Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 05:41:55 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20021221 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, December 21, 2002 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- S.McCandliss S.McCandliss Echelle --:-- --:-- J.Dembicky SPIcam, S-H 22:15 00:00 D.York D.York, T.Oka Echelle 00:00 04:30 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- JH05/R 17:59 00:00 0.9 3.3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.8 UC01/R 00:00 06:04 0 1.6 0 0 0 4.5 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky The start of the night did not look very promising at all for observations but a strong low over S. Cal and a high pressure system over mid Texas and a NE jet just to the East of us caused the system to start to drive N over us and bring some holes to observe thru. My observer left around 19:00 with a phone number contact for me to call if the weather did manage to improve. Around 21:45 conditions looked like they were becoming good enough for Echelle observations so I called. Unfortunately the phone number he left was for a party he was attending and he had already left. I sent an e-mail to his account and also called the number in the project proposal. I looked for a home phone number on our confidential list but could not find one. The conditions were marginal at best, but that usually is OK for a lot of Echelle targets. I opened the enclosure around 22:00 to start prepping it for my observer as well as getting it ready to do some engineering with SPIcam and Shack-Hartmann while I waited, if my observer didn't show back up in the next 1.5 hrs.. Since the enclosure needs to cool for a little while before we take Shack-Hartmann images, I used the interim time to get a couple PR shots of Saturn and M1 (M1 turned out nicely, Saturn was too bright). I also took my reference frames for the Shack-Hartmann while I was imaging with SPIcam. When my 3 reference frames completed, I was ready with a nice 7.9 mag star, unfortunately I didn't see anything in the monitor. After trying the obvious (rotating the tertiary again, setting the instrument again, opening the eyelid, slewing to a bright star) I realized that I had opened the mirror covers manually when I went up and forgot to turn them back to remote. That solved the problem and I was happily taking S-H data. The star in the S-H monitor seemed to want to drift to the left. I tried centering the star while the S-H was doing it's first set of 5 exposures (MIR20-24). I then did 5 more with the star (hopefully) a little more centered (MIR25-29). I didn't notice as much in the 2nd set of images, but the seeing did get worse (probably 2 arc sec, full diameter of the circle drawn on the S-H monitor). I turned the instrument over to the 2nd half observer at midnight and we tried focusing only to find clouds were again moving in from the W and blocking our focus star. A higher altitude star solved the problem and they were merrily on their way to capturing photons for the night. The clouds finally stopped observations around 04:30 so we gave up for the remainder of the night, since there was now little hope of the clouds parting in the next 1.5 hrs.. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 10:28 SPIcam 150(475) 121 72 -3.1/-3.7 261 10 V 1.13 11:42 S-H 90(792) 175 63 -3.3/-3.6 266 10 none 1.0 00:04 Echelle 68(-696) 350 73 -3.1/-3.5 266 10 ND1 0.94 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 28 -14 16 289 (WNW) 17 Cloudy none 17:01 28 -15 21 282 (WNW) 19 Cloudy none 18:01 27 -15 12 286 (WNW) 27 Cloudy none 19:01 27 -15 9 292 (WNW) 29 Cloudy none 20:01 28 -16 18 286 (WNW) 30 Cloudy none 21:01 27 -16 12 270 (W) 27 Pt. Cldy none 22:01 26 -15 10 245 (WSW) 30 Pt. Cldy none 23:01 27 -16 16 245 (WSW) 25 Pt. Cldy none 00:01 27 0 11 274 (W) 77 Pt. Cldy none 01:01 26 7 12 283 (WNW) 118 Pt. Cldy none 02:01 27 5 16 227 (SW) 134 Mst. Cldy none 03:01 27 3 13 240 (WSW) 129 Mst. Cldy none 04:01 27 3 12 222 (SW) 158 Mst. Cldy none 05:01 27 3 12 202 (SSW) 173 Cloudy 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: 2.6.8