Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20050419 Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 07:32:30 -0600 (MDT) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu (Bill Ketzeback) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, April 19, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- N.Chanover N.Chanover SPIcam 19:40 01:00 L.Walkowicz L.Walkowicz DIS 01:12 06:35 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NM06/R 20:32 01:00 0 0 0 0 0 4.5 0 0 0 UW10/R 01:00 05:32 0 0 0 0 0.9 3.6 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: W.Ketzeback Dust levels continued to be a problem tonight. 1um levels remained between 2000 and 3000 cts all night. We were not threatened to close however since there were no spikes inside the dome. The pressurization fans did a good job keeping the levels in range without affecting the seeing too much. Seeing for a good portion of the night was subarcsecond except for the last few hours of the night when we saw levels upwards to 2.0+ arcsec. These measurements agreed with what the 2.5m was seeing. At the beginning of the night the observer asked me to look at her flats. They looked suspicious and I suspected the filterwheel was misalligned. After running up to the dome, reseating the filterwheel and restarting the software the problem did not go away. I then realized we were pointing rather close to Regulus! We slewed a short ways and that corrected the the weird images however left little time for the observer to get good flats. The remainder of first half was exceptional with perfect seeing conditions for the type of work the observer was trying to accomplish. Second half went by smoothly as well even though there were some observing twists to the night and unusual requests by the observer. I believe they were all addressed correctly even though much of the special requests were my first experience trying them on this telescope as well. The good news is the telescope is still in one piece this morning. A special thankyou to the Day Staff for returning the telescope to working order on such short notice and with no loss of time on the sky. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:36 SPIcam 60(1460) 254 63 9.7/10.6 235 17 I 0.85 01:32 dis-slit 185(1287) 183 77 7.0/7.8 274 14 - 0.98 01:32 NA2gdr -11485(21614)183 77 7.0/7.8 274 14 R+nd2 0.9 02:59 dis-slit 310(1519) 315 32 6.4/6.6 267 13 - 1.81 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 56 16 14 264 (W) 1 clear dust 17:01 58 17 20 226 (SW) 2599 clear dust 18:01 56 15 25 267 (W) 2997 clear dust 19:01 53 11 12 265 (W) 2570 clear dust 20:01 50 9 16 245 (WSW) 2351 clear dust 21:01 50 7 20 249 (WSW) 2388 clear dust 22:01 49 7 13 267 (W) 2334 clear dust 23:01 49 5 14 261 (W) 2306 clear dust 00:01 48 5 16 261 (W) 2218 clear dust 01:01 47 5 11 272 (W) 2552 clear dust 02:01 44 6 11 274 (W) 3273 clear dust 03:01 44 6 14 275 (W) 3007 clear dust 04:01 42 5 17 268 (W) 2642 clear dust 05:01 41 3 13 270 (W) 2739 clear dust 06:01 40 8 8 273 (W) 2415 clear dust 07:01 40 9 15 257 (WSW) 2557 clear dust 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 Remark version: 2.85b Current TCC version: 2.7.2 Current TUI version: TUI 0.94