From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20021106 Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 06:01:21 -0700 (MST) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, November 6, 2002 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- D.York D.York GFP 17:10 23:15 DIS 23:15 05:30 B.Gillespie R.McMillan SH 23:55 00:25 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UC04/O 18:03 23:55 0 0 4.0 0.3 1.1 0.5 0 0 0 EN02/O 23:55 00:25 0 0 0 0 0.5 0 0 0 0 UC04/O 00:25 05:31 0 0 0 0 5.1 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- First Half Observing Specialist: W.Ketzeback First half started with clear skies and resonable seeing. The Shutter on the instrument had a stuck vane and with the help of J.Brinkman we were able to work on the instrument and get the shutter to operate again. However, a problem with the rotator delayed observations further. Just when we thought that problem was fixed the shutter problem returned and the observer decided that we should replace the shutter with a spare. This was far more involved and it turned out that the spare when wired up did not want to stay open. J.Brinkman and J.Davis both assisted in the change and troubleshooting. When it was decided that no more work could be done with the GFP, I did an instrument change to DIS for the observer. Second Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan This was a night that definitely qualified as "interesting times." Skies were beautifully clear, with good to excellent seeing. Once he decided to give up on the GFP, the observer first requested the echelle instead. But the echelle ICC was apparently unable to communicate with its motor controller, so we couldn't tell what state the various motors were in or move them to another state. This trouble overlapped with the end of the GFP work. The observer decided on DIS instead, for a particular target of interest. During the hasty checkout, it appeared that the DIS high blue grating was refusing to change tilts at all. Since the current tilt was acceptable for the observer, I decided not to spend a lot of time figuring that one out. The problem only caused a slight delay, but was not actually resolved. When we were ready to get on the sky, I started with some Shack-Hartmann observations because it turned out that the observer's DIS target was still quite low in the sky. The Shack-Hartmann actually worked without a hitch! With those observations completed, we went on to the DIS target. Only minor difficulties cropped up while DIS was in use (the slitviewer counting down an exposure to -57 seconds, focus changing from +200 to -25 and back up to +50, that sort of thing). Other problems of the night included a valve stuck open on one of the site's air compressor filters. Thumping on the filter, as recommended by Pete Newman, didn't work, and the previous PR on the subject had no other useful advice. Jon Davis, who been working in the dome until after 23:00, was hauled out of bed at 2:00 to deal with this problem. Unable to bypass the filter, he stuck a plug in the valve instead. Later, rounding out the night, the flush handle on the toilet broke. Oh, and I hear the Sloanies had some fun as well. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE TIME S/E/G/D/O TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- UC04 F I/H 18:30 19:40 GFP Shutter failed UC04 F T/S 20:25 20:40 Hub blocked rot cmd from TCC UC04 F I/H 20:40 23:15 GFP Shutter failed UC04 D I/H 23:15 23:30 DIS B H grating not tilting ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:14 GFP -50(728) 53 61 5.9/7.5 5 7 4252 1.29 18:17 NA2gdr -2795(57205) 50 63 5.9/7.4 324 2 R 1.12 19:47 GFP 10(713) -2 71 5.1/5.1 9 7 4252 1.15 19:57 NA2gdr -407(59593) -18 69 5.3/5.9 87 5 clear 1.16 00:04 S-H 220(1302) 236 59 8.2/6.3 178 7 - good 00:40 DISslit 150(646) 112 56 8.0/6.4 181 5 - 0.99 00:44 NA2gdr 1201(54201) 113 57 8.1/6.4 181 5 R 0.78 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 47 9 2 254 (WSW) 134 Clear None 17:01 45 5 3 357 (N) 104 Clear None 18:01 42 -7 7 328 (NNW) 10 Clear None 19:01 42 -7 4 15 (NNE) 4 Clear None 20:01 45 -11 5 91 (E) 0 Clear None 21:01 47 -12 0 120 (ESE) 4 Clear None 22:01 46 -13 5 126 (SE) 10 Clear None 23:01 47 -14 6 152 (SSE) 4 Clear None 00:01 47 -14 7 175 (S) 10 Clear None 01:01 45 -14 6 183 (S) 1 clear none 02:01 44 -15 3 189 (S) 2 clear none 03:01 42 -12 3 184 (S) 13 clear none 04:01 42 -14 5 184 (S) 27 clear none 05:01 44 -16 3 195 (SSW) 14 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: 2.82 Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv4.1b2 Current TCC version: 2.6.7