Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 06:47:55 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20060418 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, April 18, 2006 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Frieman H.Lin, T.Diehl SPIcam --:-- --:-- F.Hearty NICFPS --:-- --:-- K.Chiu K.Chiu SPIcam 02:40 06:45 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UC03/R 20:31 01:00 4.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 JH02/R 01:00 05:33 0 0 0 0 0 4.6 0 0 0 DDxx/w 05:33 06:33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.7 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Dust kept us closed until 02:30. Dust levels were still high, near 3000 cts, after we opened so I kept the press fans on and the mirror fans off. Stars were streaked in Alt when I focused with DISslit. My observer reported the pointing seemed off (about 28 arc sec) The outside air temp was fluctuating wildly (+/- 5C) over the course of minutes. Wind direction was also shifting (probably the cause). Made keeping the telescope focused a challenge to say the least! I could not use the Echelle trail script (TUI 1.2a4) tonight. TUI gave me the error 'failed: len90 of unsized object'. I took the images for the TOO untrailed (but guided) since the sky was brightening. The Echelle guider does not stop exposing when a slew is issued (TUI 1.2a4). I had to manually stop the guider (while the telescope was slewing). Sounds more like a bug, or is it a feature? A ctrl+click with the echelle guider offsets the star, but the guider then fails to take the followup exposure (no exposure time I believe was the error). TUI 1.2a4 ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 02:51 SPIcam -150(942) -61 37 7.1/8.1 235 1 i' 1.4 02:55 NA2gdr -4438(28561) -62 36 7.4/8.0 357 2 R 1.7 03:33 SPIcam 25(1109) -58 39 8.9/8.1 53 11 i' 1.5 04:01 DISslit 125(1137) -64 34 8.7/8.0 15 1 none 1.5 04:58 DISslit -275(1071) -138 64 6.6/7.1 59 9 none 1.5 05:00 NA2gdr -5311(23689) -138 64 6.6/7.2 77 7 none 1.5 05:51 Echelle 678(607) 123 58 3.7/5.6 81 15 ND1 2.1 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 61 14 15 240 (WSW) 3391 Clear Dust 17:01 60 16 13 249 (WSW) 3570 Clear Dust 18:01 57 14 13 243 (WSW) 3607 Clear Dust 19:01 55 12 15 265 (W) 3671 Clear Dust 20:01 51 8 16 262 (W) 3461 Clear Dust 21:01 48 7 16 249 (WSW) 3951 Clear Dust 22:01 48 8 12 267 (W) 3478 Clear Dust 23:01 47 7 12 272 (W) 3218 Clear Dust 00:01 45 6 6 260 (W) 3210 Clear Dust 01:01 45 8 9 238 (WSW) 3565 Clear Dust 02:01 48 8 7 293 (WNW) 3275 Clear Dust 03:01 46 6 6 351 (N) 3068 Clear Dust 04:01 48 5 2 60 (ENE) 3236 Clear Dust 05:01 43 2 8 74 (ENE) 3041 Clear Dust 06:01 38 0 15 77 (ENE) 2589 Clear Dust 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 1.2a5