From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20060421 Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 06:08:43 -0600 (MDT) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, April 21, 2006 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- G.Kacprzak G.Kacprzak DIS 20:00 00:58 D.Bowen D.Bowen DIS 01:01 04:00 G.Stringfellow R.McMillan Echelle 05:20 05:50 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NM04/R 20:34 01:00 1.0 0 0.3 0 3.1 0 0 0 0 PU05/R 01:00 05:29 0 1.5 0 0 2.3 0.7 0 0 0 CU08/W/D 05:29 06:17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.8 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Moderate to poor seeing and variable cirrus, occasionally thick enough to prevent observations. Once again, exterior dust counts were elevated, and creative fan states kept the interior counts down. The big excitement first half was a rotator overcurrent; apparently it didn't like torquing the DIS umbilical to +181 degrees. I botched the recovery and we lost a 20-minute exposure. After I persuaded the observer to rotate the slit 180 degrees, the rotator was much happier. During second half, the puzzle was that the observer's Slew window was giving incorrect airmass predictions. It turned out his computer's clock was showing the correct local time but secretly lying about the time zone. The second half observer quit a little early because of cirrus and handed over to the ToO program planned for twilight. With the echelle, this time we easily found the target that was so elusive yesterday. The cause of yesterday's problem remains a mystery. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NM04 D T/H 21:20 21:40 Rotator overcurrent ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Air/Truss Wind Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp-C Dir MPH filt FWHM --------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:25 DISslit -75(1020) 140 58 10.0/13.6 185 8 - 1.0 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 59 17 10 262 (W) 3267 ptly cldy none 17:01 62 18 14 257 (WSW) 3149 ptly cldy none 18:01 61 17 12 191 (S) 3028 ptly cldy none 19:01 56 12 10 194 (SSW) 3363 cirrus none 20:01 53 10 8 184 (S) 3637 cirrus none 21:01 50 8 12 174 (S) 3428 cirrus none 22:01 54 10 18 156 (SSE) 3913 cirrus none 23:01 55 10 16 179 (S) 3304 cirrus none 00:01 52 6 14 143 (SE) 3868 cirrus none 01:01 53 12 15 153 (SSE) 3552 mstly clr none 02:01 55 11 11 166 (SSE) 3399 cirrus none 03:01 52 14 13 164 (SSE) 3368 cirrus none 04:01 53 11 17 166 (SSE) 3401 cirrus none 05:01 53 16 17 153 (SSE) 3578 cirrus none 06:01 52 18 18 156 (SSE) 3679 cirrus 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: 2.8.3 Current TUI version: TUI 1.1