From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20031205 Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 06:06:40 -0700 (MST) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, December 5, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie R.McMillan,B.Ketzeback SPIcam,NA2gdr 21:30 00:30 J.Hennawi X.Fan SPIcam 00:30 05:50 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- EN02/O/D 17:54 00:30 0 0 0 0 0 6.6 0 0 0 PU06/R 00:30 05:54 0 0 0 0 1.0 4.4 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan, B.Ketzeback Weather tonight had widespread, unrelenting thin cirrus. Seeing ranged from subarcsecond to 2.5 arcseconds in whimsical fashion. The telescope was reassembled an hour before sunset, but collimation tasks continued for a while. During this process, we discovered that tertiary rotation was broken again. After some searching for the fault, the daystaff removed the motor and left the tertiary fixed at NA2. This meant that rather less on-sky work was possible, so even though we didn't get on the sky until after 21:00, we finished engineering soon enough to give the second half program most of their scheduled time. The on-sky engineering included collimation (by the old SPIcam method), a pointing model, and a tracking test. The tracking test was very encouraging; we got round, 0.92 arcsecond images on a 300s unguided exposure at high altitude in the north. This was the part of the sky where we had been having serious tracking problems in the nights just before the shutdown; it now appears that those problems were caused by a flawed pointing model rather than actual motor difficulties. Tomorrow night the plan is to try the science as scheduled (DIS first half and echelle second half), with two observing specialists working on the manual rotation of the tertiary at the program changeover. Up to half an hour of work may be required to get the tertiary adjusted for the echelle port, but we should be able to spend most of the night on science. Work will resume on the tertiary rotation motor next week, but there should be no problem since only the echelle is scheduled for several nights to come, after Saturday night. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:57 SPIcam 250(1211) 154 37 4.1/4.3 264 6 r' 0.91 23:02 NA2gdr 1596(50596) 156 38 3.6/4.3 264 7 R 1.30 -------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 39 3 4 271 (W) 473 cirrus none 17:01 38 3 10 299 (WNW) 493 cirrus none 18:01 37 5 7 332 (NNW) 512 cirrus none 19:01 37 6 9 322 (NW) 487 cirrus none 20:01 40 6 9 296 (WNW) 280 cirrus none 21:01 40 8 7 275 (W) 226 cirrus none 22:01 40 9 5 262 (W) 184 cirrus none 23:01 39 16 8 246 (WSW) 421 cirrus none 00:01 39 18 6 248 (WSW) 517 cirrus none 01:01 39 16 8 256 (WSW) 403 cirrus none 02:01 38 15 6 186 (S) 503 cirrus none 03:01 39 15 8 223 (SW) 475 cirrus none 04:01 37 16 10 196 (SSW) 525 cirrus none 05:01 37 17 11 217 (SW) 454 cirrus none 06:01 37 17 12 212 (SSW) 433 cirrus 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-0.76