Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 06:44:14 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20031002 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, October 2, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- H.Osborne H.Osborne DIS 00:15 01:00 J.Hennawi J.Hennawi DIS 01:00 02:25 05:00 06:00 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- NM02/R 19:40 01:00 0 0 0 0 0.8 4.5 0 0 0 PU01/R 01:00 06:05 2.7 0 0 0 2.4 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky I started cooling the fans around 18:00 but clouds prevented me from opening. The clouds finally looked to part around 00:10 and I opened the enclosure, did a quick focus, and handed the telescope over to the first half observer. Clouds became too thick for the 2nd half observer to get anything useful around 02:25 and I decided to close the enclosure since it looked like thicker clouds on the satellite were approaching us from the West. At 05:00, after about 15-20 mins of clearing sky, I dedided it was safe to open the enclosure again as it appeared that the bulk of the clouds were now off to our east and we hadn't got any precipitation from it. Of course clouds moved in 15 mins later but the observer said he was still getting data thru them as long as I could keep my guidestar. Since we had not had any precipitation from this system all day/night I continued to let him observe. My mistake. At 06:00 the rain sensor went off. Either a passing cloud moved/formed overhead, with a few raindrops, or the system backed up from the east (it was hard to tell since it was dark outside). When I closed the cloudcam a few minutes later I could still see stars in the West, which is why we didn't see it coming, and there wasn't anything obviously menacing on the cloudcam, other than the passing clouds we had been seeing all night long. Anyway, I think the system backed up on us from the East. I did a close of the eyelids and covers from down here as soon as I heard the rain sensor go off, but when I checked during my shutdown unfortunately we had a handful of small raindrops on the primary. Sorry ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 00:16 DISslit 50(876) 132 70 11.5/11.7 176 18 none 1.29 00:24 NA2gdr 1866(42866) 137 71 11.6/11.8 182 21 R 1.01 -------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 17:01 58 30 25 189 (S) 324 Cloudy none 18:01 58 24 21 195 (SSW) 307 Cloudy none 19:01 55 23 17 193 (SSW) 383 Cloudy none 20:01 55 26 11 180 (S) 468 Cloudy none 21:01 54 26 23 170 (S) 365 Cloudy none 22:01 53 26 12 179 (S) 415 Mst. Cldy none 23:01 51 33 21 148 (SSE) 560 Mst. Cldy none 00:01 53 31 14 176 (S) 438 Pt. Cldy none 00:01 53 31 14 176 (S) 438 Pt. Cldy none 01:01 52 33 12 187 (S) 488 Pt. Cldy none 02:01 53 35 21 197 (SSW) 421 Mst. Cldy none 03:01 52 36 17 188 (S) 508 Mst. Cldy none 04:01 51 36 13 181 (S) 527 Mst. Cldy none 05:01 51 37 11 169 (SSE) 537 Pt. Cldy none 06:01 51 38 9 196 (SSW) 634 Pt. Cldy Sprinkles 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