OBSERVER(S)        INSTRUMENT   DATE   START  FINISH
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 W.Zheng        W.Zheng,           GRIM(f/5)    8/12   20:40  01:08
                Z.Tsvetanov
 D.York         D.York             Echelle      8/13   01:12  05:35
  INST        SCHEDULED     WEATH     EQUIP      OBS    DAY   NOTUSED
 I/RO/DN    START  FINISH  D    B    D    B    D    B   USE   D    B
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 JH04/R     20:48  01:10   -    0    -   0.2   -   4.2   0    -    0
 UC03/R     01:10  05:28   0    0    0    0   0.6  3.7   0    -    0
 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time
                ------------- ACTIVITY LOG --------------
Observing Specialist: Russet McMillan
We had quite a bit of rain during the day, but conditions improved so
that the telescope could be opened to partly cloudy skies soon after
sunset.  There were some precipitation traces showing nearby on radar
for much of the night, but almost all of them seemed to be ghosts when
checked against direction observation.  The telescope remained open
all night.  The seeing was excellent, with both GRIM at f/5 and the
guider showing undersampled images.  The telescope pointing was very
good, and the only instrument troubles were fairly minor.
* Several of the focus images for GRIM appeared elongated in a way
that looked like image motion.  No periodic behavior was apparent in
any of the PMSS output, no offsets were occurring that would have
moved the secondary, and the wind was mild.  I took a few minutes of
usable time to establish the direction of the elongation (mostly in
the direction of azimuth, with a smaller altitude component), then ran
the telescope up and down in altitude several times to settle the
PMSS.  We had no other reported instances of image motion during the
night.
The GRIM observers had some difficulty at first because they were
using an old script which didn't take into account the past year's
changes in the MC.  GRIM users are recommended to check their scripts
out in advance; they can do so with tests during daylight time, or by
inquiring with one of the GRIM experts at UW or Craig Loomis.  Any
script that has not been modified in the past six months is suspect.
There were a few difficulties with the echelle where the cal mirror
failed to move when commanded.  At least one of these (at 02:21) was a
correctly-issued command that failed somewhere below the level of the
MC.  Sync gave "Unknown" for the mirror position.  I was concerned
with potential weather threats at the time and had no chance to check
the echelle motor PC before the event scrolled off the screen.
                   ****** OBSERVER COMMENTS ******
                             -  NONE  -
        --------------- INSTRUMENT FOCUS LOG ----------------
                                     Air/Truss   Wind
Time  Instrument  Focus     Az  El   #Temp-C    Dir MPH  filt   FWHM"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
20:50 GRIM(f/5)  50(1450)  104  55  16.6/17.9   105   9   J     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: 2.62.
Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b27. Current TCC version
is 2.4.0b1 Current MC version: v1_7_3.
-- Russet McMillan