From: "Camron Hastings" Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20000919 Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 06:06:30 -0600 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, September 19th, 2000 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- R.Kim R.Kim DIS-high,low 9/19 19:03 01:14 S.Anderson S.Anderson DIS-low 9/20 01:16 06:02 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- PU04/R 19:57 01:10 0 0 0 0 3.3 1.9 0 0 0 UW04/R 01:10 05:57 - 0 - 0 - 4.8 0 - 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist, 1st & 2nd shift: Noel Camron Hastings Dave Woods finished the repairs on SPIcam filter wheel #3 today and it was put back into service. When cleaning the drive surfaces tonight, I noticed a large amount of gray/black residue on the azimuth drive which is usually associated with heavy metal wear. I do not know if this is significant, but may be. I refocused the DIS slit camera and realigned it along the X-axis. I retensioned the grating door spring clamps so that the doors close tighter and more securely. I checked the focus of the DIS collimators as well, and the red is still right on, but the blue has started drift just slightly. The red collimator measures the 1.5" slit to be 1.54" and the blue measures it to be 1.61", so time to focus the collimators may be needed as the temperatures continue to cool with the coming fall. It was noticed during calibrations that the slit area seems to fall in a different place on the blue DIS chip than normal. It is way over to the positive X, to the right, more than normal. Seems stable, so did not interfere with observations and we are not losing any slit image. Tonight I saw LOTS of guider shutter sticking problems. This is a real hassle on the 30 minute exposures we were doing much of the night. Although I know plans are being made to replace the rotator motor, I should note that it was taking over a minute for the rotator to catch up to some slews tonight. Near the end of the night I started to smell smoke and the dust counts started to rise sharply. This was coincident with a shift in the wind from westerly to northerly. I think it is smoke from fireplaces due to the dropping temperatures, not a wild fire. --------------- OBSERVER COMMENTS ---------------- S.Anderson (UW04): A very good night. Instrument and telescope worked fine (although rotator sometimes a little slow). Camron got us through a long target list with great efficiency. --------------- INSTRUMENT FOCUS LOG ---------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El #Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:04 DIS Slit +000(1260) -024 59 14.9/17.0 261 11 none 0.81" 20:05 NA@ Gdr -0588(1260) -024 59 14.9/16.9 165 11 none 0.91" 00:15 DIS Slit +030(1142) 166 57 13.4/13.6 257 15 none 1.43" 00:17 NA2 Gdr -2267(1142) 166 57 13.4/13.5 264 14 none 1.68" 01:14 DIS Slit +080(1221) 203 50 13.5/13.3 263 09 none 1.31" 01:18 NA2 Gdr -1246(1221) 203 50 13.5/13.3 265 11 none 1.42" ------------- WEATHER CONDITIONS ------------ Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 64 35 13 272 (W) 393 clear none 17:01 62 33 4 260 (W) 369 clear none 18:01 63 35 12 260 (W) 496 clear none 19:01 59 36 11 266 (W) 470 clear none 20:01 58 36 11 265 (W) 495 clear none 21:01 58 36 11 262 (W) 548 clear none 22:01 58 37 16 247 (WSW) 539 clear none 23:01 56 37 11 248 (WSW) 644 clear none 00:01 57 36 13 239 (WSW) 718 clear none 01:01 56 36 11 248 (WSW) 693 clear none 02:01 56 36 14 269 (W) 653 clear none 03:01 56 36 6 281 (W) 580 clear none 04:01 57 35 17 275 (W) 551 clear none 05:01 56 34 11 307 (NW) 659 clear none 06:01 57 33 14 303 (WNW) 1545 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: 2.62. Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b27. Current TCC version is 2.4.0b1 Current MC version: v1_7_3. Noel Camron Hastings Apache Point Observatory Sunspot, NM http://users.apo.nmsu.edu/~hastings