Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 06:44:05 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20020221 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, February 21st, 2002 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- P.Szkody P.Szkody DIS-High 18:35 23:58 J.Holtzman J.Holtzman, H.Noriega Echelle 00:02 06:40 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UW11/R 18:48 00:10 0 0 0 0 0 5.4 0 0 0 NM06/R 00:10 05:46 0 0 0 0 3.1 2.5 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan We made an attempt during the afternoon to revert the TCC software back to an earlier version which permits echelle pointing corrections, but we had some trouble with it. Russell Owen was traveling and unavailable for consultation until after dark, so for tonight we're continuing with the same TCC version (2.6.1). The cloudcam repeated yesterday's noise problems on startup. It took repeated wiggling of the data cable to make an improvement. The IRSC also stalled out and needed to be power-cycled in the park position, an unusual occurrence that also happened last night. The stall might or might not be related to the noise, but the power-cycle that fixed the stall seemed to help fix the noise. The dome was opened at 18:00 under mostly clear skies. We waited nearly half an hour between opening and focusing, but there was still quite a noticeable change in focus during the first few hours of the night as the telescope came to equilibrium (also, the air temperature was warming while the telescope cooled). The seeing improved over the same period of time. We had one guider timeout error that interrupted guiding for a few exposures but didn't affect the science very much. All in all, the first half was successful despite minor annoyances. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky The observers decided to slew the telescope to 89.5 degrees and prompty were told to slew someplace else by me. A little later they slewed again above the 80 degree zone to around 83.4 degrees and were given another warning/reminder about asking the observing specialists permission before slewing to high altitudes. At least this time they were tracking to a lower altitude. Luckily neither slew caused the mirror to start oscillations (the load cells looked normal after they moved away from the zenith). I checked the mirror for oscillations in the cell this morning during the shutdown. Everything looked fine. No problems tonight and everything ran smoothly the 2nd half. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG/INST FAILURE MODE TIME S/E/G/D/O TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:27 DISslit -50(88) 14 69 -4.6/-2.0 49 14 - 1.73 18:32 NA2gdr 2868(59868) 13 69 -4.6/-2.2 60 16 R 1.45 20:28 DISslit 100(173) 60 60 -2.7/-3.8 30 19 - 1.25 20:31 NA2gdr -3000(54000) 59 61 -2.8/-3.7 4 14 R 1.13 00:10 Echelle 108(-702) 159 61 -3.2/-3.5 18 18 ND1 1.07 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 28 9 7 82 (E) 154 mstly clr none 17:01 28 7 7 74 (ENE) 126 clear none 18:01 25 11 11 45 (NE) 115 clear none 19:01 24 10 13 63 (ENE) 88 clear none 20:01 26 4 11 38 (NE) 126 clear none 21:01 27 8 7 20 (NNE) 261 clear none 22:01 28 3 19 15 (NNE) 165 clear none 23:01 27 4 6 0 (N) 222 clear none 00:01 26 7 15 23 (NNE) 399 clear none 01:01 27 6 12 23 (NNE) 207 clear none 02:01 24 9 7 1 (N) 172 clear none 03:01 26 2 18 29 (NNE) 204 clear none 04:01 25 8 16 6 (N) 237 clear none 05:01 27 5 17 20 (NNE) 478 clear none 06:01 27 2 19 24 (NNE) 154 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: 2.80b Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv4.1b2 Current TCC version: 2.6.1 Current MC version: v1_7_3