Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 05:32:46 -0600 (MDT) From: John Barentine Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030521 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, May 21, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Carlstrom K.Dawson SPIcam 20:20 00:55 M.Strauss I.Strateva DIS 01:15 05:30 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UC02/R 21:00 01:00 0 0 0 0 4.0 0 0 0 0 PU02/R 01:00 04:59 0 0 0 1.2 0.7 2.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Barentine At last, a night that didn't start out with clouds, wind, dust and high humidity! That being the case, I opened the enclosure at 20:10 so that Kyle could get some twilight flats. Everything went smoothly, until... Shortly after getting started (and removing a 43 degree object rotation left in her Remark from a previous user) Iskra noted that the offset directions she was seeing in the slitviewer seemed entirely backward from the posted instrument offset directions (+y up, +x right). At 03:00 the directions changed yet again after she slewed to a new object. I immediately suspected the rotator was not, well, rotating. A quick check upstairs confirmed that suspicion, even with a rot mount done from the dome. I issued another and gently pushed DIS in the direction I expected it to move... and it began to rotate. I heard no strange noises or anything like that, and test rotations during checkout earlier in the night behaved normally. I came downstairs and had Iskra try again. The rotation was still evidently 90 degrees away from where it should have been. A "show inst" quickly revealed that I had not issued a set inst=dis at the instrument change time. Issued the set inst, focused, problem solved. Afterward Iskra reported that the orientation of the instrument still didn't seem right, but that at least the offsets were moving in the right direction, sign-wise. The offsets were still not quite right, so I got Russet to log in from home and check that I wasn't missing anything. There was no obvious reason until she had me check the mounting of DIS... despite the instrument having gone on the telescope in a way that felt "correct", I found it resting only on one teflon pad. Per her instructions, I have left it mounted on the telescope for inspection by daystaff. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PU02 D I/S 01:40 02:20 Set to wrong inst PU02 D T/H 03:00 03:30 Rotator stopped; see PR 2003070 ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:11 SPIcam -290(956) -52 70 13.1/14.7 356 2 r' 0.76 21:13 NA2gdr 32(49032) -53 70 12.9/14.7 356 2 R 0.74 22:34 NA2gdr -1500(47500)-12 60 13.1/13.4 44 9 R 0.85 01:22 dis-slit -310(867) 185 77 13.7/13.2 81 9 - 0.84 01:35 NA2gdr -5952(43047)198 76 14.0/13.2 82 7 clear 0.79 03:35 DISslit -50(873) -18 61 12.8/12.7 65 0 - 1.08 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 65 40 10 212 (SSW) 1275 PtlyCldy none 17:01 64 38 9 242 (WSW) 1442 PtlyCldy none 18:01 63 38 12 223 (SW) 1416 PtlyCldy none 19:01 59 37 2 263 (W) 1704 PtlyCldy none 20:01 54 36 2 151 (SSE) 2003 PtlyCldy none 21:01 55 33 1 354 (N) 2228 PtlyCldy none 22:01 55 31 7 69 (ENE) 2334 PtlyCldy none 23:01 57 24 7 53 (NE) 1981 PtlyCldy none 00:01 57 20 11 35 (NE) 1671 Clear none 01:01 57 17 11 58 (ENE) 1575 Clear none 02:01 57 17 3 122 (ESE) 1819 Clear none 03:01 55 23 1 78 (ENE) 2257 Clear none 04:01 56 20 0 211 (SSW) 2180 Clear none 05:01 55 22 0 232 (SW) 2173 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: 2.85b Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv4.1b4 Current TCC version: 2.6.8 Current TUI version: 0.66