From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20021225 Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2002 05:34:08 -0700 (MST) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, December 25, 2002 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- G.Wallerstein G.Wallerstein Echelle --:-- --:-- G.Miknaitis R.McMillan SPIcam --:-- --:-- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UW10/R 18:02 24:00 5.2 0.8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 UW04/O 00:00 06:06 0 6.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- First Half Observing Specialist: W.Ketzeback The enclosure remained closed tonight due to snow on the roof. The winds were light in the afternoon and early evening so not much was blown off by running the snow program. Looking out the roof hatch this afternoon there was a good foot of snow behind the doors at the back of the roof. A great deal of the rails that I could visually inspect had minimal ice left after the sun melt but it was still too dangerous to open up tonight. Blowing snow set off the rain sensor around 18:00 tonight. Second Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan This was closest thing to good weather I've yet seen on a Christmas night at APO, but still not usable. During morning checkout procedures, I found that a respectable layer of snow had blown down from the roof onto the previously-cleared catwalk and lower shutter railings. Tonight's workload (in addition to filling instruments and adjusting the dome's profile to the wind) involved paring, coring, slicing, boiling, simmering, tasting, baking, roasting, frying, carving, ladling, spooning, forking, munching, sipping, swallowing, digesting, rinsing, washing, wiping, loading, running, emptying, and re-loading. The work crew included myself, Bill, Atsuko, Scot, Steph, French, Ruth, Jurek, and Howard. The work accomplished included garden salad, fruit salad, nut bread, stollen, cranberry raisin bread, eggrolls, butternut squash soup, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, Polish potato pancakes, carrot cake, Christmas cookies, pumpkin pie, brownies, mulled cider, sparkling pear and apple cider, and Kenyan coffee. And eventually, turkey soup! There was a power failure at 03:10, upsetting the fire system, the rain sensor, the main site surge protector, and some earsplitting alarms in the pump room and the intermediate level. The generator came on normally within a few minutes, and was still running when I left. After about twenty minutes of searching, I located the earsplitting alarms, which were unhappy propane detectors. If it had been a real propane emergency, of course, I would have blown up or suffocated long before I figured out what the noise was; the alarms are too high-pitched to track down easily. All faults were cleared except the main site surge protector. I checked out both mirrors, all three telescope axes, and all seven instruments; everything seemed fine. A stop button was active at the time of the power failure, and the enclosure controller did not fault. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 27 -13 15 327 (NNW) 9 Prtly Cldy None 17:01 26 -18 11 319 (NW) 19 Prtly Cldy None 18:01 25 -19 2 347 (NNW) 10 Prtly Cldy None 19:01 22 -17 8 351 (N) 10 Prtly Cldy Blowing Snow 20:01 22 -4 3 75 (ENE) 61 Mstly Clear None 21:01 20 7 4 25 (NNE) 102 Mstly Clear None 22:01 21 6 7 339 (NNW) 126 Mstly Clear None 23:01 22 3 7 12 (NNE) 96 Mstly Clear None 00:01 20 4 11 3 (N) 95 clear none 01:01 20 5 21 327 (NNW) 83 clear none 02:01 20 5 13 304 (NW) 67 clear none 03:01 19 5 14 341 (NNW) 79 clear none 04:01 19 3 15 327 (NNW) 76 clear none 05:01 18 1 12 318 (NW) 56 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: 2.6.8