Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 06:09:16 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030107 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, January 7, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- F.Hearty F.Hearty,R.McEntaffer GRIM 19:45 23:55 A.Uomoto A.Uomoto, M.Hendrickson DISII --:-- --:-- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- CU05/R 18:10 00:00 0 0.3 0 0.8 1.8 2.9 0 0 0 JH02/R 00:00 06:09 6.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: J. Barentine Humidity creeping up past the closure limit past sunset kept us closed. A little after 6pm the humidity dropped sufficiently below the closure limit that I decided to open. After this I began focusing the telescope via GRIM only to find that GRIM was, as usual, dropping one quadrant in successive images. I borrowed Jack from the AAS teleconference to help with the process of power cycling GRIM and taking images to check quadrant health (the usual recovery procedure). After about eight cycles, during which time up to all four quadrants were lost at a time, we recovered all quads and resumed operations. I came back downstairs and proceeded to check the focus, assuming that in half an hour it had drifted. However, I was unable to locate any stars at all with GRIM. The guider was seeing stars, and a pointing correction returned properly. Consulting with the other Obs Specs, Russet came and took a look. She did a GRIM sync which showed that the instrument was in the dark calibration state, yet paging back through the recent MC output suggested that no one had issued any move commands to put it in that state. It's possible that the power cycling left it in this state, even though I don't recall that having been the outcome in previous cases where we had to resuscitate GRIM quads. After this, I again started to check focus and noted that the pointing was off, putting catalog stars just outside the field. Another pointing correction and the stars were falling much more reliably toward center. Seeing was highly variable and ranged from near an arcsecond to as bad as 2.8 arcseconds. Shortly before first half ended (approx 23:30), the remote observers noted that their previous dither pattern images showed streaks for stars. The affected images were taken on a target at an azimuth of 65 degrees, roughly corresponding to the wind direction (winds were around 10MPH at the time). Examination of the previous dither set, taken at an azimuth of -179, showed no evidence of trailing. Superficially these images resembled the expected result if the telescope had moved during the integration. Jack and I examined the recent MC output to make sure that only the scheduled dither offsets had been executed, which was the case. I checked the direction of the trails against TUI, indicating that they lined up most nearly with declination although not perfectly. At the time, north was at near 45 degree angles on the sky with respect to both azimuth and altitude. But the correlation with wind direction led to the greatest suspicion being placed on windshake, though we did not notice any PMSS weirdness in this interval. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: J. Dembicky Humidity (dewpoint depression) closed us down when I swapped instruments at Midnight. It didn't drop below closure limits for the remainder of the night. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CU05 G I/H 18:30 19:15 GRIM dropped quadrants ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:48 GrIm2(f/5) -75(467) 164 67 2.5/4.4 108 9 J 1.06 19:43 GrIm2(f/5) -150(327) 197 73 2.7/3.1 138 12 J 0.74 19:47 NA2gdr -2000(58000)200 73 2.3/3.1 137 14 clear 0.79 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 37 32 6 214 (SW) 491 PtlyCldy none 17:01 35 32 0 186 (S) 530 PtlyCldy none 18:01 35 31 4 108 (ESE) 557 Clear none 19:01 37 25 11 121 (ESE) 406 Clear none 20:01 36 25 13 112 (ESE) 419 Clear none 21:01 37 20 14 129 (SE) 494 Clear none 22:01 37 22 15 136 (SE) 588 Clear none 23:01 36 24 11 158 (SSE) 679 Clear none 00:01 34 30 6 178 (S) 736 Clear none 01:01 37 31 6 179 (S) 812 Clear none 02:01 37 31 5 178 (S) 269 Clear none 03:01 36 32 5 180 (S) 310 Clear none 04:01 35 32 4 177 (S) 186 Clear none 05:01 36 32 4 182 (S) 79 Clear none 06:01 38 31 10 180 (S) 147 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: 2.6.8