Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 07:28:57 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20050408 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, April 08, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- G.Stringfellow G.Strinfellow DIS --:-- --:-- P.McGehee D.Lamb J.Dembicky, F.Hearty NIC-FPS 22:00 01:40 V. Debattista T.Likster DIS 01:40 07:00 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CU03/R 20:23 21:22 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 UC01/O/D 21:22 01:40 0.6 0 0 0 3.7 0 0 0 0 UW06/O 01:40 05:46 0 0 0 0 4.1 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Dust and wind kept us closed until around 22:00. Don Lamb invoked his TOO program for first half tonight to go after a Swift GRB that went off this afternoon. He didn't invoke this until around 21:00 when the weather at APO improved enough that he felt confident enough we could observe the new GRB. UW06 was pre-empted for this program. I quickly focused the telescope and guider and got onto the GRB around 22:20 with a 600s exposure in Ks, per Don, to see if we could actually see the object (est. 21.5 mag). Then started a 1200s exposure in the same filter, while I examined the field from the first image. 600s saturated the chip in Ks. I stopped the 2nd exp about 220s into it and proceeded to follow the observation script instead as it seemed a more logical choice. Fred H. called me just as I was starting that process and walked/confirmed me thru it. We observed the GRB until 01:40 and got detections in all 4 bands with 1200s (accumulated) in each band. We burnt a CD of the GRB data for archive here at APO. During the 3rd program of the night we had an intermittent problem with the NA2 shutter (We think it was the shutter). A PR was submitted on the problem. No time was lost, but every few frames the image would disappear (or a cigar shaped bright are was visible with no stars elsewhere) and then it would fix itself the next frame. Seeing also was varible and deteriorated during the 2nd half of the night (1.5-2.5 arc sec). Around 04:59 we had a telescope run away in Az when Thorsten issued a slew command from TUI. After stopping the telescope (it actually halted itself by hitting a wrap switch) I did an axis stop, killed the drives and physically went up to the intermediate level to look for problems (none found). I restarted the drives (axis init and release stop button) and had Thorsten re-slew to his object. It seemed to land in the slitviewer but he said he could not do Y offsets. I manually slewed the telescope in both Alt and Az and checked the magnasensor readings for both axis. Altitude was fine, but Az had some large (arc minute errors present). The manual slews that I performed fixed the sensor errors and I had him re-slew again to his object. This seemed to fix the problem. PR submitted on problem. No other problems after that. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEGDFNVO) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- UW06 D I/H --:-- --:-- Intermittent problems with the NA2 camera shutter(?) UW06 D T/S 04:59 05:10 Telescope ran away in Az, Bad Az magnasensor readings. ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:05 NIC-FPS 75(1669) 55 57 6.9/9.1 268 10 Ks 1.2 22:12 NA2gdr 1629(46629) 53 58 6.9/9.0 261 15 R 1.3 22:54 NIC-FPS 125(1652) 36 63 6.5/7.8 268 18 H 1.5 22:57 NA2gdr 3403(48403) 35 64 6.5/7.8 268 19 R 1.6 23:41 NIC-FPS 50(1527) 9 68 6.4/6.9 256 11 Ks 1.0 23:44 NA2gdr 691(45691) 7 68 6.4/7.0 267 16 R 0.8 00:17 NIC-FPS 75(1540) 346 67 6.7/6.5 277 20 J 0.9 00:19 NA2gdr 603(45603) 344 67 6.7/6.6 243 17 R 0.8 02:05 DISslit 50(1059) -76 68 5.0/5.2 268 15 none 1.3 02:08 NA2gdr -790(30209) -76 67 5.2/5.4 270 15 R 1.0 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 56 9 35 263 (W) 5143 Cirrus Dust 17:01 54 12 27 249 (WSW) 3411 Cirrus Dust 18:01 53 12 27 252 (WSW) 2662 Cirrus Dust 19:01 50 8 22 271 (W) 2501 Cirrus Dust 20:01 47 8 21 272 (W) 10501 Lt. Cirrus Dust 21:01 46 5 16 267 (W) 3898 Clear Dust 22:01 44 4 16 268 (W) 1905 Clear none 23:01 44 6 17 266 (W) 1955 Clear none 00:01 44 4 17 282 (WNW) 2248 Clear none 01:01 43 7 16 258 (WSW) 1730 Clear none 02:01 42 6 13 271 (W) 1534 Clear none 03:01 40 7 17 265 (W) 1404 Clear none 04:01 39 8 17 254 (WSW) 1221 Clear none 05:01 37 9 20 260 (W) 1266 Clear none 06:01 37 11 17 242 (WSW) 1372 Clear none 07:01 36 13 15 265 (W) 1532 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 0.94