Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 07:08:19 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20040923 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, September 23, 2004 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie F.Hearty, S.Beland, NIC-FPS 18:45 19:51 J.Davis, J.Dembicky, D.Woods D.York D.York Echelle 19:51 01:00 B.Keeney B.Keeney SPIcam 01:00 06:37 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/O 18:45 19:51 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 UC05/R 19:51 01:00 0 0 0 0 0 5.1 0 0 0 CU01/R 01:00 06:00 0 0 0 0 3.5 1.5 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky The NIC-FPS crew had the instrument installed this evening in hopes of finding an object (Vega) in the camera and focusing. We started by checking how the instrument handled slews and rotations (with our site engineer, Jon D., present to watch over things). After Jon was happy we slewed the telescope up to Vega and got first light on the telescope. It dropped almost dead center on the chip (Using the SPIcam instrument block). Much rejoicing was heard in the 3.5m enclosure!!! Photo can be found at: http://tycho.apo.nmsu.edu:81/35m_manual/Instruments/NICFPS/NICFPS_status.html Below are the results from our focus sweeps (inst=SPIcam) Star: TYC 3105-1382-1 Mag 8.02 RA: 18:36:49.5 DEC: +38:31:14.9 Focus Image 0 Dougnut -50 N/C -100 worse +200 Saturated (1.5 arc sec estimated) Star: TYC 3105-1193-1 Mag 10.7 RA: 18:35:54.3 DEC: +39:21:51.0 Focus Image +200 2.7 pixels (~0.7 arc sec) 30s exposure +200 Saturated 60s exposure +150 worse 30s exposure +250 worse 30s exposure +200 worse 30s exposure (original starting position of focus sweep) Most likely cause for changes were temperature equalization of the dome/outside and dome cooling, but +200 looks like a good starting point for the instrument. They then handed the instrument back over to Don York (UC05) who graciously donated the twilight time for the first light of NIC-FPS, at the start of his scheduled program time (19:51). I switched over to the echelle and focused/pointing correction and had on on the sky by 20:05. Switched over to SPIcam for the 2nd half observers at 01:00. Everything ran smoothly tonight. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:20 NIC-FPS 200 0 84 --/-- -- -- 0.7 19:58 Echelle -154(404) 73 62 10.8/13.1 254 3 ND2 0.88 21:46 Echelle -110(363) 116 67 9.7/11.4 198 7 ND1 1.12 23:38 Echelle -25(385) 184 83 11.2/10.5 180 9 ND1 1.00 01:02 SPIcam 50(1439) 75 58 10.9/10.1 182 6 R 0.93 01:13 NA2gdr -2038(34961) 73 59 10.8/10.2 189 7 R 1.08 03:34 SPIcam -25(1383) -81 53 9.1/10.1 156 4 R 1.01 03:40 NA2gdr -1789(35210) -82 51 8.8/10.0 149 5 R 1.16 05:07 SPIcam -50(1446) 11 27 9.2/9.4 180 9 R 1.30 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 59 28 9 258 (WSW) 444 Clear none 17:01 60 27 7 258 (WSW) 425 Clear none 18:01 58 30 6 229 (SW) 440 Clear none 19:01 52 27 4 264 (W) 457 Clear none 20:01 51 24 2 226 (SW) 437 Clear none 21:01 50 28 5 247 (WSW) 463 Clear none 22:01 50 30 6 181 (S) 435 Clear none 23:01 51 28 7 182 (S) 468 Clear none 00:01 51 28 4 153 (SSE) 507 Clear none 01:01 52 28 4 194 (SSW) 565 Clear none 02:01 51 30 7 186 (S) 604 Clear none 03:01 51 32 7 217 (SW) 655 Clear none 04:01 49 33 6 178 (S) 463 Clear none 05:01 50 33 9 179 (S) 507 Clear none 06:01 48 33 9 180 (S) 546 Clear none 07:01 48 34 7 179 (S) 593 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 Telescope drives operational. Current Remark version: 2.85b Current TCC version: 2.7.2 Current TUI version: TUI 9.0b4