Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20051119 Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 06:32:26 -0700 (MST) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu (Bill Ketzeback) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, November 19, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Agueros M.Agueros DIS 17:05 23:55 T.Harrison T.Harrison DIS 00:00 06:30 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UW12/R 17:56 23:55 0 0 0 0 2.1 3.9 0 0 0 NM01/R 23:55 05:42 0 0 0 0 0 5.8 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback The beginning of the night had some lingering clouds from the afternoon. shortly after sunset the winds picked up and changed direction from the east causing unfavorable turbulence across the ridge. Seeing was poor to gastly for several hours. At around 10:45, the observer and I both noticed independantly that the slitview images appeared weird. They did not have zero values that have been reported by the other obs-specs in a recent problem report. The background in the image was about 1700 and the slit was clearly visible however no stars could be found. I quickly slewed to a bright star to see if the problem was the camera or something more serious. When I was able to find stars with the NA2 Guider I knew the problem was likely the problem software driver for the slitviewer. I reinitalized the camera connection and the guiding software within the hub. The slitviewer then worked like a charm the remainder of the night. The second half observer was collecting data near Polaris for much of the second half. During this time the rotator was experiencing higher than normal motor currents and on two seperate instances over currented and the controller required reinitalization. As soon as we moved to a different part of the sky motor currents returned to normal. The only other excitement was while turning on the heater for the control room tonight a large cloud of smoke poured out of the a/c vent. The heater was quickly turned off and the building ventillated. No fire alarms went off but a call was placed to Mark Klaene for advice and to keep him informed on the situation. Likely just dust and moths settled on the heating element. The daystaff will investigate monday morning. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- UW12 D I/H --:-- --:-- dcamera/dcam froze and restarted NM01 D T/H --:-- --:-- Rotator over current condition NM01 D T/H --:-- --:-- Rotator over current condition ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:45 dis-slit -175(272) 149 77 -3.2/-0.5 73 17 - 2.05 17:47 NA2gdr -6515(24584)150 77 -3.2/-0.5 73 17 R+nd2 1.64 23:04 dis-slit 25(317) 174 58 -4.0/-5.0 60 15 - 1.66 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 31 20 7 75 (ENE) 557 prtly cldy none 17:01 28 21 13 62 (ENE) 560 prtly cldy none 18:01 26 20 16 72 (ENE) 432 mstly clr none 19:01 25 20 16 74 (ENE) 369 clear none 20:01 24 19 17 70 (ENE) 322 clear none 21:01 24 19 18 66 (ENE) 324 clear none 22:01 24 12 19 60 (ENE) 308 clear none 23:01 25 17 15 66 (ENE) 369 clear none 00:01 26 16 12 54 (NE) 357 clear none 01:01 29 13 2 2 (N) 459 clear none 02:01 28 14 1 306 (NW) 450 clear none 03:01 26 17 2 357 (N) 448 clear none 04:01 25 17 7 2 (N) 471 clear none 05:01 24 18 5 356 (N) 459 clear none 06:01 25 18 5 8 (N) 606 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