Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2003 05:05:23 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20030905 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, September 5, 2003 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- D.York B.Wilhite DIS --:-- --:-- S.Hawley S.Hawley,N.Silvestri DIS-high --:-- --:-- B.Gilespie J.Dembicky S-H 03:40 04:46 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOTUSED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UC04/R 19:50 21:29 0 1.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 UW01/O 21:29 03:40 1.4 4.8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 EN01/O/D 03:40 05:46 1.0 0 0 0 1.1 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: W.Ketzeback Cloud cover, rain and humidity prevented us opening all of first half. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky The observers gave up hopes for things clearing off and collecting anything useful around 2:00. They donated the time back to me (engineering) if things improved. Around 03:00 conditions started to improve and by 03:30 the sky was clear enough (with a few clouds still hanging around the horizon) that I decided it safe enough to open and try to get some shack-hartman data using an altitude sweep. I had troubles getting an 8th mag star in the S-H camera and after several minutes of no success I decided to try something a bit brighter. No luck with 4-5 mag stars either (I could occasionally see a star slew thru on the monitor so I knew things were set up correctly). I then decided to go for something really bright and found a nice 2.2 mag star at around 79 deg dec. I saw it slew thru the first time (it landed out of the field in the upper mid portion of the screen, but my guess is that it was actually a ways out of the camera FOV. I tried guessing at where to move the telescope, but I found that it was pretty much a futile effort, so I only spent a minute or two doing it. I then slewed back to the original coord I entered and made the offset again, this time I saw a much fainter star slew by so I decided to do a weather check and sure enough we were swamped with clouds once again. Bummer! Anyway, I did learn that the star is landing outside the FOV of the S-H camera and for engineering next week this information will be important, so it wasn't a complete waste of time! (FYI, I did a set inst=shack, which I believe is the correct setting now) It was now 04:45 and with only about an hour of dark sky left, and clouds overhead, so I threw the towel in. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 61 42 10 210 (SSW) 116 cloudy none 17:01 60 42 5 262 (W) 91 cloudy none 18:01 63 44 6 195 (SSW) 185 cloudy none 19:01 57 44 6 269 (W) 225 cloudy lt rain 20:01 54 46 1 196 (SSW) 261 cloudy rain 21:01 50 48 13 16 (NNE) 1331 cloudy humid 22:01 51 46 9 21 (NNE) 306 cloudy humid 23:01 54 46 4 241 (WSW) 361 cloudy none 00:01 53 46 4 218 (SW) 379 cloudy none 01:01 53 45 4 256 (WSW) 300 cloudy Lt. Rain 02:01 54 44 6 230 (SW) 255 cloudy none 03:01 53 43 10 258 (WSW) 224 Pt. Cldy none 04:01 52 43 7 249 (WSW) 243 Pt. Cldy none 05:01 52 43 6 267 (W) 231 cloudy 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 Telescope drives operational. Current Remark version: 2.85b Current guide software version: guider? what guider? Current TCC version: 2.7.1 Current TUI version: TTUI