Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20040930 Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 06:33:01 -0600 (MDT) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu (Bill Ketzeback) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, September 30, 2004 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- B.Gillespie F.Hearty, S.Beland, NIC-FPS 18:30 00:20 J.Barentine L.Hebb L.Hebb DIS --:-- --:-- INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- EN03/O 19:42 01:00 0 0.7 0 0 0.5 4.2 0 0 0 JH03/R 01:00 06:05 0 5.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback First half looked dicey weather wise before sunset but conditions improved greatly just before sunset. We were able to open and get sky flats for NIC-FPS. Several other tests were performed on sky that were critical for the engineering tests of this new instrument before I reluctantly closed due to the cloud cover since I was unable to obtain any useful Weather Radar information at the time and humidity was on the rise. Within 15 minutes after closing the humidity spiked to >95%. The skies presented a sucker hole at 0100 and the humidity dropped significantly that I reopened and started to focus. The oppurtunity wasnt long enough though to get any science photons and I had to close again. Just as I was about to close I noted a perculiar problem with the rotator. After closing the dome I investigated further and noted it would not rotate smoothly without power applied to the motors (Stop button engaged and axis stop issued). I unmounted the instrument and called Mark Klaene. After further investigation John Barentine and I also noted that the enclosure controller was also in a funny state which required several resets to clear up as well. Day staff will look into this further however it is possible that a power surge may have placed both the enclosure and rotator controllers in a funny state requiring several resets to unlatch them. No downtime was counted for this problem since we were closed for weather at the time. Another additional unusual observation of the night was that the dataq Altitude - Motor Currents show a 1.3Hz Square Wave that does not appear in the Altitude Command Voltages or Tachometer measurements when the axis motor has power applied to it. Therefore it is not at all clear if this is a pickup problem in the measurement or wether it is real. This was observered with both NIC-FPS and DIS as the mounted instruments. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- JH03 D T/H --:-- --:-- Rotator would not slew JH03 D T/H --:-- --:-- Enclosure Controller triped with no collision of telescope and dome ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:22 nicfps 75(1554) 117 67 6.6/7.9 275 15 2.12um 0.95 20:25 nicfps 200(1633) 276 76 7.2/7.3 276 15 J 0.78 20:53 nicfps 175(1616) 277 70 7.3/7.3 286 15 K 0.81 21:37 nicfps 200(1636) 303 78 7.7/7.4 281 16 J 0.59 01:42 dis-slit 0(1069) 226 73 7.3/6.9 276 13 - 1.47 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 49 37 19 273 (W) 374 mstly cldy lt.rain 17:01 45 39 10 236 (SW) 312 mstly cldy none 18:01 46 35 14 274 (W) 383 mstly clr none 19:01 44 35 15 270 (W) 402 clear none 20:01 45 36 15 273 (W) 490 clear none 21:01 45 35 15 283 (WNW) 453 clear none 22:01 46 32 15 282 (WNW) 474 clear none 23:01 46 30 13 287 (WNW) 511 clear none 00:01 45 33 11 274 (W) 542 clear none 01:01 44 40 9 267 (W) 1099 mstly clr humid 02:01 45 36 11 269 (W) 520 mstly cldy humid 03:01 43 41 9 268 (W) 1015 mstly cldy humid 04:01 43 39 11 265 (W) 808 mstly cldy humid 05:01 43 39 10 266 (W) 860 mstly cldy humid 06:01 42 37 6 264 (W) 773 mstly cldy humid 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 0.90b5