Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 07:08:33 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20051115 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, November 15, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene J.Davis,R.McMillan, SH,NA2gdr,DIS 18:15 05:30 J.Dembicky INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/W 17:58 05:39 0 0 0 0 0 11.7 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan The sky was clear, with apparently excellent seeing until about 21:30, variable seeing thereafter. The faulty azimuth motor was removed again today, worked on, and re-installed in the afternoon. We spent essentially all of first half trying to find PID tuning parameters that would eliminate the oscillation we were seeing on the SH video. Although we made some improvements, we couldn't get rid of the worst oscillation, which occurred while observing objects at high southern transit (declinations between 22-28 degrees within about 15 minutes of transit). Lower southern transits and all northern transits appeared all right, as did other parts of the sky. We followed the tuning work with an 80-point pointing model, since the previous model was too small for best results. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky I started out getting a DISslit image to focus DIS. The first image of the night returned the "all 0 pix" problem. A 'hub startNubs dcamera' thru TUI fixed the problem. DIS focus (all exosures 5 seconds, seeing slightly varible on slitviewer) Alt 50, Az 223 DIS Camera Focus value FWHM/Seeing Filename Slitviewer* 0 3.9/1.16 (Best focus near sweet spot) Red 0 3.56/1.95 focus.0001 Blue 0 4.28/2.34 Red -30 4.4/2.42 focus.0003 (elongation in Az) Blue -30 5.1/2.80 Red 30 2.90/1.60 focus.0004 Blue 30 3.36/1.84 Red* 60 2.63/1.44 focus.0005 Blue* 60 2.91/1.60 Red 90 3.19/1.75 focus.0006 Blue 90 2.99/1.64 Red 120 4.04/2.22 focus.0007 (elongation in Alt) Blue 120 3.07/1.68 Red 60 3.27/1.79 focus.0008 (Went to -30 then Blue 60 3.56/1.95 +60 for this focus) Slitviewer 60 4.4/1.40 (moved mirrors back in place, centered new star near sweet spot ) Slitviewer* 0 3.7/1.10 Red 60 3.07/1.68 focus.0009 Blue 60 2.78/1.53 * Best focus settings Best focus for BOTH red and blue cameras 60 is steps above nominal slitviewer focus. Red has slightly better focus than Blue Set focus to best DIS focus (60) and then focused the slitviewer best value at this value. I moved the DIS slitviewer camera (outward) just slightly and I think it moved the camera focus closer to the DIS cameras, but the seeing was a bit too variable to be certain. I will wait to see if the seeing calms down a bit later in the evening. (seeing was varying between 1.2-1.7 arc seconds) I moved ot a higher altitude to see if the seeing was better (1 airmass). Seeing looked better but had times of really poor seeing (conditions were getting worse seeing wise). Best slitview focus between 25-50 steps Focus File Red(fwhm) Blue(fwhm) -25 focus.0010 4.10 5.9 0 focus.0011 2.88 4.03 25 focus.0012 2.67 3.29 50 focus.0013 2.63 2.85 75 focus.0014 3.10 3.02 100 focus.0015 3.37 2.85 From the data above it looks like the slitviewer is now closer to focus to where both. If the seeing is more stable tommorow it might be worth a second look (it only takes a few minutes to step thru the focus for DIS, longer to figure out the slitviewer when the seeing is jumping all over). Russet wanted me to take lamps (He,Ar) at various instrument rotator positions. I wasn't sure if she needed them calibrated or not, but I did so anyhow at the start. (Calibrations.0017) Red 7500A, Blue 4500A High resolution gratings, 60 second exposures Filename: Rotation_tests_xxxdeg.xxxx.fits Russet, Note that the Rotation_test_40deg.0012 (2nd file with that name) is actually at 60 deg rotation (I forgot to change the filename). This pretty much rounded out the night. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 01:15 DISslit 0(502) 221 52 -0.2/-0.7 355 14 none 1.16 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 35 15 6 280 (W) 719 clear none 17:01 33 13 8 324 (NW) 625 clear none 18:01 31 12 0 9 (N) 677 clear none 19:01 30 13 4 23 (NNE) 760 clear none 20:01 29 16 6 359 (N) 750 clear none 21:01 28 15 15 9 (N) 692 clear none 22:01 31 3 17 345 (NNW) 446 clear none 23:01 32 -1 7 308 (NW) 362 clear none 00:01 32 -2 12 337 (NNW) 379 clear none 01:01 32 -2 14 356 (N) 371 clear none 02:01 29 -2 6 355 (N) 337 clear none 03:01 30 -3 9 2 (N) 316 clear none 04:01 31 -3 16 356 (N) 378 clear none 05:01 32 7 14 0 (N) 618 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 TCC version: 2.8 Current TUI version: TUI 1.1