From:
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20091224
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:21:49 +0000 (UTC)
                        Apache Point Observatory
                        3.5m Telescope Night Log
                       Thursday, December 24, 2009
                                                            ACTUAL
 ASTRONOMER      OBSERVER(S)            INSTRUMENT       START  FINISH
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 T.Murphy        R.McMillan,T.Murphy    APOLLO           17:50  18:50
                                                         19:15  20:40
 J.Rogers        J.Rogers               NICFPS           20:45  03:45
 S.Hawley        R.McMillan             Echelle,Tspec    04:00  05:50
   INST     SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH     EQUIP      OBS     DAY  NOT USED
 I/ROW/DN   START  FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B   USE   D    B
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 DD03/O     17:12  20:42    0   1.1   0    0    0   2.4   0    0    0
 JH04/R     20:42  03:54    0    0    0    0   3.2  4.0   0    0    0
 UW17/W     03:54  06:54    0    0    0    0   3.0   0    0    0    0
 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time
                ------------- ACTIVITY LOG --------------
 Observing Specialist: R.McMillan
 The night was clear with periods of high humidity, varied seeing,
 and some blowing snow which got on the cloudcam but nothing up near
 the telescope level.
 High humidity delayed our start at sunset.  With the telescope warm,
 I opened for a little while with fans off so that we could get at
 least some basic data for the APOLLO tracking tests, then I closed
 when the secondary temp got too close to the dewpoint.  Of course,
 as soon as I closed again, the humidity started to drop, so after
 watching it for a while I reopened and we got some further tracking
 tests and also some strong returns.
 Humidity hovered just a little below the limit for the remainder of
 first half.  There were periods of very good seeing (such as when we
 first focused NIC), but it wasn't stable and there was also some
 very ugly seeing, as seen in the later focus records.  This was
 compounded by the fact that I played with fan states a little under
 the humidity conditions, so the telescope focus wandered somewhat.
 The final program of the night had targets that set before twilight.
                      ------- 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 21:03 NICFPS    39( -159)   0  54  -9.0 -8.3 -8.0 -9.2 -8.7   H     0.80
 04:20 ECHELLE     7(-1352) -127  27  -5.3 -6.3 -5.6 -6.3 -5.6  ND3  2.10
 04:44 TSPEC   125( -188) -129  22  -4.8 -5.7 -5.1 -5.6 -5.0    Ks   2.10
                ------------- WEATHER LOG ----------------
                                   Wind                      Precip.or
     Time   Temp F Dewp F  MPH  Direction    Dust    Sky    Conditions
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     16:00    21    16      4   288  (WNW)    437    clear     none
     17:00    18    14     16    26  (NNE)    687    clear    humid
     18:00    17    14     14     4    (N)   1020    clear    humid
     19:00    16    12     14    14  (NNE)    693    clear    humid
     20:00    16    10     17     2    (N)   1149    clear    humid
     21:00    16     9     16   327  (NNW)    650    clear     none
     22:00    16     8      9   340  (NNW)    882    clear     none
     23:00    16     8     12   331  (NNW)    586    clear     none
     00:00    17     6     21   331  (NNW)    368    clear     none
     01:00    17     3     11   342  (NNW)    342    clear     none
     02:00    18     1     17   324   (NW)   1139    clear     none
     03:00    20    -5     16   350    (N)    317    clear     none
     04:00    21   -11     16   324   (NW)    670    clear     none
     05:00    24   -18     15    21  (NNE)    215    clear     none
     06:00    21   -15     15   312   (NW)    514    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: 2.11.1
      Current TUI version: TUI 1.6.2