From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20031115 Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 06:13:08 -0700 (MST) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, November 15, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- N.Chanover N.Chanover,P.Cosby, SPIcam 17:45 19:50 B.Sharpee Echelle 19:57 00:07 M.Agueros M.Agueros DIS 00:15 04:00 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- NM01/O 17:58 00:00 0 0 0 0 4.5 1.5 0 0 0 UW06/R 00:00 05:38 0 1.6 0 0 0 4.0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: J.Barentine After a series of soggy days and nights, we were back in business tonight. I opened the enclosure a little past 17:00 to cool while finishing setup, and by 17:45 we were focused with SPIcam and on the sky. To accommodate Nancy's exceedingly bright target (Mars), I stopped down the enclosure shutters at first to a width of ~12 inches, and then to ~6 inches to bring the light down to below saturation through a narrowband filter. Just short of 20:00, we switched to Echelle. Around 22:00 the winds shifted to the east and the seeing took a dive to beyond 2 arcseconds on the Sloan guider (we did not have seeing numbers from our guider at the time). Humidity started rising quickly as the temperature dropped. Just as it looked as though we would have to close, the humidity backed off to more comfortable values. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Humidity dropped precipitously before the program change, and air temperature warmed sharply at the same time. Seeing was very good when I focused DIS, but the focus was quite high because of the warm air. Over the next few hours the focus came down gradually, then made another sudden change as the temperature dropped and humidity rose again. Orographic clouds began to form not far overhead and I closed just after 04:00. Humidity never dropped again before twilight. The Sloan dewpoint sensor agreed with ours on all the dramatic swings in dewpoint, which probably means that we were right on the boundary between two airmasses. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:36 SPIcam 50(1043) 181 79 3.7/6.9 349 8 r' 0.99 17:42 NA2gdr 4670(53670) 188 79 3.8/6.8 13 6 R 1.00 20:22 Echelle 38(-162) 43 81 5.5/4.9 268 3 clear 0.88 00:30 DISslit 400(923) 23 67 4.3/3.8 232 13 - 1.08 00:32 NA2gdr 419(44419) 23 68 4.4/3.8 216 9 R 1.00 -------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 41 16 3 297 (WNW) 488 Clear none 17:01 41 -5 7 339 (NNW) 500 Clear none 18:01 40 -1 9 339 (NNW) 597 Clear none 19:01 40 1 7 341 (NNW) 413 Clear none 20:01 41 -3 4 272 (W) 584 Clear none 21:01 42 1 2 260 (W) 553 Clear none 22:01 36 6 3 140 (SE) 545 Clear none 23:01 34 22 7 182 (S) 640 Clear none 00:01 41 -10 10 211 (SSW) 343 Clear none 01:01 40 -11 12 240 (WSW) 387 clear none 02:01 38 -1 9 268 (W) 373 clear none 03:01 36 24 9 275 (W) 387 clear none 04:01 36 31 11 268 (W) 352 ptly cldy none 05:01 35 31 14 234 (SW) 330 mstly cldy none 06:01 35 32 14 246 (WSW) 375 mstly cldy 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: 2.7.2 Current TUI version: TUI-0.75