Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20090218 Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:02:01 +0000 (UTC) From: bketzeba@apo.nmsu.edu Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, February 18, 2009 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- T.Tavenner T.Tavenner Nicfps 17:30 19:49 J.Coughlin J.Coughlin SPIcam 20:00 00:10 C.Johnson C.Johnson,S.Schmidt SPIcam 00:10 05:34 T.Murphy R.McMillan APOLLO 05:40 06:30 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NM03/R 18:46 20:00 0 0 0 0 1.2 0 0.8 0 0 DD04/R 20:00 00:10 0 0 0 0 4.2 0 0 0 0 UW12/R 00:10 05:34 0 0 0 0 3.0 2.4 0 0 0 UW17/R 05:34 05:48 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 0.8 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: B.Ketzeback At the start of the night (UT00:21), there were some unusual error messages with the first set inst. UT00:21:29 gcam "could not parse command doread Srjfindstars 1 170.7 ± " UT00:21:33 tcc. "prt_Init_Forth"; Text="sending initialization command" UT00:21:37 tcc "prt_Read"; Text="read timed out on port LTA7:" UT00:21:37 tcc "prt_Init_Forth"; Text="initialization command init failed" Telescope would nto respond to an axis init even though the following status line were seen. UT00:47:37 tcc axis init Nothing seen to show axis init was actually happening UT00:48:17 tcc axis init UT00:50:12 tcc "axe_o_Init"; Text="locking ports: Az , Alt, Rot" UT00:50:12 tcc "axe_o_Init"; Text="initializing: Az , Alt, Rot" Still nothing. Stopped and restarted TCC to get telescope to move. While trying to focus Nicfps all pixels were zeros. Problem was quickly fixed by reinitializing the ICC software and controller with an expose init. The second user had problems commanding gcam and gmech at the star of their time. Also guide images were very strange looking. Reinitialized the na2 guide camera and restarted the nubs. All was well with it again. Seeing was quite excellent (sub arcsecond) until midnight when the winds shifted to the north. Then the remainder of the night seeing was highly variable and exceeding 3 arcseconds at times. Apollo had only one good run because of the seeing. ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:07 NICFPS -93( 106) 50 72 -2.4 0.0 -1.0 -0.9 -1.9 Ks 0.81 19:04 NICFPS -192( 1) -84 24 -2.2 -1.4 -1.8 -2.6 -2.3 Ks 1.11 00:36 SPICAM -50(-339) 175 39 -3.4 -3.5 -3.2 -3.7 -3.4 V 1.85 00:39 SPICAM -50(-337) 175 39 -3.4 -3.4 -3.0 -3.7 -3.2 Hbeta 2.80 05:40 APOLLO 50( 463) 14 29 -3.1 -2.8 -2.7 -3.4 -3.0 --- 2.50 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 30 0 20 348 (NNW) 364 clear none 17:00 8 308 (NW) 380 clear none 18:00 28 3 6 0 (N) 394 clear none 19:00 28 2 13 2 (N) 448 clear none 20:00 28 3 11 8 (N) 400 clear none 21:00 16 5 (N) 311 clear none 22:00 27 2 17 10 (N) 349 clear none 23:00 27 0 17 8 (N) 416 clear none 00:00 26 0 17 13 (NNE) 365 clear none 01:00 27 2 11 10 (N) 289 clear none 02:00 19 347 (NNW) 285 clear none 03:00 17 346 (NNW) 324 clear none 04:00 12 292 (WNW) 318 clear none 05:00 17 360 (N) 337 clear none 06:00 14 3 (N) 331 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: 2.10.0 Current TUI version: TUI 1.5.1