From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20061008 Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 06:52:31 -0600 (MDT) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Sunday, October 8, 2006 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Holtzman J.Holtzman & students NICFPS 19:15 20:00 21:20 23:00 M.Strauss M.Strauss NICFPS 01:10 01:50 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- NM03/O 19:32 01:10 0 3.4 0 0 0 1.2 0 0 0 PU01/R 01:10 06:10 0 4.3 0 0 0 0.7 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st Half Observing Specialist: G.Saurage SPIcam temp was 184.6 at 17:40. Mostly clear with high humidity at sunset. Humidity went down long enough to open at 7:15, but we had to close at 8:00 due to high humidity and nearby radar returns. Opened again at 9:20, made it till 11:00 when humidity was too high again. Radar returns showed lots of activity all along the basin coming up from El Paso, but a visual check didn't seem as threatening. Humidity continued to bounce in and out of the limits rest of 1st half. 2nd Half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Conditions improved to borderline and then probably-usable after midnight, but the first half observers wouldn't be able to get anything useful in that time. I opened when I thought it was safe and did some focusing tests while the second-half observer reviewed his target list and struggled with some connectivity problems. We ended up handing over to science right on schedule. After about half an hour, clouds returned and humidity rose, and we closed again. Once again I wrangled focus data, from tonight and from previous nights. I ended up changing the focus vs. altitude algorithm based in part on tonight's quick test. Focus vs. temperature is still a very vexed issue and will probably get even worse when more new temperature sensors come on-line in a few days. Humidity stayed high while clouds came and went. We had a few slight sprinkles around 05:00, then after 06:00 a deluge began. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:35 NICFPS -50(389) 332 39 8.9 11.7 10.1 10.2 9.8 K 1.1 21:34 NICFPS -100(261) 305 21 8.1 9.1 7.8 8.6 7.8 K 1.3 00:52 NICFPS 160(317) -50 63 7.6 6.9 6.1 7.0 7.1 J 0.85 01:07 NICFPS 160(320) -25 81 (same-ish) J 0.73 01:09 NICFPS 125(315) -10 42 (same-ish) J 1.15 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 52 44 10 258 (WSW) 154 ptly cldy none 17:00 51 45 4 324 (NW) 163 mstly clr none 18:00 50 46 0 219 (SW) 149 mstly clr humid 19:00 48 43 1 147 (SSE) 198 ptly cldy humid 20:00 47 43 6 108 (ESE) 203 ptly cldy humid 21:00 46 39 12 146 (SE) 196 mstly clr none 22:00 46 37 15 136 (SE) 171 mstly clr none 23:00 44 41 16 126 (SE) 171 ptly cldy humid 00:00 46 39 14 141 (SE) 171 mstly clr none 01:00 46 36 17 168 (SSE) 186 mstly clr none 02:00 45 40 21 137 (SE) 194 ptly cldy humid 03:00 45 42 14 162 (SSE) 186 ptly cldy humid 04:00 45 43 11 146 (SE) 229 mstly cldy humid 05:00 46 43 24 182 (S) 248 cloudy lt rain 06:00 45 44 13 188 (S) 302 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: 2.8.4 Current TUI version: TUI 1.2