From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20010428 Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 05:19:50 -0600 (MDT) APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, April 28th, 2001 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Strauss X.Fan,V.Narayanan DIS-Low 22:45 00:55 J.Holtzman J.Holtzman, C.Aars, DIS-Med 00:58 03:05 D.Loomba INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- PU02/R 20:40 01:00 0 2.1 0 0 0 2.2 0 0 0 NM04/O 01:00 05:21 2.1 0 0 0 2.1 0.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: Russet McMillan Threatening clouds and nearby rain kept us closed for several hours past sunset. We had a brief sprinkle shortly before 21:00, then after 22:30 it began to look more promising. We opened at 22:45 to mostly clear skies and poor seeing (3 arcseconds at focus, eventually settling to about 2 arcseconds). The first-half program was able to catch a few targets before handing the telescope over. The NMSU observers wanted to catch a setting object immediately, but offered me a few minutes in mid-morning to check the DIS instrument focus vs. the slitviewer focus. This coincided with the arrival of a patch of clouds, so the observers were happy and I was frustrated. I wasn't able to get a very good focus measurement for DIS in imaging mode, but what I did see indicated that the best focus values for the instrument and slitviewer are fairly close. I will try to make a more thorough check when possible. The dome was closed at 03:20 thanks to a report from Mike Harvanek that he'd felt a raindrop. The rain sensor triggered 5 minutes later. Even after the clouds had cleared away, several people continued to feel raindrops, so we never re-opened. --------------- INSTRUMENT FOCUS LOG ---------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:52 DISslit -150(880) -2 59 7.4/9.8 123 20 - 3.3 01:20 DISslit -30(974) 327 41 8.1/8.0 128 18 - 1.78 02:53 DISslit -50(868) 248 63 7.8/7.5 150 20 - 1.68 03:11 DIS(red) 0(921) 253 59 7.9/7.4 145 19 - 1.71 03:11 DIS(blue) 0(921) 253 59 7.9/7.4 145 19 - 1.88 ------------- WEATHER CONDITIONS ------------ Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 62 33 11 190 (S) 1011 mstly cldy rain? 17:01 59 36 14 251 (WSW) 975 mstly cldy none 18:01 54 33 10 180 (S) 978 ptly cldy none 19:01 52 36 2 116 (ESE) 1092 ptly cldy none 20:01 48 36 11 114 (ESE) 999 mstly cldy none 21:01 48 36 16 181 (S) 812 mstly cldy rain 22:01 47 34 22 126 (SE) 915 ptly cldy none 23:01 45 35 10 128 (SE) 901 ptly cldy none 00:01 48 34 22 136 (SE) 1092 mstly clr none 01:01 47 35 25 134 (SE) 1210 mstly clr none 02:01 46 37 21 138 (SE) 1084 mstly clr none 03:01 46 37 20 155 (SSE) 1106 ptly cldy rain 04:01 45 37 14 161 (SSE) 1088 mstly clr rain? 05:01 45 37 19 144 (SE) 962 mstly clr 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 Ctrlv3.0b27. Current TCC version: 2.5.1 Current MC version: v1_7_3.