Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 06:00:26 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20050524 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, May 24, 2005 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene J.Dembicky, J.Davis FASTCAM2 --:-- --:-- T.Farley D.Lamb J.Dembicky, F.Hearty NICFPS 01:45 05:40 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/RO/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/O 21:02 01:00 0.5 3.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 UC01/O 01:00 04:58 0 0.8 0 0 0 3.2 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Incoming clouds prevented us from opening the first half of the night. A big storm (not sure if it actually has rain, but it was black on the IR view) formed to our W/SW at sunset. By 21:20 we were completely cloud covered. Worked on web pages. Around 01:45 it appeared the clouds might be thin enough where we needed to shoot, so I decided (since the threat of rain was minimal) to open. I restarted the Dataq recording (normal rates, never used the high rate needed for fastcam) at 02:01 (Alt approx 78, az 60) 02:28 big pulse (+ direction) on dataq command voltage, seen on all channels. I could also see it on the guider correction. Guide corrections??? I have never seen these before on the Dataq. 02:30 another pulse (small and - dir) sent on the command voltage 02:31 Another pulse (large - dir) on command voltage 02:32 Another pulse (large + dir) 02:33 Another pulse (large + dir) 02:35 Pulse (small - dir) 02:36 pluse (large - dir) 02:37 pulse (large + dir) 02:39 pulse (large + dir) 02:42 pulse (large - dir) 02:43 pulse (large + dir) noticed it moving the mirror A, B and T as Rot command, current, and alt volt and tach, and current. This was probably present on all the pulses so far. 02:44 pulse (large + dir) 02:47 small pulse seen in load cells A, B, C, and T as Alt current 02:48 pulse (large - dir) 02:48 pulse (lerge + dir) 02:49 pulse (large + dir) Happened again at 03:02, this also corresponded with the dither pattern offset with the NIC-FPS script. My guess of the source!!! It shakes the whole telescope when it does it does the dither offset. 03:04 pulse, again corresponding to the dither offset 03:06 pulse, pretty certain it is now from the dither offset. I think Jon/Mark told me the bumps were caused by something switching in the controllers (to a backup system?). These are short pulses and die very quickly (1-2 sec)It is pretty rough as it moves the mirror when it does it. Dataq was recording so they should be able to see what was going on in the morning. 02;41 Fred made a preliminary detection of the GRB in 200s Ks. 03:04 Fred made a preliminary (fainter) detection in 200s H. 03:07 Fred made a preliminary detection of GRB in raw 60s J. 04:13 Switched to SPIcam, seen very faint in 300s r', better in i' and z'. 05:15 Flats taken then darks (if necessary). Biases taken earlier in the evening. We finished up around 05:40 and I left SPIcam running taking darks. Busy 2nd half but scientifically very productive!!! ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 02:02 NICFPS 75(1987) 46 71 15.5/17.6 218 10 Ks 0.7 02:12 NA2gdr 2904(39904) 72 73 15.5/17.2 197 1 R 0.74 02:54 NICfps 100(1977) 47 81 16.3/16.6 332 1 J 0.92 03:31 NICFPS 125(1979) -15 83 15.7/16.1 355 6 Ks 0.83 04:23 SPIcam 125(1732) -67 76 16.1/15.86 13 11 r' 0.67 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 70 27 10 296 (WNW) 813 Mst. Cldy none 17:01 68 28 1 273 (W) 784 Pt. Cldy none 18:01 71 28 10 228 (SW) 808 Pt. Cldy none 19:01 69 27 10 259 (W) 894 Pt. Cldy none 20:01 65 27 8 239 (WSW) 843 Pt. Cldy none 21:01 65 27 10 214 (SW) 918 Cloudy none 22:01 65 28 8 158 (SSE) 909 Cloudy none 23:01 65 28 13 187 (S) 869 Cloudy none 00:01 64 27 10 180 (S) 1038 Cloudy none 01:01 63 26 17 188 (S) 1105 Cloudy none 02:01 60 22 6 214 (SW) 1308 Cirrus none 03:01 60 23 3 347 (NNW) 1337 Cirrus none 04:01 61 24 9 354 (N) 1296 Cirrus none 05:01 61 20 15 11 (N) 892 Cirrus 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. TELESCOPE STATUS Telescope drives operational. Current Remark version: 2.85b Current TCC version: 2.7.2 Current TUI version: TUI 0.94