Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 05:34:22 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20050514 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, May 14, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- P.Szkody P.Szkody, A.Mukadam DIS 19:15 23:05 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UW05/R 20:55 05:04 3.5 2.6 0 0 0 2.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky During checkout Mark had me watch the Dataq (motor1 and motor2 currents) and call him if it went over 0.75v. During my track mount slews I noticed it oscillating between 1.6 to -1.6 after an initial ramp up to about 0.6 (it stayed at the 0.6 for a few seconds and then went haywire). I called Mark and had my observer start her cals while he thought about what to do. We changed the velocity (or was it the acceleration) parameters for the telescope which bandaged the problem, with the side affect of causing the telescope to slew much more slowly now. Hey, at least it worked and got us on the sky during twilight. I focused the telescope and had the observer on the sky by 20:45. A lightning storm to our east and the smell of humidity in the air closed us around 23:00. The humidity shot up over the closure limits about 30 mins later. This is for the engineering staff, as the wanted me to carry out some slews if it was cloudy. I spent about an hour just slewing the telescope to see if saw any anomolies. I saw 2 large spikes that damped out in about 4-5 sec on 2 slews (I slewed all over the place). On the 2nd one I notice a little bump (very small 1/3 of the box above the commanded) occur when the spike happened on the motor currents (both motors showed the spike). It looked like a large spike (1.6 V p-p) that dampend out like an TC decay in about 4-5 squares (I think that is 4-5 sec on this scale). The 2nd one occured when the telescope was at a low alt (12 deg) during the course of the slew (about 1/3 the way in but at no apparent az that might be a problem, it occured when the telescope was in thw WSW direction moving W to S direction, this was for the 2nd spike). At -40.0 deg another spike when going S to W this time. Again small bump in the command voltage and about a full scale p-p, dampened in 2-3 sec. Alt 15 deg. No spike on the return W to S slew (alt 16 deg). No spike on a return S to W slew (alt 25 deg). These slews were all commanded from Remark. The telescope worked fine for all slews and stopped where it was supposed to (even when there was the occasional spike on the motor current). The telescope was still in a usable state after the tests. I also worked on web pages while we were closed. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:39 DISslit -200(1195) 65 65 9.4/13.9 86 9 none 1.3 20:43 NA2gdr -1375(21624) 64 66 9.3/13.7 88 8 clear 0.82 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 59 32 10 221 (SW) 1010 Cirrus none 17:01 57 32 12 185 (S) 1067 Cirrus none 18:01 59 26 11 252 (WSW) 1136 Cirrus none 19:01 58 30 7 250 (WSW) 1063 Cirrus none 20:01 51 32 7 87 (E) 1217 Cirrus none 21:01 48 32 11 79 (ENE) 1350 Cirrus none 22:01 53 32 0 198 (SSW) 1228 Clouds none 23:01 48 32 9 78 (ENE) 1162 Clouds humid 00:01 45 43 12 76 (ENE) 1565 Clouds humid 01:01 46 43 10 84 (E) 1797 Clouds humid 02:01 46 42 14 121 (ESE) 1704 Clouds humid 03:01 46 45 21 134 (SE) 1531 Clouds Hail 04:01 47 45 19 145 (SE) 1450 Clouds Rain 05:01 46 43 12 155 (SSE) 1274 Clouds Rain 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