Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:33:12 -0600 (MDT) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20071024 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, October 24, 2007 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene J.Dembicky, R.McMillan NICFPS, SPIcam 17:30 06:56 R.Valentine, C.Wood S-H, Echelle INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/O 19:14 06:21 0 0 0 0 0 11.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Day crew worked on the Galil and rotator but left me with the telescope without the new mods. I found the telescope pointing at Zenith, so I relaxed the primary mirror. I then zero'ed the rotator (0.141) Then I started some test slews only to find a magnasensor error (Alt axis) that I couldn't clear. I saw a couple badAltDtime errors but the last attemt of an axis int still didn't work. I also saw some new error messages coming thru that I wasn't familiar with. Since it sounded like a magnasensor error I proceeded to remap the Alt axis (although later Russet said this wasn't necessary). I stopped after the 2nd iteration and the telescope was able to slew after an axis init. We are not sure what happened but the remap (my guess is driving the telescope over the magnasensors actually) fixed the problem. Pointing seemed ok and we didn't implement the remap (I don't think we did, but I am not sure what the Remap alone does to the files either). Russet wasn't sure what fixed the problem either (or the cause). I then finished my checkout and handed the telescope over to the NICFPS guys for their engineering work. After the NICFPS guys were finished I handed the telescope over to Suzanne Hawley for some DD time. When Suzanne was finished I imaged with SPIcam and took Echelle spectra of comet 17PHolmes that went into outburst yesterday. It brightened from Mag 14 to Mag 2.8 in 24 hrs. We also got some NICFPS images earlier in the evening as well. When I switched to the Echelle I was able to check pointing on the NA1 port, which needed to be adjusted. (Star was at the bottom of the frame and barely noticable). I took 3 echelle exposures (5s, 30s, and 300s as well as the corresponding ThAr and Quartz flats). I then did a new pointing model at NA2 Measured velocity scales Alt vel scale -635.9 AZ vel scale 586.67 Did Alt sweep with S-H and collected data for Russet to reduce later. Lastly Russet did a pointing model at NA1 to check sag. A very productive night of engineering work. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:53 NICFPS -190(556) 113 48 8.1 11.6 9.5 8.6 8.6 J 0.8 19:37 NICFPS -202(533) 137 60 8.4 10.3 9.0 8.2 8.2 J 0.5 23:30 SPIcam -134(315) -59 22 7.6 7.5 7.9 6.5 7.3 V 2.8 00:18 SPIcam -60(207) 134 58 7.8 7.2 7.6 6.1 7.0 V 1.2 01:09 Echelle -114(-803) 150 69 7.7 7.3 7.1 6.6 7.5 ND3 1.0 01:54 NA2gdr 200(459) 148 68 7.4 7.2 7.6 6.9 7.3 ND3 0.9 04:43 S-H -125(666) 205 75 7.4 6.9 7.3 6.3 7.1 -- 1.0 05:34 Echelle -118(-824) 74 76 7.1 6.9 7.3 6.4 7.0 ND3 1.5 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions --------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 49 25 6 273 (W) 274 clear none 17:00 50 26 3 278 (W) 261 clear none 18:00 47 25 1 268 (W) 313 clear none 19:00 47 25 0 5 (N) 432 clear none 20:00 47 23 5 94 (E) 250 clear none 21:00 47 23 9 27 (NNE) 286 clear none 22:00 47 24 14 14 (NNE) 270 clear none 23:00 46 24 11 5 (N) 266 clear none 00:00 45 24 13 14 (NNE) 221 clear none 01:00 46 23 12 6 (N) 198 clear none 02:00 45 23 10 35 (NE) 226 clear none 03:00 46 24 13 31 (NNE) 218 clear none 04:00 46 24 14 21 (NNE) 224 clear none 05:00 45 23 10 33 (NNE) 248 clear none 06:00 43 20 12 19 (NNE) 240 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: 2.9.1 Current TUI version: TUI 1.4.1