From: Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20081121 Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:51:14 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, November 21, 2008 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- C.Badenes A.Soderberg DIS 17:37 23:42 S.Moran S.Moran DIS 23:45 05:20 T.Murphy R.McMillan APOLLO 05:50 06:40 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- PU01/R 17:56 00:00 0 0 0 0 6.1 0 0 0 0 JH02/R 00:00 05:32 0 0 0 0 2.0 3.6 0 0 0 DD01/O 05:32 06:32 0 0 0 0.2 0 0 0.7 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan The night was mostly clear first half, with some thin cirrus second half. Seeing was moderate and fairly stable throughout. Velocity scales were unchanged during afternoon checkout. Daystaff had spent much of the day replacing the motor for tertiary mirror rotation. A new map of port slot positions had to be generated at the last minute. This truncated the time available to the first observer for cals, but we got on the sky in reasonable time anyway. Everything was peaceful while we were observing with DIS. There were some strong unexpected focus swings, but this may have been attributable to having heaters in the dome for work during the day. I didn't run the autofocus script because of concerns about guiding accuracy with the NA2 guider as opposed to the slitviewer. When I moved the tertiary to BC1 for APOLLO, the clamp didn't close. I went upstairs and eyeballed the motor position, which was very close to the slot. I thought it had to move a small amount in the negative direction, so I tried two small moves. The second was successful and the clamp closed -- but the final position was more positive than before. So I was confused, but willing to work as long as the mirror was in the right place. APOLLO observations were successful, and when I moved the tertiary back to NA2 afterward it reached its destination on the first try. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (STEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DD01 A T/H 05:32 05:44 tert not quite at slot ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:48 dis-slit 52( -69) 199 60 3.2 5.6 3.8 4.2 3.4 - 1.20 20:08 dis-slit -150( -399) 21 79 3.9 3.1 3.1 2.0 3.3 - 1.10 00:00 dis-slit -48( -292) 156 67 5.2 3.2 3.5 2.0 3.6 - 1.40 05:43 APOLLO -25( 674) 64 57 5.2 3.9 4.2 2.9 4.0 530 1.20 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 43 21 5 264 (W) 1307 clear none 17:00 38 21 3 209 (SSW) 1446 clear none 18:00 37 20 3 253 (WSW) 1309 clear none 19:00 36 20 6 262 (W) 1325 clear none 20:00 39 20 1 123 (ESE) 1386 clear none 21:00 40 17 6 271 (W) 1243 mstly clr none 22:00 40 17 7 267 (W) 1523 mstly clr none 23:00 41 17 6 261 (W) 1239 mstly clr none 00:00 41 16 6 260 (W) 1232 mstly clr none 01:00 41 17 5 283 (WNW) 1246 mstly clr none 02:00 41 12 6 272 (W) 1067 mstly clr none 03:00 41 7 7 266 (W) 673 mstly clr none 04:00 41 6 6 278 (W) 551 mstly clr none 05:00 41 4 7 316 (NW) 540 mstly clr none 06:00 41 2 6 353 (N) 494 mstly clr 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 1.5.1