Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 16:54:41 -0600 (MDT) From: John Barentine Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030531 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, May 31, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- D.York B.Woodgate,D.York GFP 20:17 05:50 V.Kulkarni INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UC09/O 21:08 04:54 0 0 0 0 7.8 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Barentine After some light showers earlier in the afternoon, the sky cleared toward sunset and by 20:15 we were open for twilight sky flats with the Fabry-Perot. A miscommunication with the observers led to losing their flats as I had kept the mirror covers closed as insurance should it suddenly start to rain. Problem solved by opening the mirror covers and starting the drives. The clouds which increased after sunset were mostly gone by about 22:00. Around 00:30 the wind rapidly whipped around from nearly due west to due east accompanied by colder and wetter air. The seeing shot up to beyond 3 arcseconds FWHM, beyond what we could keep up with in terms of changing the telescope focus and predicted seeing values on the guider. At about 02:30, the wind abruptly switched again, this time to the west. The humidity dropped and the seeing improved rapidly. Within the hour, however, the wind started to move around and the seeing went with it. Other than atmospheric conditions, the GFP seemed to operate well under the newest version of AISCAM which Don ran from about midnight onward. We ran into twilight so the observers could get the flats missed at evening twilight. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:41 gfp -150(1191) 215 62 16.9/17.6 256 11 4353 0.9 22:32 NA2gdr 108(48108) 291 71 16.6/17.1 231 7 R 0.65 23:04 gfp -50(1292) 243 49 16.5/16.9 241 6 4353 0.96 02:40 NA2gdr 3130(51130) 6 52 15.1/12.9 265 5 R 1.23 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 66 32 13 209 (SSW) 555 MstlyCldy none 17:01 63 31 11 237 (WSW) 616 MstlyCldy none 18:01 68 30 8 266 (W) 565 MstlyCldy none 19:01 66 30 12 236 (SW) 520 PtlyCldy none 20:01 63 23 9 258 (WSW) 491 PtlyCldy none 21:01 63 19 10 244 (WSW) 689 MstlyClr none 22:01 62 17 3 246 (WSW) 562 PtlyCldy none 23:01 62 17 8 245 (WSW) 457 PtlyCldy none 00:01 61 17 4 271 (W) 574 MstlyClr none 01:01 54 34 16 71 (ENE) 490 MstlyClr none 02:01 52 36 11 73 (ENE) 575 Clear none 03:01 58 24 2 259 (W) 718 Clear none 04:01 57 23 1 119 (ESE) 720 Clear none 05:01 59 27 3 282 (WNW) 771 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