Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 06:39:17 -0600 (MDT) From: John Barentine Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20011004 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, October 4th, 2001 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- E.Turner R.McMillan SPIcam 19:10 20:11 S.Hawley N.Silvestri DIS-high 20:25 00:53 D.Duncan D.Duncan Echelle 00:58 06:05 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- PU05/O 19:37 20:22 0 0 0 0 0.6 0.1 0 0 0 UW06/R 20:22 01:00 0 0.2 0 0 0 4.4 0 0 0 UC05/R 01:00 06:06 0 0 0 0 0 5.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: Russet McMillan The evening started with cirrus overhead and rain not far away, but we were able to open shortly after sunset and start the lens monitoring program as soon as it was dark enough. Seeing was moderate on the first focus and throughout the SPIcam exposures, but improved once we got around to focusing DIS, and the clouds mostly cleared out, as well. For a while, the seeing was good enough with the guider that I changed the binning so that stars would not be undersampled. But there were also periods of mediocre seeing and visits from a few clouds, thick enough to prevent observations for a little while before they evaporated. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: J. Barentine Another smooth transition at halftime. Weather was generally good with very few of the annoying orographic clouds that plagued the latter part of the first half. We did note a consistent problem in pointing with Doug's objects beginning around 03:00; he would slew to a target and would find it at the very top edge of the slitviewer image, occasionally not on the frame at all. The telescope was generally pointing around az 185, alt 30 in this interval, more or less due south. At times the pointing was so off that the star wouldn't appear on the frame at all, though Doug claimed his coordinates were quite good (and the previous two nights' results support that claim). He says he lost half his targets tonight as a result. Otherwise, weather cooperated for the bulk of the second half. All other systems behaving normally. ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:35 SPIcam -175(912) 90 64 10.4/14.0 267 5 r' 1.09 21:03 DISslit 0(941) 131 39 10.9/11.9 257 7 - 1.09 21:07 NA2gdr 2646(59646) 132 40 10.8/11.9 238 8 R 0.87 22:20 DISslit -25(798) 122 75 10.7/11.2 213 10 - 1.01 22:21 NA2gdr 1000(58000) 122 75 10.7/11.2 213 10 R 0.79 02:14 Echelle 58(-85) 189 45 10.0/9.9 187 2 clear 0.97 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 17:01 62 37 5 269 (W) 371 ptly cldy none 18:01 57 36 8 258 (WSW) 420 ptly cldy none 19:01 52 34 5 268 (W) 435 cirrus none 20:01 51 34 5 260 (W) 423 cirrus none 21:01 51 35 6 259 (W) 428 mstly clr none 22:01 52 35 9 216 (SW) 430 mstly clr none 23:01 51 34 5 184 (S) 429 ptly cldy none 00:01 51 35 10 217 (SW) 446 ptly cldy none 01:01 49 35 6 202 (SSW) 1080 mstly clr none 02:01 50 35 7 238 (WSW) 459 ptly cldy none 03:01 52 33 5 267 (W) 378 ptly cldy none 04:01 51 32 6 298 (WNW) 360 mstly clr none 05:01 51 32 9 322 (NW) 366 mstly clr none 06:01 50 34 10 353 (N) 381 ptly cldy 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 > 1u per 0.1 cubic feet. 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 Ctrlv4.1b2. Current TCC version: 2.5.5 Current MC version: v1_7_3.