Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:29:54 -0600 (MDT) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20090316 From: "Jack Dembicky" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Monday, March 16, 2009 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- E.Ellingson E.Ellingson, G.Ebelke DIS 18:10 01:05 R.Plotkin R.Plotkin NICFPS 01:05 06:57 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- CU05/R 20:05 01:10 0 0 0 0 5.1 0 0 0 0 UW15/R 01:10 06:17 0 0 0 0 0 5.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky While performing the initial focus on the telescope tonight the telescope did not want to track well in Az. (telescope Alt/Az were 57/66.8 respectively @19:49 MDT). AZ Vel scale meas 573.3 was 581.0 change 574.0 Alt Vel scale meas -605.3 was -606.0 change n/c 2nd az vel scale measurement (still seeing some drift but improved) Az vel scal meas 576.0 was 574.0 change 577.0 I stil saw some small drift in Az after the corrections but it was improved. Telescope wanted to drift slightly in Az until we did a Southern transit then tracking was really good. My 2nd half observer noted faint vertical streaks in his flatfielded images. He only noticed it in his images # 22-29, and not really in any of his other (later images). I couldn't see much differnence in the raw images that flagged me to a problem, but it shows up in the processing and didn't seem to be persistant in his later images. Not sure what to submit as a PR. They are faint (the read channels) in all the raw images that I looked but we normally see this pattern, not sure why it wasn't flat fielding out. Rich emailed me some processed images that showed the problem to look at and it was definately there. He also noted it in images 162 and 163. He reported at the end of the night that there were a few more here and there but nothing as obvious as he saw at the start of the night. No telescope problems and great seeing all night. ------------- ACTIVITY 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:37 DISslit -150 61 65 5.9 8.5 7.0 7.5 6.3 -- 1.0 20:09 DISslit -207 47 70 5.5 7.2 6.2 5.9 5.5 -- 0.9 20:10 NA2gdr -1102(22000) 47 71 5.5 7.2 6.2 5.9 5.5 clear 0.83 01:28 NICFPS -330 17 55 4.8 4.4 4.8 3.5 4.4 Ks 1.0 01:29 NA2gdr -2378(43000) 16 55 4.8 4.4 4.8 3.5 4.4 B 0.75 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:00 49 9 6 281 (W) 0 clear none 18:00 44 5 11 350 (N) 0 clear none 19:00 43 5 6 354 (N) 0 clear none 20:00 42 6 8 318 (NW) 7 clear none 21:00 43 7 9 283 (WNW) 48 clear none 22:00 42 8 7 263 (W) 73 clear none 23:00 42 6 7 261 (W) 104 clear none 00:00 42 6 7 264 (W) 110 clear none 01:00 42 6 6 263 (W) 141 clear none 02:00 42 6 6 267 (W) 122 clear none 03:00 41 6 6 263 (W) 128 clear none 04:00 42 8 8 270 (W) 88 clear none 05:00 41 8 9 270 (W) 88 clear none 06:00 42 9 12 282 (WNW) 132 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