Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 05:17:29 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030314 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, March 14, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- D.York D.York Echelle --:-- --:-- M.Strauss X.Fan, J.Hennawi SPIcam 23:50 01:15 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UC06/R 19:04 00:00 0 4.9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 PU06/R 00:00 05:21 0.6 3.3 0 0 0 1.4 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky I had a busy night ahead of me with the first half wanting SPIcam first, for a GRB followup, then switch to the Echelle, and finally switch to DIS (high and then med red/low blue). Then second half wanting to go back to SPIcam. I finished my checkout around 18:15 but with threatening clouds in the area I did not feel comfortable in opening the enclosure to cool the telescope. Instead I just continued running the cooling fans running for the first part of the night. Radar was showing possible rain to our N and possible lt. rain to the W. Around 19:45 the radar echos from El Paso were showing light precip to our W and I decided it was best to cover the cloud camera. The thickness of the clouds was also on the increase at this time. The clouds quickly made an exit just after 23:10. This left under 40 mins for the first half (less than that since I still needed to open the enclosure, prep the telescope, and get things focused. My estimates is that at best the 1st half observers would only get maybe about 10 mins on the sky (and still have to acquire and expose) before it would be time for an instrument switch. So I opted to just do the instrument switch to SPIcam for the second half observer. The 2nd half observer called me just as I was getting ready to focus SPIcam (around 23:35) and I informed him that I would go ahead and get things focused and then hand the instrument over to him to use. I had the 2nd half observer on the sky just a little before midnight. Around 01:15 the clouds re-appeared as quickly as they disappeared earlier. The clouds again departed (well from overhead at least, but there were still some hanging around the horizon.) around 03:15 and we restarted. This didn't last too long as the clouds moved back (just as we finished focusing the telescope and got one science exposure) in on us and by 03:45 we were again not getting much for useful science out of the instrument. The observer gave up around 04:45 as it didn't appear that conditions were going to improve for the remainder of the night. Of course as I go up to close around 05:05 the clouds have again vanished from site. I think they know!!! ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 23:38 SPIcam -180(632) 108 57 6.1/6.9 7 32 z' 0.79 23:53 NA2gdr 2134(51134) 111 59 5.8/6.7 8 348 R 1.02 00:41 SPIcam -120(722) 245 49 6.6/6.5 4 273 z' 0.71 03:25 SPIcam -120(617) 242 65 4.9/5.5 4 358 z' 0.86 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 52 31 19 209 (SSW) 741 Cloudy none 17:01 52 30 15 220 (SW) 723 Cloudy none 18:01 46 29 11 167 (SSE) 858 Cloudy none 19:01 46 24 15 225 (SW) 510 Cloudy none 20:01 45 25 16 217 (SW) 597 Cloudy none 21:01 44 26 11 263 (W) 650 Cloudy none 22:01 44 25 9 286 (WNW) 615 Mst. Cldy none 23:01 44 24 10 295 (WNW) 680 Pt. Cldy none 00:01 43 24 10 327 (NNW) 696 Pt. Cldy none 01:01 44 21 1 302 (WNW) 802 Mst. Cldy none 02:01 43 25 6 345 (NNW) 713 Mst. Cldy none 03:01 42 25 6 354 (N) 768 Pt. Cldy none 04:01 41 25 6 343 (NNW) 750 Mst. Cldy none 05:01 41 25 3 57 (NE) 752 Pt. 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 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