Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 04:29:02 -0600 (MDT) From: John Barentine Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20020517 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, May 17, 2002 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- A.Nitta A.Nitta,J.Kreszinksi DISII 20:40 01:00 W.Zheng W.Zheng, Z.Tsvetanov DISII 01:01 03:30 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- NM02/O 20:57 01:00 0 0 0 1.0 0 3.1 0 0 0 JH01/R 01:00 05:02 1.6 0 0 0 2.4 0.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Barentine Cooler temperatures and nearby rain didn't keep up from opening up early to cool around 19:10. Clouds and wind caused us to close and stay closed. While Atsuko and Jurek were taking flats it became apparent that there was a serious problem with the grating tilts on the red side. Part of the problem turned out to be a typo on my part in the gratings.txt file. However, fixing that, there remained a problem with tilts that sent the requested center far off the left edge of the chip. The seeing was very poor throughout the first half, the result of a stiff east wind that blew all first half. Then suddenly, just after the shift change, the winds dropped to near nothing, changed direction, the temperature briefly spiked and a blast of drier air moved in, along with significantly better (and more stable) seeing. Around 03:00 the humidity suddenly shot up to nearly 95% from 65% within a matter of minutes. After consultation with the Sloanies I found out that they had a secondary humidity sensor reading only 72% with no sign of condensation on their telescope. Feeling that this was merely as spike, I decided to stay open, but severely unstable seeing combined with the telescope's inability to keep up with the focus changes forced closure soon thereafter. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE TIME S/E/G/D/O TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NM02 D I/U 20:50 21:50 Misbehavior of DIS grating motors on red side ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:02 DISslit -100(543) 55 78 7.6/9.5 67 23 - 2.98 01:50 DISslit 350(860) -10167 7.1/6.2 78 6 - 1.90 01:54 NA2gdr 600(57600) -12747 6.8/6.3 91 2 clear 2.25 03:13 DISslit 100(587) -5 64 4.4/5.6 69 16 - 3.00 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 57 32 9 116 (ESE) 1090 PtlyCldy none 17:01 56 32 21 48 (NE) 1060 PtlyCldy none 18:01 54 31 25 70 (ENE) 1055 PtlyCldy none 19:01 51 31 25 66 (ENE) 945 PtlyCldy none 20:01 49 31 18 75 (ENE) 933 PtlyCldy none 21:01 48 31 25 73 (ENE) 923 PtlyCldy none 22:01 46 31 22 66 (ENE) 1243 PtlyCldy none 23:01 44 31 19 72 (ENE) 1924 MstlyClr none 00:01 43 31 18 72 (ENE) 1933 MstlyClr none 01:01 42 31 13 71 (ENE) 2228 Clear none 02:01 44 31 6 81 (E) 2013 Clear none 03:01 39 38 14 70 (ENE) 1337 Clear none 04:01 39 37 15 74 (ENE) 1445 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: 2.6.3