Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 04:26:36 -0700 (MST) From: Jack Dembicky Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20080306 Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, March 06, 2008 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Dalcanton J.Holtzman, S.Courteau DIS 17:20 21:30 M.Klaene J.Dembicky S-H 00:45 01:15 J.Dalcanton J.Holtzman, S.Courteau DIS 01:15 03:00 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- UW03/O 18:58 05:30 4.3 0 0 0 5.7 0 0 0 0 EN01/O/D 00:45 01:15 0 0 0 0 0.5 0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialists: J. Dembicky Clouds started moving in around 20:00 and finally blocked us from getting any useful science by 21:30. J.Holtzman and I both noted that the out of focus stars (albiet using the DIS slitviewer) looked very strange (out of collimation). See disslit image 326 for an example. Cresent shaped coma with a bright region (star) on one side. The stars also seemed elongated in Alt. See NA2 guider image 21, focus @ -600 (in focus at -88). Telescope definately has a collimation problem tonight. I managed to get some S-H data while the clouds precluded us from gathering science photons. I tried analysis of the data, but the program kept giving me fits about the data. Somebody else, who knows how to massage the S-H data more, will have to analyze it during the daytime. I included the time for the S-H data in the log, although technically we would have been closed until I finished due to the clouds. I didn't notice the bloomed pixels in NA2 so much tonight (but I didn't have really bright guidestars either). Russet recommended that Nic home the D & E (translational) actuators on the secondary to see if that helps the collimation problem. So we had a rather odd set of circumstances occur with the weather at the end of the night calling for an early closure (well, not that early, 04:15). The sky was clear but the humidity was at around 74% (dewpoint around 3.5C). The outside air temp was at almost -11C and with these set of circumstances snow was forming directly out of the air on us. Rather odd to be relatively clear outside and snowing!!! ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SAEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:34 DISSlit -236(-810) 63 67 -7.2 -5.6 -5.5 -6.6 -7.0 -- 1.6 18:38 NA2gdr 2279(24279) 61 67 -7.2 -5.6 -5.6 -6.7 -7.0 R 1.5 23:09 DISslit -88(-759) 65 53 -7.9 -7.7 -7.4 -8.1 -7.8 -- 1.5 00:43 S-H -250(-252) 72 58 -8.6 -8.4 -8.0 -8.8 -8.6 -- 1.5 01:11 DISSlit -160(-888) 64 64 -9.1 -8.8 -8.4 -9.4 -9.2 -- 1.5 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 20 3 11 346 (NNW) 593 Pt. Cldy none 17:00 21 2 3 256 (WSW) 557 clear none 18:00 20 0 5 288 (WNW) 530 clear none 19:00 19 0 7 11 (N) 517 clear none 20:00 19 1 9 351 (N) 473 clear none 21:00 19 3 3 275 (W) 596 cldy none 22:00 19 3 16 323 (NW) 630 cldy none 23:00 18 3 5 357 (N) 626 cldy none 00:00 17 5 5 24 (NNE) 638 cldy none 01:00 16 6 10 344 (NNW) 669 clear none 02:00 15 5 9 15 (NNE) 587 pt. cldy none 03:00 14 6 6 6 (N) 575 cldy Lt. Snow 04:00 13 6 12 35 (NE) 589 mst. clr Lt. Snow 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 1.4.5