Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030312 Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 07:05:11 -0700 (MST) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu (Bill Ketzeback) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, March 12, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- N.Schneider N.Schneider DIS II.5 15:00 20:00 22:00 24:00 C.Laws C.Laws Echelle 00:05 05:45 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- CU04/O 19:02 00:00 0 2.0 0 0 0 3.0 0 0 0 UW01/R 00:00 05:23 0 0 0 0 2.3 3.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: W.Ketzeback Opened the enclosure at 18:30 so first half observers could take flats. In order to use the slitviewer on Jupiter tonight some neutral density material was added in front of its lens. This ment I found that I was focusing on fourth magnitude stars. This filter worked perfectly though to see the planet on the slitviewer with 1 second integrations. Unfortunately as the observers were getting into a grove sky attenuation (clouds) made us stop getting science for about two hours. The end of the first half, at 23:00 the skies became clear and photometric and a good deal of good science seemed to be accomplished in the last hour. After an instrument change to the echelle and refocus the second half observer reported that the object would not remain in the slit. After calling Russet for advice and scratching my head it was very simple what was going on. The program was observing binaries with near equal intensities and as the seeing improved so much that the star seemed to disappear on the slit the guider attempted to offset to the other object giving an error message that offsets were inconsistant with normal guiding (offsets more than 3 arcsecs). Several things were recommended to the obsever but we kept getting the same messages. Finally I made a suggestion that seemed to work quite well and I didnt see any more of these messages the remainder of the evening. All of second half was clear and photometric. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:43 dis-slit -275(474) 160 61 8.2/8.9 275 8 nd3 0.85 19:56 NA2gdr -2851(38148)166 62 8.2/8.9 262 6 clear 0.79 22:06 dis-slit -275(445) 110 53 7.4/7.7 182 7 nd3 1.11 23:13 NA2gdr -636(40363) 246 63 7.1/7.3 167 0 clear 1.13 00:15 Echelle 9(-105) 118 39 7.5/7.0 253 0 clear 1.14 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 54 14 12 266 (W) 996 prtly cldy none 17:01 48 9 5 266 (W) 1102 prtly cldy none 18:01 46 8 4 328 (NNW) 1090 prtly cldy none 19:01 46 7 5 349 (NNW) 1170 prtly cldy none 20:01 46 6 5 256 (WSW) 1084 mstly cldy none 21:01 47 8 11 202 (SSW) 1087 mstly cldy none 22:01 46 9 5 182 (S) 1056 prtly cldy none 23:01 46 9 4 188 (S) 1165 clear none 00:01 47 18 4 256 (WSW) 754 clear none 01:01 47 8 0 184 (S) 644 clear none 02:01 47 8 0 186 (S) 642 clear none 03:01 48 7 0 141 (SE) 707 clear none 04:01 47 8 2 96 (E) 695 clear none 05:01 46 9 8 88 (E) 817 clear none 06:01 45 9 12 83 (E) 743 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 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