From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20000906 Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 06:11:38 -0600 (MDT) APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, September 6th, 2000 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- E.Turner R.McMillan SPIcam 9/06 19:50 20:43 S.Hawley N.Silvestri DIS-High 9/06 21:03 01:10 T.Oswalt S.Anderson S.Anderson DIS-Low 9/07 01:10 05:42 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- PU05/O 20:15 20:55 - 0 - 0 - 0.7 0 - - UW06/O 20:55 01:10 - 0 - 0 - 4.2 0 - - UW04/R 01:10 05:48 0 - 0 - 4.6 - 0 0 - note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist, 1st & 2nd shift: Russet McMillan The night was characterized by spotty clouds, thickest at the beginning of the evening, and good seeing -- consistently better in all focus frames and guider measurements than DIMM was showing. The intermittent clouds at the beginning of the night made it nearly impossible to obtain a focus with SPIcam, and no useful data were obtained for PU05. The clouds caused less interference with the DIS observing, and all went smoothly for the rest of the night. Pointing with DIS was consistent within ~3 arcseconds whenever we had good coordinates for the targets. Tracking was sometimes erratic, however, with long periods where the target was stable interspersed with periods of great difficulty keeping it centered. In the worst case, with a target at ~40 degrees altitude in the NW and guiding turned off due to clouds, I had to offset a total of 6 arcseconds over two minutes to keep the star in the slit. --------------- OBSERVER'S COMMENTS ---------------- S. Anderson (UW04): An excellent night. Instrument and telescope worked flawlessly, and Russet moved us through a long target list with high efficiency. --------------- INSTRUMENT FOCUS LOG ---------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El #Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:15 DISslit -25(1314) 111 70 17.8/19.6 234 8 -- 0.74 23:45 DISslit +25(1375) -38 44 18.2/17.8 225 7 -- 0.91 01:25 DISslit 130(1430) 184 52 18.2/17.5 236 5 -- 0.93 02:50 DISslit 25(1304) 198 55 17.1/17.2 146 11 -- 1.10 ------------- WEATHER CONDITIONS ------------ Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 17:01 74 35 10 231 (SW) 598 ptly cldy none 18:01 72 35 12 257 (WSW) 639 ptly cldy none 19:01 68 34 8 237 (WSW) 688 ptly cldy none 20:01 63 33 3 264 (W) 913 ptly cldy none 21:01 64 32 6 247 (WSW) 889 ptly cldy none 22:01 65 34 4 255 (WSW) 956 ptly cldy none 23:01 63 34 5 193 (SSW) 987 mstly clr none 00:01 64 32 5 244 (WSW) 953 mstly clr none 01:01 63 31 6 246 (WSW) 908 ptly cldy none 02:01 65 32 8 127 (SE) 924 ptly cldy none 03:01 63 36 12 145 (SE) 986 mstly clr none 04:01 63 35 13 148 (SSE) 969 clear none 05:01 63 36 11 151 (SSE) 1085 clear none 06:01 63 36 15 154 (SSE) 1060 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. -- Russet McMillan