From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20000928 Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 07:06:46 -0600 (MDT) Importance: Normal APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, September 28th, 2000 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- E.Turner C.Hastings SPIcam 9/28 19:14 20:28 J.Dalcanton J.Dalcanton SPIcam 9/28 20:41 06:50 J.Murphy, J.Frith, P.Hodge, D.Zucker INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- PU05/O 19:44 20:24 0 0 0 0 0.6 0.1 0 0 0 UW05/R 20:24 06:03 0 - 0 - 9.6 - 0 0 - note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist, 1st Shift: Noel Camron Hastings I opened the telescope at 18:55 to allow cooling. Skies started clear, all systems ran well. When I focused SPIcam I noticed that the focus was quite a bit higher than normal, see below. Other than that, all was well. Observing Specialist, 2nd Shift: Russet McMillan Second half was clear, with better seeing once the wind shifted to the south, although the seeing did seem very position-dependent. Paul Hodge and Dan Zucker took over as part of a semi-unofficial swap. We considered whether to list the program as UW07, but decided against it since the swap was partly in response to unplanned illness of the first-half observer, and was also internal to UW and trading time across quarters. I logged the time as scheduled. Focus values during second half were lower than the strange values for first half, and eventually I discovered why. I had checked the telescope temperatures and weather process as soon as I heard about the problem, but I failed to notice until 04:30 that the telex fans were not on. This was the reason for the originally high focus and the very slow cooling constant. The primary was already cold enough by the time I turned the fans on that the focus only changed a little. --------------- OBSERVER COMMENTS ---------------- D.Zucker (UW05): Another very productive night. The clouds from earlier in the evening cleared up and the seeing improved, although it remained variable. The guider, telescope, and spicam all worked quite well, and Russet was very helpful in keeping things humming along. --------------- INSTRUMENT FOCUS LOG ---------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El #Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:58 SPIcam +450(1603) 123 37 13.0/15.4 128 18 r' 1.97" 20:45 SPIcam +475(1597) 260 72 12.9/15.1 127 13 6629 1.38" 01:36 SPIcam 100(1086) 219 44 12.2/12.1 141 18 6563 1.23 04:05 SPIcam 50(998) 32 65 11.3/12.1 357 4 6563 1.20 ------------- WEATHER CONDITIONS ------------ Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 70 28 8 238 (WSW) 403 clear none 17:01 66 28 12 184 (S) 457 clear none 18:01 63 28 12 213 (SSW) 512 clear none 19:01 57 26 15 140 (SE) 691 clear none 20:01 54 23 16 126 (SE) 588 clear none 21:01 54 23 12 123 (ESE) 595 ptly cldy none 22:01 55 22 13 125 (SE) 533 ptly cldy none 23:01 55 22 13 134 (SE) 573 ptly cldy none 00:01 54 16 13 130 (SE) 465 ptly cldy none 01:01 54 11 15 128 (SE) 212 clear none 02:01 54 11 13 170 (S) 201 clear none 03:01 55 17 9 186 (S) 292 clear none 04:01 53 18 9 176 (S) 289 clear none 05:01 54 20 6 177 (S) 315 clear none 06:01 55 20 6 180 (S) 319 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, Russet McMillan