From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20070212 Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 06:17:16 -0700 (MST) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Monday, February 12, 2007 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- A.Puckett A.Puckett SPIcam,DIS 18:15 00:00 G.Kacprzak C.Churchill DIS 00:05 05:40 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- UC01/R 18:40 00:00 0 0 1.0 0 4.3 0 0 0 0 NM05/R 00:00 05:54 0 0.2 0 0 3.8 1.9 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- 1st half Observing Specialist: G.Saurage Clear skies! SPIcam was failing to initialize properly tonight. The first clue was that when taking an exposure we were getting an error 'camera not connected -1.' After trying various software checks and a physical check that all the cables were connected, and a few resets, I power cycled SPIcam. This all happened during twilight so it pushed calibrations into observing time, but it seemed like we were back since we were then able to take exposures. While taking cals we noticed all files were zero. I noticed during initialization (aka when spicam program begins) various errors kept coming back. There was an error initializing the camera (and therefore was running without the camera) or an error initializing the filter wheel. Every time it seemed to be different. In an effort to get on sky asap and make use of this clear night, we switched to using DIS in imaging mode. 2nd half Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Second half went very smoothly. Clouds appeared just before twilight and cut observing slightly short, but until then it was clear with decent seeing. The DIS observations in imaging mode gave me the opportunity to notice that DIS red, DIS blue, and the slitviewer all disagree somewhat (not too horribly) about where the focus should be. Slitviewer and spectrograph focus will merit some attention during the upcoming bad weather. GFP was left mounted for daytime cals, with the eyelid open for cooling. Observers taking daytime cals should be aware that SPIcam work may be going on in the dome during the day; phone the site to inquire of Mark (or Nick, Fritz, or Jon) if the dome is dark. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UC01 S I/S 18:40 19:35 SPIcam camera not connecting ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:50 DISslit -3(-193) -55 31 -0.6 -0.8 -1.4 -1.0 -0.5 r 1.6 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15:58 32 23 ?? 278 clear none 16:58 32 20 ?? 185 clear none 17:58 31 20 ?? 166 clear none 18:58 31 20 ?? 143 clear none 19:58 31 20 ?? 184 clear none 20:58 32 19 ?? 186 clear none 21:58 32 19 ?? 203 clear none 22:58 31 21 ?? 197 clear none 00:58 30 18 ?? 214 clear none 01:58 30 19 ?? 224 clear none 02:58 30 20 ?? 231 clear none 03:58 30 15 ?? 351 clear none 04:58 30 17 ?? 388 mstly clr none 05:58 27 18 ?? 334 ptly cldy 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: 2.8.5 Current TUI version: TUI 1.2