Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 06:10:31 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20050510 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, May 10, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- G.Richards G.Richards DIS 19:15 22:26 M.Strauss G.Richards NICFPS 22:26 00:50 E.Turner J.Dembicky SPIcam 00:50 05:45 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PU02/O 20:51 22:51 0 0 0 0 0.5 1.5 0 0 0 PU06/R 22:51 01:00 0 0 0 0 2.2 0 0 0 PU03/O 01:00 05:08 0 0 0 0 4.2 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky We started the night with excellent sub arc second seeing again tonight. No problems and I didn't really see any obvious noise in Gordons 2 DIS red images. We switched over to NICFPS for a 2nd program for first half tonight and at 00:50 I switched over to SPIcam to start the 3rd program of the night. Seeing was still sub arc second when I focused SPIcam at the start of the 2nd half, but over the next hour the seeing steadily deteriorated. The dust levels also slowly crept up into the 4000 cts range (I stayed open since it did not look like it was a dust spike occuring). Since the seeing was so poor it limited the number of targets I had to choose from for the 2nd half program, but I did manage to find enough to keep the telescope productive, well as productive as it could be with seeing close to 2 arc seconds. The seeing just got worse thru the 2nd half. By 04:30 the seeing was now around 1.75 - 2.0 arc sec. I tried getting one last Lens for the 2nd half program but aborted due to the poor seeing. Everything ran smoothly otherwise. The dust counts did reach almost 5000 tonight but no spikes and I observed thru it. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:31 DISslit -60(1299) 42 73 12.0/13.8 233 23 none 1.0 20:36 NA2gdr -2135(20865) 39 74 12.2/13.7 235 19 R 0.65 22:44 NICFPS 150(1813) 32 76 10.6/11.6 246 13 J 0.78 01:00 SPIcam 150(1534) -38 58 9.7/10.0 233 19 r' 0.96 01:09 NA2gdr -1062(30062) -42 57 9.4/9.8 238 19 R 0.84 02:52 SPIcam 200(1497) -145 63 8.1/8.2 260 15 r' 1.2 03:01 NA2gdr -680(28319) -143 62 8.1/8.1 266 16 R 0.76 03:49 SPIcam 250(1544) -137 55 7.4/7.6 273 17 r' 1.5 03:51 NA1gdr -235(28764) -137 55 7.5/7.6 270 16 R 1.17 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 63 15 21 235 (SW) 1538 Clear none 17:01 61 14 27 212 (SSW) 1214 Clear none 18:01 61 14 16 249 (WSW) 1048 Clear none 19:01 58 13 30 225 (SW) 1460 Clear none 20:01 54 13 21 209 (SSW) 1375 Clear none 21:01 54 12 19 215 (SW) 1431 Clear none 22:01 54 12 15 257 (WSW) 1420 Clear none 23:01 52 18 12 259 (W) 1591 Clear none 00:01 51 18 16 261 (W) 2233 Clear none 01:01 49 18 17 232 (SW) 2794 Clear dust 02:01 47 21 13 246 (WSW) 3649 Clear dust 03:01 46 21 16 265 (W) 4552 Clear dust 04:01 46 21 18 267 (W) 4691 Clear dust 05:01 43 22 11 265 (W) 4418 Clear dust 06:01 44 21 23 259 (W) 3679 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