Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 06:13:07 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20010506 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Sunday, May 6th, 2001 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- C.Stubbs C.Stubbs, A.Rest SPIcam 22:05 00:57 J.Strasburg, T.Murphy D.York D.York, T.Oka Echelle 01:02 05:12 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UW09/R 20:48 01:00 0 1.3 0 0 0 2.9 0 0 0 UC04/R 01:00 05:12 0 0 0 0 0 4.2 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: Jack Dembicky I defered turning the exhaust fans on in the enclosure at 18:30 due to the dust levels outside in the 2800 count range and not wanting to bring dust into the enclosure. The press fans were left on. Again tonight we had a rotator runaway (same as last night, PR submitted) in the CW direction. Russet and I changed the rotator setting to help correct for the CW runaways and after testing things seemed to be working better. Dust levels were at 3000 cts at sunset and bouncing back and forth over the closure limits. This prevented opening the enclosure at sunset. The dust counts dropped below closure limits aroun 21:35 and I opened the enclosure at 22:00 after I was reasonably certain the counts weren't going to shoot back up right away. The first half observers eventually were able to find the moon after some trial and errors getting the TCC the correct coordinates, times, epochs, etc. and managing to kill the MC by sending a wrong string to it. They found out the moon is a VERY bright target, especially when full, and not as easy as one thinks to find and track. I closed half of the mirror covers over the mirror to reduce the light enough for spicam to image it. The images looked impressive. They also found that the SPIcam shutter doesn't like working at 0.5 sec and needs to be re-initialized every 2 frames with that short of exposure (it doesn't open after 2 exposures). After they finished their targeting/imaging of the moon, I opened the mirror covers back to "full photon mode" and they went after some galaxies with SPIcam. The 2nd half observers started on time and everything seemed to run smoothly for them all night long, no computer crashes or connection problems. The dust levels were around 2000-2300 cts for the whole of the 2nd half. No instrument problems tonight other than the runaway during checkout that was also fixed during checkout. --------------- INSTRUMENT FOCUS LOG ---------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:07 SPIcam 200(1392) 171 46 9.9/11.6 270 8 R 0.99 01:10 Echelle 25(114) 171 48 10.0/9.8 117 2 ND2 1.04 ------------- WEATHER CONDITIONS ------------ Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 56 13 2 258 (WSW) 3481 ? dust 17:01 58 15 5 247 (WSW) 2965 ? dust 18:01 54 15 5 279 (W) 2699 Pt. Cldy none 19:01 55 17 7 260 (W) 2826 Pt. Cldy dust 20:01 49 17 5 266 (W) 3158 Clear dust 21:01 51 16 7 273 (W) 2904 Clear dust 22:01 51 16 9 277 (W) 2615 Clear none 23:01 50 17 8 257 (WSW) 2560 Clear none 00:01 50 15 4 210 (SSW) 2169 Clear none 01:01 50 14 1 137 (SE) 2398 Clear none 02:01 51 14 0 151 (SSE) 2426 Clear none 03:01 50 14 0 352 (N) 2347 Clear none 04:01 50 15 9 21 (NNE) 2224 Clear none 05:01 50 13 6 359 (N) 2211 Clear none 06:01 49 14 3 336 (NNW) 2547 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 > 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. _______________________________________________ apo-staff@mail.apo.nmsu.edu - On-site APO staff and visitors http://mail.apo.nmsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/apo-staff