From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20060919 Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 05:43:06 -0600 (MDT) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, September 19, 2006 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene R.McMillan,G.Saurage SPIcam,NA2gdr 19:30 01:10 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/W 19:57 05:57 3.9 0.9 0 0 5.2 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialists: R.McMillan,G.Saurage Tonight was slated for testing of the focus and sag algorithms measured last night -- i.e., more watching the telescope cool. This time we decided to do it with SPIcam instead of the Shack-Hartmann, just for fun (and so we didn't have to struggle with the temperamental S-H reductions). The lampswitch controller died for unknown reasons around 8 or 9 pm (Jon Brinkmann might have a better timestamp). It recovered on its own, but these occasional failures might be a real problem if it happens when a science program actually needs the lamps. The PMSS was fine all night after being fully relaxed during checkout (pulled against upper hard stop three times, then pushed to lower hard stop three times). After a few hours of cooling, we played around with adjusting collimation by translating the secondary instead of tilting it (partly in order to understand our sag measurements better, partly to test out the new actuators which didn't get fully tested last night). There were a couple of instances of misbehavior -- maybe failed moved -- from the D and E actuators, so I stopped testing the large moves. I left the sag coefficients turned on for the time being, since it seemed to be all right with small moves. We watched the telescope cool some more. Unfortunately, the temperature really didn't vary much, but so far as I could tell, the focus vs. temperature relationship derived last night was usable. I made a small refinement to the focus vs. altitude relationship and decided we probably weren't going to get any better data on the sag (translation vs. altitude), so I was ready to take a pointing model. Some clouds moved in during the data-taking but didn't prevent me from getting a full 80-point model. There was a distinct change in the model which I thought probably came from the new sag coefficients, but I wasn't positive (secondary translation should not change pointing much, as our earlier tests had confirmed). I decided to turn off the sag and take another model to be sure. This would also come in useful if it turns out the D and E actuators really are sick and need to be left fixed -- in that case, we'd like a pointing model taken with actuators fixed. Unfortunately, I had a little trouble figuring out which position to fix the actuators at because of a coordinate-conversion mistake I had made last night. By the time I got that figured out (with help from Dan Long, whose advice the last couple of nights has been much appreciated), thicker clouds were preventing another pointing model. The clouds persisted for the remainder of the night until a little rain fell around 05:00. The three and a half nights we got were easily the best post-shutdown weather I've ever seen -- but I wish I had know that last half-night would be lost, so I could have re-arranged some priorities. I left the telescope with the translation disabled and sag coefficients turned off, but I had to the pointing model taken WITH sag (I really don't think it should be that much of a difference). I updated focus zeropoints for all instruments used in the past year or so. I put in a guess for the change in tertiary tilts at echelle and APOLLO, but those will have to be confirmed -- expect poor pointing the first time those instruments are next used. Observers for the next several months should be prepared to break more often for refocusing (especially if seeing is good), and let the obs-spec know whenever focus seems off. Frequent re-focusing in the coming few months will enable me to fine-tune the focus algorithms so that focusing won't be needed so often afterward. Good pointing and image quality are reasonable to expect after the work of the last few nights, but not guaranteed. ------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:31 SPIcam -1900(177) 122 61 10.9/12.3 213 12 r 0.74 20:44 SPIcam -1950(108) 125 64 11.4/12.1 187 11 r 0.66 20:58 SPIcam -1925(124) 129 66 11.1/12.0 192 13 r 0.79 21:18 SPIcam -1900(129) 121 61 11.3/11.8 195 13 r 0.77 21:32 SPIcam -1900(132) 126 64 11.3/11.7 220 14 r 1.1 21:47 SPIcam -1900(115) 133 66 11.5/11.7 205 13 r 0.8 22:06 SPIcam -1900(98) 117 59 10.8/11.5 206 14 r 0.9 22:22 SPIcam -1875(103) 122 62 10.5/11.3 208 15 r 0.8 22:34 SPIcam -1875(119) 127 64 11.2/11.3 207 17 r 0.9 23:21 SPIcam -1850(123) 119 60 10.9/11.1 223 15 r 0.9 23:41 SPIcam -1850(112)* 126 64 10.5/11.0 211 15 r 0.8 * The zeropoint for the instrument was changed after this measurement ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 59 32 13 269 (W) 487 clear none 17:00 57 31 13 277 (W) 360 clear none 18:00 59 32 7 223 (SW) 445 clear none 19:00 53 32 8 222 (SW) 562 clear none 20:00 52 32 17 208 (SSW) 395 clear none 21:00 52 32 11 183 (S) 545 clear none 22:00 51 32 12 205 (SSW) 485 clear none 23:00 52 32 15 206 (SSW) 556 clear none 00:00 52 32 13 212 (SSW) 795 mstly clr none 01:00 52 32 14 222 (SW) 966 ptly cldy none 02:00 52 32 14 200 (SSW) 731 mstly cldy none 03:00 52 31 18 197 (SSW) 638 cloudy none 04:00 52 31 19 214 (SW) 569 cloudy none 05:00 49 32 21 223 (SW) 646 cloudy lt 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