Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 06:29:42 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20050306 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Sunday, March 6, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- L.Hebb L.Hebb DIS 17:40 05:54 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JH02/R 18:57 05:32 0 0 0 0 9.9 0.6 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Things weren't looking promising for tonight when I came in around 15:30, with snow and fog, but around 17:00 things were breaking up and we were on the sky shortly after sunset. Seeing was variable all night long. The observer reported double peaked spectra (indicitave of a focus problem) even after I tweaked the focused with the slitviewer (around Midnight). The next images showed the double peak and with the poor seeing and variable seeing it was very difficult to determine from the slitviewer the correct focus (they didn't change a whole lot between 100 to -200). Since things definately looked out of focus I brute force focused DIS using the mirrors at 01:18 as the slitviewer images all seemed in poor focus. This fixed the problem and gave a nice single peak spectra as expected. I had the observer take a slitview image (move the star off the slit) for comparison when she finished that field (about 01:50). It still wasn't easy to figure out if indeed the slitviewer was giving the correct focus or not. The guider focus was about the same as when I directly focus DIS (I focused the guider right after that) so I suspect the focus didn't change much. FWHM on DIS was 2 arc sec, NA2gdr was about 1.2 (but variable between 1-1.5) and 1.3 on the slitviewer image 20 mins later (with NA2 guider reporting about 1 arc sec seeing). I don't think it is a focus issue with the slitviewer but rather just poor and variable seeing that made focusing difficult. No problems other than the focus (due to poor and variable seeing) ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFNVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:30 DISslit -200(677) 52 71 -0.9/2.7 294 11 none 1.5 18:37 NA2gdr -2756(28243) 48 72 -0.9/2.3 316 15 R 1.7 01:25 DIS 50(753) -125 67 -1.3/-1.9 304 14 Blue 2.0 01:29 NA2gdr -104(30895) -124 66 -1.3/-1.9 309 20 R 1.18 01:50 DISslit 50() -122 63 -1.4/-1.8 315 12 none 1.3 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 31 31 13 280 (W) 6877 Cloudy fog 17:01 30 28 6 267 (W) 293 Pt. Cldy none 18:01 30 25 9 307 (NW) 246 Pt. Cldy none 19:01 31 22 8 328 (NNW) 248 Mst. Clr none 20:01 30 21 14 313 (NW) 328 Mst. Clr none 21:01 30 20 15 298 (WNW) 392 Mst. Clr none 22:01 31 20 15 298 (WNW) 418 Mst. Clr none 23:01 30 17 13 301 (WNW) 345 Clear none 00:01 29 21 14 320 (NW) 332 Clear none 01:01 29 22 19 310 (NW) 323 Clear none 02:01 29 21 15 337 (NNW) 350 Clear none 03:01 29 20 19 324 (NW) 291 Clear none 04:01 30 16 10 284 (WNW) 238 Clear none 05:01 30 18 4 3 (N) 241 Clear none 06:01 30 16 8 331 (NNW) 195 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. 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 0.94b2