Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:23:08 -0600 From: "Jeff Coughlin" Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20081012 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Sunday, October 12, 2008 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- G.Wolf-Chase G.Wolf-Chase,M.Smutko NICFPS 19:27 01:00 J.Wisniewski J.Wisniewski DIS,Echelle 01:00 06:13 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- UC04/R 19:27 01:00 0 0 0 0 0 5.6 0 0 0 UW12/R 01:00 06:13 0 0 0 0 0.3 4.9 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J. Coughlin Az Velocity Scale was 587.0, measured 584.9, 590.2; 587.5. Kept at 587.0. The remnants of the hurricane cleared out before sunset and we opened on time to clear skies for the entire night. At the beginning of second half, when the observer went to a standard star, he noted that it appeared as if there was a second source, just to the top-right of the standard star (BD +28 4211), that was not supposed to be there. (I later confirmed there should be no companion.) I then moved the star off the slit to confirm it was not an effect of being on the slit, (dcam images 33 and 34 for tonight), and it was still there. The standard star was not saturated, and I could not find any similarities in other stars in the field, although they were faint. The second source is consistently there for all previous images taken while guiding on it, (dcam images 2 to 32 - 3 spectra were taken of BD +28 4211). We then tried another standard star, (starting with dcam image 35), and no similar effect was seen. It might be worth somebody else investigating to see if it is something simple I am overloking, or an artifact of the dis slitviewer, or if real, maybe it is worth follow-up observations. ------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19:05 NICFPS -34( 695) 128 78 9.9 10.8 10.4 10.4 9.8 Ks 1.20 20:48 NICFPS -109( 572) 233 77 10.3 9.9 10.1 9.4 9.9 H2-2.25 0.70 01:41 dis-slit -9( 19) 256 36 8.4 8.0 8.2 7.1 7.9 1.50 01:56 dis-slit -17( 19) 303 33 8.3 8.0 8.4 7.4 8.2 1.60 03:51 dis-slit -51( -75) 160 68 8.7 7.7 8.1 7.4 8.0 1.50 04:58 ECHELLE -165( -884) 38 46 7.8 7.3 7.6 6.6 7.2 1.20 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 54 51 17 254 (WSW) 909 ptly cldy none 17:00 55 44 19 266 (W) 924 mstly clr none 18:00 53 44 13 256 (WSW) 873 clear none 19:00 51 42 10 261 (W) 882 clear none 20:00 51 42 15 263 (W) 1470 mstly clr none 21:00 51 40 20 231 (SW) 1294 clear none 22:00 50 40 21 219 (SW) 1367 clear none 23:00 49 40 20 231 (SW) 1485 clear none 00:00 48 40 15 234 (SW) 1860 clear none 01:00 47 39 11 212 (SSW) 1849 clear none 02:00 47 39 10 204 (SSW) 1802 clear none 03:00 47 38 9 224 (SW) 1693 clear none 04:00 46 36 13 211 (SSW) 1451 clear none 05:00 46 33 10 221 (SW) 1537 mstly clr none 06:00 46 33 10 212 (SSW) 1434 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 1.5