Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20061013
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 11:04:17 -0600 (MDT)
From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu (Bill Ketzeback)
                        Apache Point Observatory
                        3.5m Telescope Night Log
                        Friday, October 13, 2006
                                                          ACTUAL
 ASTRONOMER     OBSERVER(S)              INSTRUMENT   START FINISH
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Y.Lin          Y.Lin                    NicFps       19:56 00:55
 R.Walterbos    R.Walterbos              DIS          01:15 01:45
  INST     SCHED(TWILIGHT)   WEATH     EQUIP     OBS     DAY  NOT USED
 I/ROW/DN    START FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B   USE   D    B
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 PU02/R      19:26 01:10    0    0   0.5   0   4.1  1.2   0    0    0
 NM02/O      01:10 06:13    0   4.6   0    0    0   0.5   0    0    0
  note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time
                ------------- ACTIVITY LOG --------------
 Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback
 The weather for the start of the night looked promising, clear skies and
 low humidity. I spent a few hours in the afternoon assisting the second
 half observer with a special instrument setup and with test cals. I was
 able to get the instrument changed to nicfps just before the start of
 scheduled observing. As soon as we attempted to take some darks there
 was no response in TUI to commands to the instrument. It took over an
 hour and a half to get the instrument control computer (ics) to be
 happy and willing to communicate with the Leach Controller. Even after
 numerous power cycles, reboots, and restarts of the hub connection.
 The ics would make a connection with the controller and then complain
 and close the connection due to a Windows access violation. Finally I
 was able to wave my arms around and hop on one leg typing just the
 right sequence of commands in just the right way to put the system in
 a stable configuration. Must have been a Friday the 13th moment.
 The rest of first half the clouds appeared and slowly continued to
 thicken.
 Fritz and I spent a few hours trying to get some critical bugs out of
 the new Tycho and ready for the second half observer to use.
 Unfortunately we didnt quite succeed by the staqrt of second half.
 We  were able to finish this morning however. Luckily there was
 not much need for the machine last night.
 At the time of the program change clouds were too thick for the second
 observer to get useful data however we were able to run a number of
 tests with his setup on bright stars through the cloud cover. By 2am
 the opacity made it impossible to observe. Heavy returns were visible
 on radar by 3am headed our way. We never had a chance to reopen. The
 rain started at 6am. I spent much of the second half watching for
 holes in the clouds that never came, worked on TUI scripting, and
 the new control room computer.
                       ------- FAILURE LOG -------
  PROG   INST   FAILURE MODE     TIME
      (SEDFNVOG)   TI/SHU    START  FINISH  DESCRIPTION
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
PU02      N         I/H      18:20  19:56   no comm between ics and controller
              ---------------- FOCUS LOG ---------------
 Time  Instrument Focus   Az El Temp Strc Prim  Sec  Air filt  FWHM
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
 19:50 nicfps   327(540) 138 74  9.7 11.9 10.1 10.8  9.9   Ks   0.7
 20:57 nicfps   320(530) 129 57 10.1 10.8 10.8  9.5 10.4   Ks   0.7
 23:09 nicfps   531(718) 200 65 11.0 10.0  9.2 10.0 10.1   J    0.7
                ------------- WEATHER LOG ----------------
                                   Wind                      Precip.or
     Time   Temp F Dewp F  MPH  Direction    Dust    Sky    Conditions
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     16:00    59    32      3   265    (W)    253    clear     none
     17:00    55    31      7   330  (NNW)    236    clear     none
     18:00    53    30      2   228   (SW)    286    clear     none
     19:00    50    29      2    57  (ENE)    272    clear     none
     20:00    50    28      1   265    (W)    242 mstly clr    none
     21:00    50    28      3    10    (N)    231  ptly cldy   none
     22:00    51    31      5   340  (NNW)    246 mstly cldy   none
     23:00    52    31      5   273    (W)    207   cloudy     none
     00:00    51    31      4   215   (SW)    208  ptly cldy   none
     01:00    49    31      7   178    (S)    229   cloudy     none
     02:00    49    33      9   162  (SSE)    274   cloudy     none
     03:00    50    32     12   177    (S)    228   cloudy     none
     04:00    50    34      9   172    (S)    329   cloudy     none
     05:00    50    35     15   176    (S)    374   cloudy     none
     06:00    49    35     13   154  (SSE)    328   cloudy     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 TCC version: 2.8.5
      Current TUI version: TUI 1.2