Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 04:34:09 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20020604 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, June 4, 2002 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- A.Miceli A.Miceli DIS-high 20:30 01:15 L.Fortson M.Hammergren SPIcam 01:15 02:00 A.Miceli A.Miceli DIS-high --:-- --:-- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UW07/R 21:11 01:00 0 0 0 0 3.8 0 0 0 0 UC05/R 01:00 02:00 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 UW07/R 02:00 04:52 0.9 1.9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J. Dembicky I started checkout tonight and after taking one test image with SPIcam it crashed (well, I had to restart it as it was trying to set the focus to some absurd value). Restarting SPIcam seemed to fix the problem and I took 3 more bias test images with no problems. Then when checking the Echelle temperatures, I found that the Echelle was warming up. The LN2 fill valves had been inadvertantly left closed from the transfer of LN2 yesterday afternoon. I talked to Mark and he said they would deal with it tommorow since it looked like it would have to be pumped (it had been about 24 hrs and the cold shield was warming up). This delayed me slightly in getting DIS prepped, but the observers had the instrument still before their scheduled start time. I opened the enclosure around 21:10 when the observers finished their cal lamps. There was a fair temp differential and the seeing was around 1.2 arc sec. This changed rapidly thru the night as the temps fell, the wind shifted, and the humidity was on the rise. The seeing was relatively poor (compared to what we usually get) at around 1.8-2.5 arc sec. I adjusted as best I could with the dropping temps using the guider images as my reference to keep the scope in focus. We refocused around 23:30 with seeing measurements between 1.9-2.4 arc sec. Things grew progressively worse with the seeing hitting 2.8-3.4 arc sec around 00:30. At 02:00 I switched back over to DIS and as we just got focused the humidity started creeping up. With 4 arc sec seeing the observers said that they could get no useful science out of DIS and I opted to close the mirror covers, since our humidity was now hovering around 78%. About 15 mins later the humidity shot up above closure limits, and I closed, and it stayed there for the remainder of the night. The observers threw the towel in at 04:10 as it was very improbable that we would again open during what remained of the night. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:15 DISslit -140(783) 132 72 12.9/16.1 7 9 none 1.20 21:24 NA2gdr 2589(56589) 137 73 12.8/15.8 21 16 R 1.20 23:28 DISslit -120(668) 197 47 9.0/11.2 69 23 none 1.91 23:36 NA2gdr -61(53938) 201 46 8.9/10.9 68 20 R 2.42 01:30 SPIcam 80(843) 24 50 6.7/7.7 74 19 r' 3.13 02:15 DISslit 80(641) 110 61 6.1/6.9 69 26 none 4.10 02:22 NA2gdr 1204(55204) 112 62 6.0/6.8 74 22 R 3.07 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 18:01 63 11 10 265 (W) 1056 Clear none 19:01 61 11 16 257 (WSW) 1082 Clear none 20:01 57 9 5 272 (W) 1180 Clear none 21:01 56 14 0 196 (SSW) 1420 Clear none 22:01 55 19 15 57 (NE) 970 Mst. Clear none 23:01 49 34 21 72 (ENE) 1397 Mst. Clear none 00:01 48 36 19 68 (ENE) 1656 Lt. Cirrus none 01:01 45 34 24 71 (ENE) 1247 Lt. Cirrus none 02:01 43 36 26 55 (NE) 1151 Lt. Cirrus none 03:01 42 39 21 70 (ENE) 1103 Lt. Cirrus none 04:01 42 40 24 72 (ENE) 1203 Lt. Cirrus 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 Ctrlv4.1 Current TCC version: 2.6.4