Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20061226 Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:44:43 -0700 (MST) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu (Bill Ketzeback) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, December 26, 2006 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- T.Murphy R.McMillan APOLLO 17:20 18:30 G.Stringfellow G.Stringfellow DIS,Nicfps 18:50 23:55 D.Bowen D.Bowen DIS 00:10 06:30 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- UW19/O 17:13 18:30 0 0 0 0 0 0.5 1.0 0 0 CU05/R 18:30 00:00 0 0 0 2.0 0.2 3.3 0 0 0 PU05/R 00:00 06:06 2.0 0 0 0 4.1 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback Apollo did well the start of the night. Russet seemed pleased. The second user of the night used DIS until 21:30 then requested nicfps. We had several problems with the instrument tonight. When focusing the backgrounds in the first images were zeros and I restarted the instrument control software (ics). The first few images with nicfps had elongated images due to the users inexperience using the NA2guider while I had stepped out of the control room (see images 47-49). Then we had straightened out guiding problems and the user continued to complain about tracking problems in the azimuthal direction (see trailed / elongated stars in images: V733CepH2g.0054-57.fits). We were looking in a portion of the sky where azimuth directional changes could have been the problem. Then after two 240s images it was noticed that the resultant images were all zeros. (see V733CepH2g.0054-57.fits). We have seen the instrument do this before but generatlly only after sitting idle for a day and the ics needs a restart. I quit the ics software, restarted it then did the usual hub restart for the instrument. Perhaps coincidentally when we reconnected the dewar pressure spiked and remianed out of spec (2.2e-5) for about an hour. The user then complained that backgrounds in images were also very high (see image 64 on). At the time of switchover I noted that the Varian gauge on the intermediate level was pegged high. After I finished the instrument change the pressure returned to normal range (10e-7) and backgrounds were also reported OK for darks. There was some confusion of the user about why wcs coordinates in the darks after the instrument change should cause the field to appear rotated. I tried to explain that the software that writes the headers does not know wether the instrument is on the telescope or not and that the wcs coordinates in the darks should be considered meaningless. With all the troubles with nicfps, I estimated that at least 2 hours of data was lost. The above referenced images can be found in Q4CU05/UT061227. It may also be noteworthy that the user was switching back and forth frequently between FS=0,1 and 2 during observations. Perhaps this confused the controller at some point? It is still my opinion that there is something with the instrument design that makes it more sensitive to picking up tracking / focus problems. Perhaps that is why we still keep reporting this same problem with trailed images in the azimuthal direction over and over. Second half had no real problems other than weather. Clouds impaired faint object observations between 01:30 and 03:30. No other problems. The dis-slitviewer shutter worked aok. Outside temperatures were unseasonally high however. ------ FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CU05 N I/H/S 21:30 23:30 Various ics/controller problems. ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:11 apollo 25(839) 148 70 4.3 6.9 6.3 5.5 4.7 - 1.2 18:41 dis-slit -148(-147) 329 52 5.6 5.4 4.7 5.0 5.3 - 1.4 20:55 nicfps -23(506) 328 41 6.2 5.4 4.8 5.2 5.8 K 0.73 00:14 dis-slit -117(-103) -59 54 5.8 5.6 5.0 5.3 5.8 - 1.3 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:02 43 9 1 300 (WNW) 100 mstly clr none 17:02 41 8 9 347 (NNW) 95 mstly clr none 18:02 40 9 6 22 (NNE) 117 mstly clr none 19:02 41 9 11 319 (NW) 117 mstly clr none 20:02 41 8 10 321 (NW) 124 mstly clr none 21:02 43 8 11 307 (NW) 148 mstly clr none 22:02 44 8 10 309 (NW) 109 ptly cldy none 23:02 43 13 12 296 (WNW) 151 mstly cldy none 00:02 43 14 15 295 (WNW) 181 mstly cldy none 01:02 41 11 14 291 (WNW) 156 cloudy none 02:02 41 8 20 299 (WNW) 140 mstly cldy none 03:02 40 8 15 306 (NW) 161 ptly cldy none 04:02 39 8 17 302 (WNW) 131 clear none 05:02 38 9 16 303 (WNW) 140 clear none 06:02 39 8 17 291 (WNW) 146 clear 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 TCC version: 2.8.5 Current TUI version: TUI 1.2