From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20051213 Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 06:08:00 -0700 (MST) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, December 13, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene M.Klaene SH,NA2gdr 19:00 00:00 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 17:56 06:00 0 7.1 0 0 0 5.0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan I delayed opening after sunset due to concerns about humidity, but it dropped instead of rising. When I was able to open, I started with tracking adjustments, which proved very difficult due to jumpy seeing. I did make a moderate adjustment in one of the altitude parameters (PE.RATE), which may help to avoid a repeat of the difficulty we had in the NE a couple of nights ago. Next I switched to the Shack-Hartmann to check collimation; this also proved difficult due to poor seeing, but I really wanted to get just one measurement, so I persisted. Out of twenty exposures over the course of a couple of hours (exposing only when seeing seemed a little better), I was able to reduce two -- only to find that the collimation was fine and needed no adjustment. It's nice to know that, but it was a lot of work for a negative result. The clouds were thickening as I started the badly-needed pointing model, and after an hour I was having some difficulty getting the last few points to complete the model. Since there is very little science or engineering that can be done in clouds that are almost too thick for a pointing model, I closed up when the model was done and just kept an eye on the cloudcam while I did some other work. There was no significant improvement for the remainder of 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 33 26 10 293 (WNW) 382 ptly cldy none 17:01 32 25 17 288 (WNW) 323 ptly cldy none 18:01 31 21 14 265 (W) 318 ptly cldy none 19:01 29 18 14 281 (W) 433 ptly cldy none 20:01 28 20 11 324 (NW) 353 ptly cldy none 21:01 28 19 16 330 (NNW) 385 ptly cldy none 22:01 29 13 17 3 (N) 294 ptly cldy none 23:01 29 7 19 5 (N) 226 mstly cldy none 00:01 29 6 23 341 (NNW) 230 mstly cldy none 01:01 29 5 16 29 (NNE) 275 mstly cldy none 02:01 29 7 21 5 (N) 276 mstly cldy none 03:01 29 11 16 323 (NW) 328 mstly cldy none 04:01 29 12 16 336 (NNW) 400 mstly cldy none 05:01 28 12 16 327 (NNW) 355 mstly cldy none 06:01 28 10 9 350 (N) 368 mstly cldy 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