From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20020921 Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 06:19:18 -0600 (MDT) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, September 21, 2002 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- D.York D.York Echelle 19:52 00:47 J.Morse J.Morse Echelle 00:56 04:50 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UC02/R 19:55 01:00 0 0 0 0 0 5.1 0 0 0 CU02/R 01:00 05:58 0 1.1 0 0 0 3.9 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: J.Barentine Opened a little earlier than usual, around 18:15 to begin cooling while the sun was still above the horizon. Don logged in a bit early and got some cals while we waited for the sky to darken. Things were quiet until 21:05 when Don suddenly lost his Internet connection to the site. This was while an image was being sent to the MC, according to his status display. When he logged back in, the image was gone, never having made it to tycho, evidently. Also, when he logged back in, his Echelle guider window was frozen. Another restart and he had guider control again. An error in sequence numbering proved to explain the apparently lost Echelle exposure, so in fact there was no lost file. Toward 23:00, after Russet arrived, Don slewed to an object around an altitude of 55 degrees and requested a focus sweep since the star looked "egg shaped". The initial focus run on the star failed, which prompted Russet to suggest it may be a binary. On closer inspection of guider images, she thought it looked as though one of the optical elements was actively moving slightly along a particular direction. More analysis is needed to determine whether this is in fact the case. The problem was not significant enough to stop science efforts, so she handed the scope back over to Don. No further incidents through the remainder of the half. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Second half went well until the seeing began to get worse around 03:00. The wind, which had been from the east for some hours, got considerably stronger, and the humidity rose precipitously. I closed up at 04:50 when the humidity went over the limit, and shortly afterward the wind gusts crossed the limit as well. The pointing was noticeably better tonight, with stars generally coming up within 3 arcseconds of the slit. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:59 Echelle 80(180) 195 31 13.7/14.8 11 11 clear 1.17 22:49 Echelle 90(137) 166 40 14.3/14.2 51 10 clear 1.17 00:23 Echelle 125(99) 66 54 12.2/13.1 71 18 ND2 1.18 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 60 29 9 309 (NW) 103 MstlyClr none 17:01 60 28 10 338 (NNW) 120 Clear none 18:01 60 28 6 353 (N) 138 Clear none 19:01 58 25 9 357 (N) 114 Clear none 20:01 57 19 11 356 (N) 102 Clear none 21:01 57 20 18 33 (NNE) 59 Clear none 22:01 57 24 13 22 (NNE) 86 Clear none 23:01 58 12 16 18 (NNE) 44 Clear none 00:01 57 19 13 72 (ENE) 51 Clear none 01:01 54 29 16 69 (ENE) 66 clear none 02:01 54 26 6 79 (ENE) 79 clear none 03:01 53 24 5 73 (ENE) 87 clear none 04:01 49 29 26 74 (ENE) 83 clear none 05:01 41 39 30 70 (ENE) 249 clear fog 06:01 40 39 19 68 (ENE) 294 clear fog 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