Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20050121 Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 07:23:59 -0700 (MST) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu (Bill Ketzeback) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, January 21, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- F.Hearty F.Hearty,J.Barentine NicFps 17:30 20:30 21:30 22:30 00:30 02:30 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EN02/W 18:22 00:10 0 1.8 0 2.0 0 2.0 0 0 0 EN02/W 00:10 06:07 0.8 3.1 0 2.0 0 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback Difficult night. Nasty stalled low pressure cell sitting in the Gulf of California caused the winds and clouds to approach us from the west- northwest. Being the biggest radar blind spot we have every indication that clouds were approaching I felt concerned enough to close. Much of the cloud cover during the first half was orographic in nature. Winds exceeded 50mph the end of second half. A rather nasty instrument exposure control issue surfaced its ugly head tonight at sunset as well and caused loss of more than half, but perhaps less than three quarters, of the remainding useful time. Every other, on average, exposure would hang at the end of a read but before the image was written to disk for several minutes before the next exposure could continue. Several reboots and power cycles of the Instrument Control System and detector power supply were done through out the evening to no real benefit. The perception was that the problem became more severe as the night got later and later. Craig and Stephane spent a good amount of time looking into the problem and will investigate further during the daylight hours today. By second half the instrument bcame rather unusable. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- EN02 N I/S 18:30 19:30 Exposures would hang during readout EN02 N I/S 21:30 22:30 Exposures would hang during readout EN02 N I/S 00:30 02:30 Exposures would hang during readout ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:38 nicfps 275(1475) 228 47 3.5/3.7 360 9 Ks 1.09 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 38 31 6 1 (N) - mstly clr none 17:01 36 32 12 356 (N) - mstly clr none 18:01 37 25 5 1 (N) - mstly clr none 19:01 37 21 0 9 (N) - mstly clr none 20:01 38 22 10 17 (NNE) - prtly cldy none 21:01 42 22 0 155 (SSE) - prtly cldy none 22:01 42 25 7 109 (ESE) - cloudy none 23:01 41 22 8 89 (E) - cloudy none 00:01 41 31 12 80 (E) - prtly cldy none 01:01 39 24 15 76 (ENE) - prtly cldy none 02:01 37 23 17 76 (ENE) - prtly cldy none 03:01 31 24 29 68 (ENE) - cloudy none 04:01 30 23 35 73 (ENE) - cloudy windy 05:01 28 24 37 81 (E) - cloudy windy 06:01 28 24 25 68 (ENE) - cloudy windy 07:01 28 24 30 62 (ENE) - cloudy windy 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. Note: The Tower Dust counter appears to be down at this time TELESCOPE STATUS Telescope drives operational. Current Remark version: 2.85b Current TCC version: 2.7.2 Current TUI version: TUI 0.94b1