Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 06:55:55 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20031013 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Monday, October 13, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie R.McMillan, J.Dembicky NA2guider 19:00 21:10 M.Strauss M.Strauss Grim 21:10 01:00 V.Woolf C.Rockosi Echelle 01:00 06:40 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/O/D 19:28 21:10 0 0 0 0 1.1 0.6 0 0 0 PU04/R 21:10 01:00 0 0 0 0 0 3.8 0 0 0 UW08/R 01:00 06:12 0 0 0 0 0 5.2 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky I opened the telescope and started cooling around 17:45 tonight. I started the NA2 instrument block around 19:00, shortly before Russet arrived on site, and we noticed that the NA2 guider had a block on one side (this was not noticable during checkout since we were not actually imaging on sky). Russet called Mark, then Dave, to find a quick solution to the NA2 blockage (this problem needed to be fixed before we could attemt to start our NA2 instrument block). It seemed that the mirrors were not aligned up correctly. Russet and Craig adjusted them and I took guider images to help guide them in positioning the mirrors. We finished the NA2 guider block and then did a quick 30 point model. Pointing was MUCH imporved after we finished with stars falling dead center on Grim at f/5. We handed the instrument back over to the first half observer at 21:10 and also focused Grim for them at this time. The 2nd half observer reported that a quad was missing from the image data around 22:40 and we spend 30 mins rebooting the electronics on Grim again tonight. About 10 mins after we got it back the observer reported it dropped out again. This time he decided it wasn't worth the time to loose to fixing the problem vs. the science that was being loss and would just work around the missing quad for the remainder of the night. He reported that the quad came and went thru the remainder of the first half (at random). The 2nd half started on time and I quickly focued the Echelle. The observer then discovered the SubtractDark bug. This required me to restart the MC (although maybe just restarting Remark might have worked, although I am not sure if this is true.). Anyway about 20 mins were loss in diagnosing and fixing the problem. The pointing seemed ok when I focused, but it was off on her first target, but she opted to just move the star to the slit rather than spend more time correcting the pointing, since she was only doing a few targets and relatively long exposures. When we engaged the autoguider it kept moving the star out of the slit. We came to the conclusion that the star was too faint to guide on and manual guiding would be necessary. The telescope seemed to keep it in the slit relatively well with hand guiding. We had a strange readout problem that seemed to correct itself around 04:20. We may just not have waited long enough for the echelle to actually read out the camera. No data was lost. I didn't get the NA1 tip tilts for the tertiary at the end of the night as it was getting light by the time Connie had finished with the Echelle. Bill will have to get them tommorow (Russet has sent out instructions). ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PU04 G I/H 22:39 23:10 Missing Grim quads again UW07 E T/S 01:15 01:20 Remark darksubtract bug ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:14 GrIm f/5 150(1218) -34 45 13.1/13.0 296 13 J 0.85 21:22 NA2gdr -2827(45174) -34 44 12.9/13.0 317 6 R 0.88 23:18 Grim f/5 100(1070) 173 57 11.6/11.8 24 16 J 0.71 01:04 Echelle 62(116) 210 76 11.8/11.3 51 16 ND1 1.06 -------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 57 41 15 313 (NW) 523 Clear none 17:01 57 41 2 328 (NNW) 474 Clear none 18:01 55 40 11 334 (NNW) 482 Clear none 19:01 54 40 12 324 (NW) 469 Clear none 20:01 55 40 15 300 (WNW) 532 Clear none 21:01 56 38 16 305 (NW) 454 Clear none 22:01 54 37 1 33 (NNE) 493 Clear none 23:01 53 39 15 18 (NNE) 552 Clear none 00:01 54 27 15 40 (NE) 514 Clear none 01:01 53 27 15 55 (NE) 626 Clear none 02:01 53 24 15 27 (NNE) 704 Clear none 03:01 42 22 19 73 (ENE) 778 Clear none 04:01 39 23 21 59 (ENE) 1505 Clear none 05:01 44 20 14 56 (NE) 1434 Clear none 06:01 45 19 16 54 (NE) 1006 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 Telescope drives operational. Current Remark version: 2.85b Current guide software version: guider v4.1b4 Current TCC version: 2.7.1 Current TUI version: TUI-0.70