From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030415 Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 06:14:49 -0600 (MDT) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, April 15, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie J.Barentine,J.Davis, SPIcam, 22:25 05:24 R.McMillan S-H,Echelle INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/O 20:29 05:39 0 1.9 0 0 0 7.2 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: J.Barentine High winds (gusts earlier in the day in excess of 70MPH) and correspondingly hight dust prevented us from opening at the start of the evening, but the winds declined rapidly after sunset. The dust counts took longer to decline, and I considered opening around 21:30, although intermittent flickering of the lights in the ops building (after a power outage earlier in the day) led Jon Davis to suggest that running the enclosure motors on flaky power was not advisable. Finally opened just before 22:30. First up, Jon D. wanted to test the dampening of the PMSS, so we did some long slews around and then up to the zone of avoidance above 85 degrees. That and a positive check of pointing satisfied him that everything had been properly put back together. Pending wind tests would reveal whether the PMSS improvements worked. Next on the list of tasks was pinhole imaging with SPIcam to test the properties of the new tertiary mirror baffle. Images are in /export/images/eng030416/ Image Exp (s) Position(*) Comment pinhole030416.0001 2 2 E Saturated pinhole030416.0002 2 2 E ok pinhole030416.0003 5 5 W weak pinhole030416.0004 10 5 W ok pinhole030416.0005 30 10 E weak pinhole030416.0006 120 10 E ok pinhole030416.0007 180 15 W ok pinhole030416.0008 240 20 E ok pinhole030416.0009 300 25 W ok pinhole030416.0010 2 2 N a little weak... pinhole030416.0011 10 2 N ok pinhole030416.0012 10 5 S ok pinhole030416.0013 120 10 N ok pinhole030416.0014 180 15 S ok pinhole030416.0015 240 20 N ok pinhole030416.0016 300 25 S ok (*) E-W positions are relative to the horizon, away from the location of the Moon. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan After the pinhole tests, we did some combination Shack-Hartmann tests and simultaneous grabs of video from the SH monitor. John kindly stuck around during this time, making it possible to do two tasks at once. We wanted to repeat the tests of image motion due to wind that were done in February, this time with a more complete sampling of altitude and azimuth. We grabbed two-minute videos at four different altitudes, first 90 degrees from the wind and then facing directly into the wind. However, during this time the wind was dropping from about 20 mph to about 15 mph, and we found that the results were not very dramatic. John took time for a little science while I reduced the Shack-Hartmann data. I found that the results recommended yet another adjustment in collimation, but it appeared that the telescope was not quite in equilibrium when we took the tests (a mere 3-4 hours after the dome was opened). So, after the science was done, we switched back to the SH only to find that seeing had gotten considerably worse. After getting only one usable frame out of over 20 exposures, I decided to leave the collimation where it was for two reasons: the recommended change, though significant, was within the variation we have come to expect on timescales of a few days; and the seeing conditions means that I probably wouldn't be able to get a followup confirmation if I did make a change to the collimation. Since the wind had gotten stronger by now (20-25 mph), I returned to the video grabbing and obtained data at four altitudes directly into the wind and 180 degrees from the wind. Again, the motion was not as dramatic as the February tests into a stiff wind >30 mph, but the poor and variable seeing made for some interesting video. It may be instructive to compare this with the slightly-blurred but very mobile star images from February. S-H video, UT 16 April 2003 90 deg to the prevailing wind direction File base Alt(deg) Length (s) Start time (UT) t1 76 120 07:13 t2 60 120 07:20 t3 47 120 07:25 t4 30 120 07:32 Facing into the wind File base Alt(deg) Length (s) Start time (UT) t5 30 120 07:37 t6 44 120 07:44 t7 60 120 07:52 t8 77 120 08:00 Facing into the wind (later, stronger wind, different direction, worse seeing) File base Alt(deg) Length (s) Start time (UT) t9 60 120 10:31 t10 46 120 10:39 t11 74 120 10:43 t12 31 120 10:50 180 deg from wind File base Alt(deg) Length (s) Start time (UT) t13 75 120 10:59 t14 61 120 11:04 t15 45 120 11:09 t16 31 120 11:15 ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 23:10 SPIcam -750(-196) 145 73 -2.3/-0.7 288 16 R 1.95 23:21 NA2gdr 0(49000) 154 74 -2.5/-1.2 275 15 clear 2.09 00:51 S-H -170(675) 28 58 -2.6/-2.6 312 11 - 1.5 03:07 NA2gdr 0(49000) 60 69 -0.7/-2.7 27 13 clear 1.10 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 37 9 30 288 (WNW) 7871 MstlyClr dust 17:01 33 14 45 269 (W) 14131 MstlyClr dust 18:01 33 14 28 286 (WNW) 8259 MstlyClr dust 19:01 32 14 28 280 (W) 6091 MstlyClr dust 20:01 30 14 15 266 (W) 3897 MstlyClr dust 21:01 29 16 24 265 (W) 3687 MstlyClr dust 22:01 28 16 21 256 (WSW) 951 Clear none 23:01 28 15 12 276 (W) 814 Clear none 00:01 27 15 16 298 (WNW) 581 Clear none 01:01 28 14 7 332 (NNW) 397 clear none 02:01 27 14 5 333 (NNW) 391 clear none 03:01 31 9 23 353 (N) 515 clear none 04:01 32 6 22 20 (NNE) 698 clear none 05:01 36 0 9 1 (N) 477 clear none 06:01 36 -1 7 354 (N) 398 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: 2.80b Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv4.1b4 Current TCC version: 2.6.8