Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 13:22:36 -0000 (UTC) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20081108 From: "Gabrelle Saurage" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, November 8, 2008 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- G.Wolf-Chase G.Wolf-Chase,M.Smutko NICFPS 17:10 23:52 J.Greene J.Greene TSPEC,DIS 00:15 06:20 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 18:01 00:00 0 0 0 0.3 0 5.7 0 0 0 PU03/R 00:00 05:33 0 0 0 2.8 2.5 0.2 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialists: G.Saurage AzVeloScale: 577.9, 576.5; 577.2 (change to 577) Clear skies. Good seeing. Bad telescope. UT01:11 Rotator error, re-init worked but interrupted a sequence of data. This took about 5 mins. UT01:54, UT01:59 Streaked images may have been tracking error; not guiding during dithers. UT04:00 Seeing good, focused with two filters (H2-2.12 vs. MK-Ks). Narrowband seemed to be about 40 mic more positive than the broadband. UT05:30 Rotator "Controller Error" would not re-init; Called Fritz. He found connection to controller was down; he rebooted controller. This took about 15 mins. UT06:52 Switched to TSPEC. Noticed rotator about 15 degrees off from 0, since the controller reboot. Did a rough zeroing. UT07:13 After mounting TSPEC, all slew attempts failed citing "Server error too large"; re-initing did not help. It was properly mounted; all latches latched, umbilical not wound. Called Fritz. While I stayed in the dome and moved the rotator (and TSPEC) by hand, Fritz monitored the status. Moving by hand it felt like brakes were being applied as the instrument was rotated past 100 degrees. I could barely move it past that point but then it seemed to loosen past 150 or so. Fritz said he could see the torque build until it maxed out. Then the rotator would let go and the instrument would swing around freely. Fritz increased the angle error and eventually we could get it to rotate past that bad zone. This took about an hour and 15. UT08:45 Then we discovered control-click was not moving properly. Checked that rotator zero was correctly set at zero. All ok. Called Fritz. Rotator status in TUI window always reporting "Motor control buffer empty" although rotational slews were actually moving. The rot status in TUI window never reported anything but 0. Eventually we reset rotator in talk2boxes. This complication took about an hour. UT10:01 TripleSpec Expose window would not allow exposures. Claimed "object failed" regardless of exposure time or fowler sample, even on darks. I tried restarting nubs to no avail. Russet logged on to try to help. Here is a sample of the error in the log: 10:23:38 APO.Russet.tspecExpose 6 tspec f errorMessage="null" 10:23:38 APO.Russet 2 tspecExpose i tspecSeqState="APO.Russet","dark",10.0,1,1,"failed" 10:23:38 APO.Russet 2 tspecExpose i comment="" 10:23:38 APO.Russet 2 tspecExpose i tspecNextPath="APO.gabrelle","","ttest.","0051",".fits" 10:23:38 APO.Russet 2 tspecExpose f exposeTxt="dark failed" Since we have no troubleshooting documentation I tried calling the UVa folks; although I was not sure who to call. Left a message with Matt Nelson. Got a hold of John Wilson who said he'd call Matt. UT10:35 We finally decided to switch to DIS for a backup program. Matt logged onto TUI briefly but disappeared again when he saw we switched instruments, without fixing or discussing anything. After putting DIS on, we finally acquired some data for the last few hours of the night. Whew. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UC04 N T/S UT01:11 01:16 Rotator servo error UC04 N T/H UT05:30 05:15 Rotator controller error PU03 T T/H UT07:15 08:30 Rotator servo error PU03 T T/H UT08:45 09:45 Rotator not reporting status PU03 T I/S UT10:01 10:30 TSPEC won't take exposures ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM ----------------------------------------------------------------- 18:56 NICFPS -131( 413) 260 78 4.4 7.0 5.8 5.8 4.8 H2-2.12 0.46 22:07 NICFPS -73(350) 207 59 5.3 4.4 4.7 3.3 4.4 H2-2.12 0.80 22:13 NICFPS -73( 348) 208 58 5.0 4.4 4.7 3.2 4.3 H2-2.12 0.80 22:14 NICFPS -73( 348) 208 58 5.1 4.4 4.7 3.2 4.3 MK-Ks 2.29 02:39 TSPEC -11( 126) 52 32 3.9 3.9 4.1 3.1 3.7 0.99 04:50 dis-slit -41(-279) 70 73 3.8 3.4 3.8 2.8 3.5 1.26 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 43 8 3 250 (WSW) 401 clear none 17:00 41 3 1 329 (NNW) 152 clear none 18:00 40 3 7 328 (NNW) 127 clear none 19:00 39 6 7 323 (NW) 145 clear none 20:00 41 8 6 281 (W) 138 clear none 21:00 41 0 5 261 (W) 214 clear none 22:00 41 -2 6 253 (WSW) 279 clear none 23:00 41 -4 8 246 (WSW) 292 clear none 00:00 39 -5 7 184 (S) 259 clear none 01:00 40 -4 11 255 (WSW) 253 clear none 02:00 39 -1 10 261 (W) 425 clear none 03:00 39 -3 10 268 (W) 454 clear none 04:00 39 -3 11 269 (W) 659 clear none 05:00 39 6 13 269 (W) 717 clear none 06:00 37 1 12 250 (WSW) 734 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