Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20090121 Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:47:58 +0000 (UTC) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, January 21, 2009 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- N.Chanover N.Chanover Tspec 17:00 18:45 Echelle --:-- --:-- B.Woodgate B.Woodgate, C.Grady GFP 20:05 00:05 C.Churchill J.Evans SPIcam 00:15 06:45 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NM02/R 18:22 20:05 0 0 1.3 0 0.4 0 0.8 0 0 DD03/O 20:05 00:10 0 0 0 0 4.1 0 0 0 0 NM09/R 00:10 06:08 0 0 0 0 4.3 1.7 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback Az Vel Scale Measured 579.9, 578.8; 579.3 Was 577.0 n/c Alt Vel Scale Measured -605.6, -607.1; -606.3 Was -606.0 n/c At 18:45 the observer was finished with Tspec and had asked to switch to the echelle. Once the swap was made the tertiary reported a CORRPOS position error on actuators A and B. I homed the mirror and tried again but got the same error again. After a second try with the same results I called Russet for advice. Together we were able to coax the mirror into a position so that a bright star was visible in the echelle slitviewer. We turned the telescope back to the observer. The slew to venus revealed nothing. After some frustrating short offsets I slewed back to the bright star we had just been to and there was nothing in the field. We used the rest of the NM02 time hunting for a bright star. Russet homed the rotation axis and moved the mirror back to NA2 while I did the instrument change to the GFP. Pointing for the remainder of the night at NA2 was fine. A log of the tertiary problems was sent to Nick and others. Seeing was moderate to excellent. The last hour of the night the clouds we had been expecting all of first half finally arrived. No other problems tonight. The autofocus script worked well second half. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NM09 E T/H 18:45 20:05 Tert CORRPOS position error A and B ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:42 TSPEC -118( 106) 32 80 4.8 6.7 5.3 4.9 4.9 Ks 1.10 00:27 SPICAM -162( -22) -96 77 6.2 6.0 6.3 5.8 6.1 r 0.54 00:34 NA2gdr -1259(28740) -98 74 5.8 5.9 6.1 5.7 5.8 R+nd2 0.65 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 45 8 5 288 (WNW) 1081 clear none 17:00 40 9 3 331 (NNW) 1159 clear none 18:00 40 6 5 359 (N) 180 clear none 19:00 41 9 10 2 (N) 142 clear none 20:00 43 16 12 328 (NNW) 227 clear none 21:00 43 17 9 307 (NW) 265 clear none 22:00 44 15 8 296 (WNW) 319 mstly clr none 23:00 44 18 9 272 (W) 216 mstly clr none 00:00 44 18 9 263 (W) 303 clear none 01:00 43 14 9 260 (W) 479 clear none 02:00 42 9 10 258 (WSW) 297 clear none 03:00 42 11 12 276 (W) 274 clear none 04:00 43 15 14 269 (W) 341 clear none 05:00 43 16 16 315 (NW) 509 clear none 06:00 41 15 16 336 (NNW) 764 mstly cldy 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