Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 05:08:18 -0600 (MDT)
From: John Barentine
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20020701
                         APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY
                         3.5m Telescope Night Log
                           Monday, July 1, 2002
                                                           ACTUAL
 ASTRONOMER     OBSERVER(S)             INSTRUMENT     START  FINISH
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 B.Pindor       B.Pindor                DISII          --:--   --:--
 D.York                                 Echelle        01:45   05:03
   INST        SCHEDULED     WEATH     EQUIP     OBS     DAY  NOTUSED
 I/RO/DN     START FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B   USE   D    B
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 PU01/R      21:19  01:00  3.6  0.1   0    0    0    0    0    0    0
 UC02/R      01:00  04:56   0   0.7   0   0.2   0   3.0   0    0    0
 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time
                  ------------- ACTIVITY LOG --------------
 Observing Specialist: J.Barentine
 Threatening rain to the north didn't keep us from opening tonight at
about 19:30 to cool.  Skies became cloudier as the sun set and we closed
shortly before 21:00 so that Bart could do cals.  Lightning in the area
caused the Sloan observers to shut down the cloud camera at about 22:30,
and Bart gave up early at 23:45.
 Don called about the weather situation and then logged in at about 01:15.
The sky finally cleared enough to open about a half hour later, but then
I couldn't command the mirror covers open.  Cycling the manual/auto switch
on the telescope solved the problem.
 At about 02:30, we experienced a series of short blip-like interruptions
to the electricity.  The generator didn't kick in, but the low-light video
monitor went totally dead for a split second and lights flickered.  After
a few of these, Don noted that he totally lost the star he'd had on the
Echelle slit.  Thinking the momentary loss of tracking caused the software
to lose track of where it was on the sky, I tried a pointing correction.
The telescope moved, but it reported twice that the correction failed.  I
slewed to a catalog star and took a long (10 sec) exposure... no star and
no slit silhouetted against the sky background.  Don thought the shutter
on the guider camera might have failed.  Another longish exposure showed a
trailed star through the frame -- bingo.  The telescope axes were "live"
but not tracking.  I did an axis stop/axis start and a token Remark slew a
couple of degrees from where the telescope was pointed.  Slewed back to
the catalog star and sure enough, it was almost on top of the slit.  I
handed things back over to Don at that point.
 More power blips at 03:30.  Again the telescope stopped tracking, but
this time knowing what to do to recover, we were back in business very
quickly.  From here to the end of the night everything was smooth with the
exception of another failure of the mirror covers to respond to automatic
commands at the very end of the night.
                        ------- FAILURE LOG -------
 PROG   INST       FAILURE      TIME
        S/E/G/D/O  TI/SHU   START  FINISH  DESCRIPTION
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 UC02   E          T/H      01:45   01:52  Mirror covers failed to respond
                                           to automatic control; happened
                                           again at 05:05
 UC02   E          T/H      02:45   02:53  Power glitch stopped telescope
               ---------------- FOCUS LOG ---------------
                                        Air/Truss   Wind
 Time   Instrument   Focus     Az  El    Temp-C    Dir MPH  filt  FWHM
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 02:09  Echelle      400(513) -93  74   19.1/17.2  282 6    ND2   1.05
 03:40  Echelle      200(382) -44  77   18.6/18.7  267 7    clear 0.73
              --------------- WEATHER LOG ----------------
                                 Wind                        Precip.or
     Time   Temp F Dewp F  MPH  Direction    Dust    Sky    Conditions
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
     16:01    73    30     11    61  (ENE)   1039  MstlyCldy    none
     17:01    69    31     17    79  (ENE)   1221  MstlyCldy    none
     18:01    70    30      5     6  (N)     1143  MstlyCldy    none
     19:01    73    33      0   246  (WSW)   1046  MstlyCldy    none
     20:01    66    36     14    64  (ENE)   1039  MstlyCldy    none
     21:01    65    34     28    72  (ENE)    964  MstlyCldy    none
     22:01    64    35     22    71  (ENE)    916  Overcast    lt rain
     23:01    58    42     34    57  (NE)     799  Overcast     none
     00:01    60    37     39    64  (ENE)   1217  MstlyCldy    none
     01:01    64    35      3    70  (ENE)   1348  PtlyCldy     none
     02:01    68    33      3   306  (NW)    1324  MstlyClr     none
     03:01    67    33      4   265  (W)     1400  MstlyClr     none
     04:01    67    33      4   271  (W)     1338  MstlyClr     none
     05:01    67    33      7   275  (W)     1287  MstlyClr     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 Ctrlv4.1b4
   Current TCC version: 2.6.5