From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20020918 Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 06:40:06 -0600 (MDT) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, September 18, 2002 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie R.McMillan,W.Ketzeback Echelle 04:55 05:45 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/O 19:59 05:56 0.2 9.0 0 0 0.8 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: W. Ketzeback, R.McMillan Clouds, rain, high winds, and high humidity kept us closed for most of the night. While closed, we accomplished some testing of the newest TCC version, a fake pointing model to check tertiary and secondary mirror stability, and some checks of DIS throughput with all six gratings, using the quartz lamps. At 04:30, with the throughput work finished, we were all ready to give up and go home when one final check of the sky revealed lovely bright stars. Humidity and wind gusts were both borderline, but the telescope was considerably warmer than the air. After opening the cloud camera and watching the nice clear sky for a few minutes, we opened and went after echelle spectra of SN 2002fk. Naturally, both wind and humidity went above the limit as soon as we had finished focusing, but we pushed the rules since the telescope was still quite warm and pointing away from the wind. We were only able to get half the desired exposure time on the supernova before the secondary cooled and the wind increased even more, and we had to close. Here's the image log for the throughput measurements (the images have been written to CD). We did a few repeat measurements, as suggested by Jon Holtzman to check the stability of the lamps. Directory: tycho:/export/images/dtput/ dtput0918.0001b.fits blue low cwl=4491 max_cnts=25000 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0001r.fits red medium cwl=7691 max_cnts=44000 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0004b.fits blue high cwl=4602 max_cnts=5850 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0004r.fits red high cwl=6999 max_cnts=21500 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0009r.fits red low cwl=7705 max_cnts=31000 int=30s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0010b.fits blue med cwl=4500 max_cnts=12500 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0011r.fits red low cwl=7705 max_cnts=23000 int=20s HeNeAr dtput0918.0014b.fits blue med cwl=4500 max_cnts=8000 int=240s HeNeAr dtput0918.0015r.fits red high cwl=6999 max_cnts=61000 int=60s HeNeAr dtput0918.0016b.fits blue high cwl=4602 max_cnts=10000 int=300 HeNeAr dtput0918.0017b.fits blue high cwl=4602 max_cnts=6000 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0017r.fits red high cwl=6999 max_cnts=21000 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0018b.fits blue med cwl=4500 max_cnts=12000 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0019r.fits red low cwl=7705 max_cnts=30000 int=30s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0023b.fits blue low cwl=4491 max_cnts=24500 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0023r.fits red medium cwl=7691 max_cnts=40000 int=120s Bright Quartz dtput0918.0024r.fits red medium cwl=7691 max_cnts=28000 int=30s HeNeAr dtput0918.0025b.fits blue low cwl=4491 max_cnts=9000 INT=180s HeNeAr It's interesting to compare the numbers above with similar measurements of maximum counts made in March, after the chip upgrade but before the replacement of the blue field flattening lens. >1.5" slit, bright quartz > >blue med: 120s, peak 13K >red high: 120s, peak 18K >blue low: 60s, peak 14K >red med: 60s, peak 23K >blue high: 240s, peak 13K ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 05:11 Echelle -200(-525) 186 47 2.6/6.2 20 29 nd1 2.4 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 58 43 29 265 (W) 877 cloudy lt. rain 17:01 58 42 29 256 (WSW) 985 cloudy lt. rain 18:01 58 42 30 267 (W) 748 cloudy rain 19:01 48 45 23 295 (WNW) 4664 cloudy rain 20:01 46 45 11 356 (N) 1794 cloudy rain 21:01 41 40 24 3 (N) 203 cloudy lt. rain 22:01 39 39 22 339 (NNW) 33910 cloudy lt. rain 23:01 40 36 21 2 (N) 382 cloudy lt. rain 00:01 39 34 16 330 (NNW) 351 cloudy lt. rain 01:01 41 32 15 322 (NW) 221 cloudy lt. rain 02:01 42 31 18 336 (NNW) 280 cloudy lt. rain 03:01 40 32 4 293 (WNW) 173 cloudy none 04:01 39 33 9 351 (N) 132 mstly cldy none 05:01 38 31 17 13 (NNE) 76 clear none 06:01 38 30 23 29 (NNE) 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: 2.6.6