Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 05:28:44 -0700 (MST) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20091104 From: "Jack Dembicky" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday November 04, 2009 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Greene J.Greene, N.Zakamska TSPEC 16:55 23:00 B.Ketzeback J.Dembicky TSPEC 23:00 00:00 Echelle M.Strauss X.Fan SPIcam 00:00 00:45 03:15 03:45 PROG SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ------------------------------------------------------------------ PU06/R 17:18 23:00 0 0 0 0 1.2 4.5 0 0 NM10/W 23:00 00:00 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 PU08/R 00:00 06:16 0 5.3 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky The TSPEC slit was lost when I came in tonight. A simple set positon from the TUI log window fixed it but it could not be set from the TSPEC window until I did this. I also found the GMech was not connected (no focus or filter wheel position). Disconnected and reconnected to it and that fixed the problem (I also did a remap via talk2boxes before I figured out the correct solution). TSPEC didn't want to guide well tonight. First it was drifting at high norther transit, when I was focusing. Boresight guiding on stellar objects didn't want to keep the star on the boresight, the star would want to wander off even though it looked like it was guiding. We think we resolved this issue later as either the exp times were too short or there was a nearby object that might have been having interference. Then in field star guiding mode, which seemed to work, it failed when we would boresight offset (it was like it didn't calculate the offset amount for where the star should land close enough). The last two problems seemed to fail no matter where we were pointing., not just high northern transits. Pointing was off with the echelle (star on edge of field). I did not have time to fix it. Not a big deal, just something to be aware of. Clouds most of 2nd half of the night. We had a few thinnings but for the most part the sky was not co-operating. My observer said they got only a couple good exposures so I only counted 1hr of actual sky time. Most of the time was spent focusing and then having clouds move back in before we could get much science. Gave up at 05:00. ------------- FAILURE LOG -------------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (STEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:35 TSPEC -32( 559) 181 83 9.2 14.1 11.7 12.6 13.8 Ks 1.20 19:01 TSPEC 162( 508) 104 81 7.6 9.2 8.8 7.9 8.2 Ks 0.94 23:08 TSPEC 139( 467) 122 55 8.2 8.5 8.7 7.6 8.2 Ks 0.81 23:33 ECHELLE -146( -836) 122 58 7.8 8.2 8.4 7.1 7.9 ND3 0.76 00:33 SPICAM 56( 339) 12 30 8.3 7.8 8.2 6.9 7.6 z' 0.63 04:42 SPICAM 90( 298) 72 58 7.3 7.2 7.6 6.4 7.1 z' 1.10 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 54 21 10 139 (SE) 754 clear none 17:00 51 22 10 160 (SSE) 656 clear none 18:00 47 22 10 93 (E) 770 clear none 19:00 45 20 9 116 (ESE) 775 clear none 20:00 51 5 10 161 (SSE) 400 clear none 21:00 50 11 9 182 (S) 421 clear none 22:00 49 8 12 179 (S) 410 clear none 23:00 47 12 11 173 (S) 472 mstly clr none 00:00 46 18 10 182 (S) 554 ptly cldy none 01:00 47 19 9 181 (S) 521 mstly cldy none 02:00 47 19 9 181 (S) 578 mstly cldy none 03:00 47 21 9 183 (S) 639 mstly cldy none 04:00 46 19 6 181 (S) 612 mstly cldy none 05:00 45 18 8 134 (SE) 562 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: 2.11.1 Current TUI version: TUI 1.6.2