Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20051208 Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2005 07:06:57 -0700 (MST) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu (Bill Ketzeback) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, December 8, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- T.Murphy T.Murphy APOLLO 17:05 22:05 M.Klaene R.McMillan DIS 22:10 22:55 B.Keeney B.Keeney DIS 23:00 06:40 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DD01/O 17:02 19:02 0 0 0 0 0 1.1 0.9 0 0 EN01/W 19:02 23:55 0 0 0 0 0 4.9 0 0 0 CU02/R 23:55 05:56 0 0 0 0 5.2 0.9 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback During the afternoon, Russet and Jon Holtzman worked on improving the internal focus of DIS. They adjusted the red side collimator and optimized the camera focus for both blue and red, but did not completely explore all of the parameter space for the two collimators. The new focus is nonetheless a clear improvement over previous spectra. On-sky checks at night confirmed consistency between the slitviewer focus and the blue and red imaging focus within the limitations of variable seeing, so DIS appears to be reasonably happy for now. Most of the night the skies were covered in a thin layer of cirrus. APOLLO was able to get record returns on 2 of the 4 target reflectors tonight. Extra EN01 time was given to APOLLO and to CU02 when it was learned that we didnt likely need to adjust the slitviewer focus. Second half CU experienced problems displaying slitviewer images in TUI using version 1.0.1. I asked Craig to look into the error and he concluded that the Solaris machine that they were using most likely had a very old version of pyfits.py and it was not correctly building the new slitviewer headers since the error refered to not being able to read the files because the fits keywords were not in fixed format. Brian and I worked together for the remainder of the night, he would use the old slitviewer to center his objects and I would use TUI DIS Slitviewer to guide. Other problems included at the beginning of the night the covers didnt open fully and when we slewed the BC1 eyelid slammed shut when the cover pulled away from its open stop under gravity. The lower left louver once again mysteriously closed on its own shortly after sunset. Neither resulted in lost time. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DD01 A T/H --:-- --:-- Lower left louver failed DD01 A T/H --:-- --:-- BC1 eyelid slammed shut EN01 D T/H --:-- --:-- Lower left louver failed CU02 D T/H --:-- --:-- Lower left louver failed ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:28 DISslit 75(537) 125 55 -1.1/-1.2 259 10 - 1.02 22:42 DIS(red) 75(528) 129 58 -0.9/-1.3 233 7 - 1.15 22:42 DIS(blue) 75(528) 129 58 -0.9/-1.3 233 7 - 1.18 22:59 dis-slit 75(481) 161 77 -0.9/-1.4 253 13 - 0.84 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 34 -4 6 283 (WNW) 688 mstly clr cirrus 17:01 30 1 1 259 (W) 677 mstly clr cirrus 18:01 30 3 5 224 (SW) 652 mstly clr cirrus 19:01 30 11 6 235 (SW) 711 mstly clr cirrus 20:01 30 14 5 266 (W) 734 mstly clr cirrus 21:01 31 5 7 267 (W) 541 mstly clr cirrus 22:01 31 9 10 255 (WSW) 586 mstly clr cirrus 23:01 31 2 12 227 (SW) 437 mstly clr cirrus 00:01 32 -2 11 256 (WSW) 348 mstly clr cirrus 01:01 30 4 10 259 (W) 597 mstly clr cirrus 02:01 32 0 13 269 (W) 860 mstly clr cirrus 03:01 33 -6 16 266 (W) 799 mstly clr cirrus 04:01 32 -5 16 264 (W) 890 mstly clr cirrus 05:01 32 -4 18 280 (W) 844 mstly clr cirrus 06:01 33 -4 20 290 (WNW) 857 mstly clr cirrus 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