From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20050317 Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 05:49:22 -0700 (MST) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, March 17, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene B.Ketzeback,C.Loomis, FASTcam II 18:15 20:30 R.McMillan M.Strauss G.Richards NicFps 00:25 01:35 04:00 05:40 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UC05/R 19:05 00:10 0 3.7 0 0 0 1.4 0 0 0 DD03/R 00:10 05:17 2.0 0.7 0 0 1.3 1.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st half Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback Mostly cloudy skies and high winds kept us from remaining open long tonight. Work continued on the comissioning of the new FASTcam II engineering camera and NA2 Guider software. Unfortunately we had to close about the time we were ready to start the fastcam instrument block for high winds and high dust. Craig continued to test his guider code while the dome was closed. I used the time to port addition reduction code for fastcam to its new PC. We never reopened first half. 2nd half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Wind dropped just below the limit at the beginning of second half, so we opened. Seeing was, I believe, the worst ever measured with NIC-FPS, but indications from Sloan and the guider indicate that it was well over 3 arcseconds in the visible, so apparently NIC still had an advantage. We also had trouble with sky saturation starting at 10s in J, which we attributed to the soft vacuum on the instrument. Maybe. Wind climbed again after 01:30, and we re-closed and listened to the whistling of the arcade door for a while. Wind dropped, and we re-opened to better seeing conditions. Then the wind rose again during twilight, but I let the observer get a couple more objects. Aside from the saturation issue, NIC-FPS hung up twice. Both times fixed by a "hub startNubs nicfps" followed by "hub startNubs nicfpsExpose". Very little time lost. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFNVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PU06 N I/S 04:07 04:10 NICFPS hangup PU06 N I/S 05:29 05:30 NICFPS hangup ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 00:51 NICFPS 50(1202) 33 65 -1.2/-0.8 277 13 J 2.0 04:11 NICFPS 50(1167) 2 62 -1.7/-2.0 295 20 J 1.61 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 35 7 24 261 (W) 909 mstly cldy none 17:01 36 6 26 254 (WSW) 1066 mstly cldy none 18:01 33 6 14 259 (W) 941 mstly cldy none 19:01 33 8 19 268 (W) 943 mstly cldy none 20:01 33 11 19 276 (W) 1430 cloudy wind, dust 21:01 32 12 29 294 (WNW) 2293 cloudy wind, dust 22:01 32 12 18 282 (WNW) 1902 cloudy wind, dust 23:01 31 11 18 288 (WNW) 1404 cloudy wind 00:01 32 11 16 295 (WNW) 1559 cloudy wind 00:01 32 11 16 295 (WNW) 1559 ptly cldy none 01:01 30 9 28 298 (WNW) 1305 mstly clr none 02:01 29 7 32 290 (WNW) 940 mstly clr wind 03:01 29 8 25 300 (WNW) 808 mstly clr wind 04:01 29 8 29 306 (NW) 788 mstly clr none 05:01 29 8 27 293 (WNW) 736 mstly clr 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. 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 0.94