Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:38:41 -0000 (UTC) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20090111 From: "Gabrelle Saurage" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Sunday, January 11th, 2009 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- T.Harrison T.Harrison DIS 17:00 22:57 T.Murphy R.McMillan APOLLO 22:59 00:04 G.Stringfellow G.Stringfellow TSPEC 00:18 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NM07/R 18:14 23:00 0 0 0 0 0 4.9 0 0 0 UW17/R 23:00 00:10 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 CU01/R 00:10 06:09 0 0 0 0 0 6.0 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialists: G.Saurage AzVeloScale: 577.6, 576.3; 576.9 (no change) Apollo reported bad pointing in a different direction than previously. TripleSpec checked out fine in the afternoon, but once mounted had the zero spectrograph files problem again. Power-cycling the array fixed it. While trying to boresight guide on an object with proper motion, the TSPEC guider began struggling to keep the object in the slit at about 70 degrees Alt. Boresight guiding could not hold it in the slit after 80 degrees Alt. As the object moved toward transit the guiding got worse and worse until all we could do is watch it track away across the guider. Then the next object was at a lower alt (~61 degrees) and had no proper motion. Guiding was better but still would not stay in the slit consistently over nods. AT UT12:06 we had a rotator servo error while just sitting tracking. The rotator was physically at -170. So then I thought maybe the rotator was strained at certain physical positions. We tried 180 difference, but same results. Once the object was in the slit and guiding was on (set up on a reasonable field star) the star would always drift away until guiding gave up on it. I *think* it may have been drifting along the Az axis but I can't verify that for every star we tried. Nothing looked dramatic on the datacq. Something is definitely not right, but I cannot tell what is the source. Guiding and tracking were fine first half with DIS. We tried two bright standards at different altitudes (one at ~26, one at ~80) at the end of the night, but both with rotator physical positions ~107. They guided and nodded fine. I still suspect rotation issues. PR#924 TSPEC was left on with mirror covers open for morning cals. ------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 18:00 dis-slit 105(-250) 81 47 -1.2 0.5 0.3 -0.8 -1.0 1.72 23:12 APOLLO 50( 407) 77 74 -1.4 -2.9 -2.2 -3.0 -2.1 2.50 00:36 TSPEC -24(-171) 97 42 0.8 -1.5 -1.2 -1.6 -0.2 1.52 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 28 9 10 3 (N) 317 clear none 17:00 33 12 16 354 (N) 106 clear none 18:00 30 11 16 10 (N) 258 clear none 19:00 29 11 9 3 (N) 331 clear none 20:00 28 11 30 15 (NNE) 347 clear none 21:00 27 12 26 31 (NNE) 392 clear none 22:00 27 14 23 15 (NNE) 317 clear none 23:00 27 13 29 19 (NNE) 295 clear none 00:00 33 4 25 27 (NNE) 164 clear none 01:00 35 -9 11 46 (NE) 115 clear none 02:00 33 -6 15 35 (NE) 111 clear none 03:00 32 2 7 39 (NE) 138 clear none 04:00 33 -1 12 8 (N) 199 clear none 05:00 33 -3 22 28 (NNE) 119 clear none 06:00 35 -2 26 16 (NNE) 137 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 1.5.1