From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030217 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 05:57:18 -0700 (MST) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Monday, February 17, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie J.Barentine,R.McMillan S-H 21:15 00:00 SPIcam --:-- --:-- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/O 18:44 05:50 0 5.8 0 0 0 2.8 0 0.1 2.4 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialists: J.Barentine and R.McMillan Scheduling confusion caused us to start late tonight. Opened to begin cooling at 21:00 under mostly clear skies and moderate winds. Russet and I decided to first try the framge-grabbing experiment with the S-H to try to record evidence of image motion, letting the telescope cool before starting other tasks. Given the disk space allotted to us for this test, we could record a total of 473 seconds of video, so we decided to partition that total time into multiple altitude pointings where we would gather 90 seconds of video. The resulting MPEG movies are located on pod in /e/SHvideo/20030218/: File name Time Az Alt Wind Az Wind Spd (MPH) t1.AVraw 21:36 282 51 ~280 ~22 t2.AVraw 21:45 274 76 ~280 ~25 t3.AVraw 21:48 232 76 ~290 ~18 t4.AVraw 21:52 245 47 ~290 ~23 t5.AVraw 22:04 265 51 ~285 ~23 Clouds rolled in during this time that kept us from seeing even fairly bright stars on the S-H video monitor, so we waited for clear periods before taking data. After getting wind data we turned the telescope east for a collimation check, given that the cloud situation in the west was not improving. The collimation was updated based on the S-H data and then we moved on to an NA2 pointing model. The pointing model had to be stopped because of increasing clouds around midnight at which time we closed. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan We got some very interesting data on windshake -- the image motion we saw was much stronger than I expected, based on my previous experience comparing PMSS behavior against guider seeing. Although we only had enough time and disk space to check a few positions, we noticed a distinct decrease in windshake when the telescope was about 30 degrees from the wind direction; this might be the point at which the slit begins to protect the secondary from direct wind effects. I got one good collimation measurement between clouds and made an adjustment based on that measurement, but I was unable to get a good followup image to confirm the effectiveness of the adjustment. I moved on to a pointing model, which can be done through moderate clouds. The first attempt failed because I hadn't accounted for the large offset caused by the magnesensor work today, so the pointing standards weren't even landing in the guider FOV. Once this was corrected and I began taking pointing data, the clouds moved in faster and thicker than I had expected. Even by chasing holes aggressively I was only able to get 6 pointing measurements. This was too little for a full pointing model, but I did manage to fit the two most important altitude-related parameters, and with luck this will be adequate until we can get another full pointing model. The clouds never improved after midnight. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 42 23 14 254 (WSW) 84 PtlyCldy none 17:01 42 24 13 239 (WSW) 98 PtlyCldy none 18:01 40 23 15 234 (SW) 86 PtlyCldy none 19:01 39 22 13 248 (WSW) 84 MstlyClr none 20:01 40 20 20 264 (W) 74 MstlyClr none 21:01 40 16 19 270 (W) 72 PtlyCldy none 22:01 41 12 23 279 (W) 108 MstlyCldy none 23:01 41 15 19 270 (W) 88 MstlyCldy none 00:01 40 18 15 264 (W) 90 Overcast none 01:01 40 20 13 266 (W) 74 Overcast none 02:01 39 21 15 255 (WSW) 99 Overcast none 03:01 39 19 10 265 (W) 96 Overcast none 04:01 39 19 12 260 (W) 93 Overcast none 05:01 39 19 12 267 (W) 66 Overcast 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