Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 05:44:47 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030616 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Monday, June 16, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Strauss J.Hennawi, X.Fan SPIcam --:-- --:-- J.Lutz J.Lutz Echelle --:-- --:-- E.Turner J.Dembicky SPIcam 04:20 05:10 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- PU06/O 21:17 01:00 1.6 2.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 UW08/R 01:00 04:21 0 3.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 PU04/O 04:21 04:51 0 0 0 0 0 0.5 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Rain and clouds to start the night, so I didn't start the fans or open the Louvers until conditions improved. The clouds started to part ways around 02:45 and I decided it was safe to open around 03:10 after a few remaining clouds seemed to be making way for clearer skies. The plan was to start getting set up with rotating the tertiary, once that was finished I would call my observer (she was at home) and in the interim of her getting to work I would go ahead and get the telescope focused. My expectation was that focus would be pretty poor given the turbulent air systems we have above us tonight. Well, that was the plan. When I went to rotate the tertiary over to the NA1 port I got an error that the clamp failed to fully open and it would not rotate the tertiary from the NA2 port. Argh.... This was not the same problem we had the other night. OK, lets check the seeing and see if by chance it was going to be good enough to do tonights last program (seeing better than 1.5 arc sec). If not then I would call somebody and figure out how to rotate the tertiary. Seeing was around 1.2 arc sec. Drat. Now what to do. At best it was probably going to take 10 mins or so to figure out the tertiary problem and fix it (or maybe longer). Since the seeing was good enough to get the last program of the night that would leave maybe 20 minutes of time for the 2nd program (and I would have to rotate the tertiary back to the NA2 port as well. Well, I opted to get my focus down for the 3rd program of the night. When I went to focus the guider no guide stars could be found to focus. Hmmm...Looked outside and a nice thick cloud had moved over. I guess it was a good thing I hadn't yet called the 2nd half observer ahead of time. I checked the weather outside around 04:10 and the clouds had parted a little (there were still clouds in the area). I decided to re-check my focus on SPIcam and again try to focus the guider. Seeing was now around 1.1 arc sec so I was good to go, and right on time, for the last program of the evening. From the first image the seeing looked to be about 1.3 arc sec and this also corresponded to what I was getting with the guider now. Clouds again swamped us again about mid way thru the testscript. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 03:35 SPIcam -370(644) 105 56 9.4/11.0 103 2 r' 1.16 04:10 SPIcam -280(722) 132 51 10.0/10.7 180 10 r' 1.03 04:18 NA2gdr 1738(50738) 134 52 10.0/10.6 178 8 R 1.01 --------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 17:01 56 36 15 74 (ENE) 322 Cloudy none 18:01 59 33 7 276 (W) 598 Cloudy Rain 19:01 48 41 19 32 (NNE) 726 Cloudy Lt. Rain 20:01 55 33 8 1 (N) 469 Cloudy none 21:01 54 34 0 4 (N) 430 Cloudy none 22:01 54 35 0 245 (WSW) 457 Cloudy none 23:01 53 37 11 82 (E) 434 Cloudy none 00:01 52 38 16 79 (ENE) 478 Cloudy none 01:01 48 40 23 76 (ENE) 471 Cloudy none 02:01 48 39 10 86 (E) 272 Cloudy none 03:01 49 39 7 85 (E) 281 Pt. Cldy none 04:01 49 40 6 173 (S) 418 Pt. Cldy none 05:01 50 42 10 175 (S) 619 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: 2.85b Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv4.1b4 Current TCC version: 2.7.0 Current TUI version: 0.66