Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 06:49:26 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20060208 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, February 8, 2006 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Wolf-Chase G.Wolf-Chase, M.Smutko NICFPS 05:15 00:14 S.Vennes S.Vennes, A.Kawka DIS 23:50 03:58 T.Tavenner T.Tavenner, C.Anderson NICFPS --:-- --:-- J.Murphy INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UC02/R 18:36 00:10 0 0 0 0 0 5.6 0 0 0 JH03/R 00:10 05:58 1.0 1.0 0 0 0 3.8 0 0 0 NM03/O 05:58 06:44 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Tonight we had problems with NICFPS. It checked out fine (FS 0) when I did my tests. As soon as my 1st half observer started taking darks the sequence crashed (and the image was all zero's). I did a TUI 'nicfps expose init' and that seemed to fix the zero's problem. They then started a sequence of 10s darks with FS1 and it started crashing the sequence (Same thing I saw the last 2 mornings). The images also looked messed up (the [1] image at least) with a horizontal bar on the top. I took control to see if I had the same problem and it started crashing on me as well (and suddenly the image was really messed up with 1/2 the chip white and half black). Looked like it was time for an instrument reboot, but first I decided to look for any errors on the ICS. When I went into the computer room I found the NICFPS ICS in the process of rebooting itself (Windows logo on bootup screen). When I tried logging in I got the failure to connect to NFS (I didn't wait long enough I think at the user selection screen). I rebooted/power cycled the ICS, this time waiting the appropriate time at the user login screen, this time it stuck on the loading user preferences screen (I did a power cycle to get it out, maybe it was trying to connect to a network drive???). The next reboot worked and I once again had a useable instrument. When I handed the instrument over to the observer (after doing some quick image checks) it once again failed with the script (and the images again looked messed up with a horizontal bar). Strange since it was just working fine for me (FS 0) but he was using FS 1. I tried it with FS1 and it failed. I switched back to FS 0 and things worked (and images looked fine). Just for grins I tried FS 2 and that worked fine too (with fine images). Going back to FS 1 again caused it to fail. Looks like a problem with FS 1 (and my guess is odd # FS since I think the observers this morning were having the problem with FS 3 or 5. They just decided to use FS 0 and all seemed well. I submitted the above info also in a PR, but I am not sure if the CU folks (Stephane) get these so I left it also in the night log. OK, I am beginnning to think the telescope mirror covers just don't like me. Dave cycled them several times today without fail. Did the same and did my test slews with no problem. As soon as I opened the dome, and came back down stairs, of course they decide to fail opening. Same cover as the last 2 nights. Altitude was 65 degrees. It didn't want to open manually at this altitude either, I physically moved the telescope to about 50 degrees and it opened there (but not as well as I would have liked) The clouds got too thick around 04:10 and my observer could no longer see any hint of her 15th mag objects. We observed Venus this morning through a natural ND filter (thick clouds). We weren't saturating the chip in 25 sec exposures (yesterday we were exposing for 1 sec). FS 4 seemed to work fine. Unfortunately the clouds were just too thick to get any useful science from the unlit side of Venus, so I called the entire time as loss due to weather. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:03 NICFPS 75(1395) 76 37 4.6/7.8 125 8 Ks 0.87 19:33 NICFPS 150(1287) 55 55 4.4/5.2 140 8 Ks 1.0 19:39 NA2gdr -2200(40799) 53 56 4.4/5.1 127 10 R 0.84 22:17 NICFPS 125(1173) -29 64 3.8/3.7 119 14 Ks 0.84 00:40 DISslit 150(670) -162 55 4.4/3.5 152 15 none 1.25 05:28 NICFPS 175(1184) 56 70 3.4/3.2 148 13 Ks 0.71 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 49 0 10 216 (SW) 818 Cirrus none 17:01 44 -4 5 241 (WSW) 509 Cirrus none 18:01 41 -5 8 124 (SE) 640 Cirrus none 19:01 41 -4 2 159 (SSE) 835 Cirrus none 20:01 41 -7 12 130 (SE) 384 Cirrus none 21:01 40 -8 13 109 (ESE) 330 Cirrus none 22:01 39 -8 15 111 (ESE) 496 Cirrus none 23:01 40 -9 19 126 (SE) 398 Cirrus none 00:01 41 -8 13 154 (SSE) 326 Cirrus none 01:01 40 -7 15 146 (SE) 305 Cirrus none 02:01 41 -9 16 139 (SE) 381 Cloudy none 03:01 40 -9 17 148 (SSE) 361 Cloudy none 04:01 40 -10 17 152 (SSE) 441 Cloudy none 05:01 38 -8 14 142 (SE) 400 Cloudy none 06:01 38 -8 17 133 (SE) 559 Cloudy 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 Current TUI version: TUI 1.1