Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 13:33:04 -0000 (UTC) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20071026 From: "Gabrelle Saurage" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, October 26th, 2007 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Bally J.Bally,A.Ginsburg, NICFPS 18:10 07:15 G.Stringfellow ECHELLE,DIS INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- EN02/R 19:12 06:22 0 0 0 0 0 11.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialists: G.Saurage AzVelScales: 580.3, 583.4 avg 581.8 (changed) Zeroed the rotator again in the afternoon since work was done on the rotator during the day. Clear skies. First half was NICFPS on-sky testing by the crew at CU. During a test using different rotator angles NA2 guiding was struggling. We had been sitting on the same field for quite some time but several rotations at that field seemed to mess up pointing. Magnesensor errors were fine. We slewed away to check pointing and then NICFPS was having some problems that required several restarts of the ICS. Eventually after many ICS restarts, nubs restart of nicfps and nicfpsExpose, and an expose init we slewed back to original field and things seemed better. 2:25 Switched to ECHELLE for comet observations. Coordinates did not put comet on slitviewer, but a bright glow was just off the field. Checked the cords several times, then checked pointing. Seemed fine. Even did a echpoint to help pointing but still the comet did not land on slitviewer. Moved what looked like the comet onto the slit but it was dimmer than expected. 4:00 Switched to DIS went to same coordinates and the comet was clearly on the slitviewer. So did not seem the problem was the ephemeris or pointing. I saw no errors from the tertiary move. Guiding on the comet was difficult. The object's nucleus is bright but so is the surrounding area. Data was taken on the comet with DIS at different rotation angles. ------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19:22 NICFPS -319( 578) 154 54 10.7 13.4 12.0 11.2 10.6 1.0 20:29 NA2gdr -2000(41000) 164 59 10.4 11.7 11.2 8.8 10.1 0.8 02:34 ECHELLE -119( -708) 176 72 9.9 9.6 10.1 8.8 9.6 0.9 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 57 18 9 291 (WNW) 484 clear none 17:00 54 15 3 250 (WSW) 454 clear none 18:00 53 15 6 263 (W) 470 clear none 19:00 50 15 1 193 (SSW) 391 clear none 20:00 51 11 7 314 (NW) 467 clear none 21:00 51 11 2 327 (NNW) 475 clear none 22:00 51 11 4 333 (NNW) 432 clear none 23:00 51 15 2 245 (WSW) 513 clear none 00:00 51 14 5 2 (N) 414 clear none 01:00 50 14 5 348 (NNW) 361 clear none 02:00 51 13 1 315 (NW) 496 clear none 03:00 49 12 0 131 (SE) 437 clear none 04:00 50 14 2 100 (E) 463 clear none 05:00 50 13 9 28 (NNE) 447 clear none 06:00 49 7 12 88 (E) 321 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