Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:11:46 -0600 (MDT) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20090716 From: "Jack Dembicky" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, July 16, 2009 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- K.Kundurthy P.Kundurthy Agile 22:00 01:00 G.Wallerstein J.Hughes SPIcam 02:15 05:55 INST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B --------------------------------------------------------------------- UW02/R 21:13 01:05 1.0 0 0 0 2.9 0 0 0 0 UW08/R 01:05 05:06 0 0 0.2 1.0 0 2.8 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument chanyes, some ge time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Since we were closed for part of the first half, I had my observer take some Agile test dome flats to see if the baffle made a difference. See images /export/images/Q3UW02/UT090717/dflat_45.0002.fits (Baffle in place) and dflat_0045.0003.fits (Baffle removed). A definate bright spot can be seen in image #3, and a more uniform flat is seen in image #2 (lowere right corner may have a slight vignetting, but the baffle wasn't precisely placed in the port either). We opened around 22:00. at 05:20UT I could see a slow sinusoidal oscillation on the alt motor current. We were using Agile (180s exp) and not actually observing (due to a transiting objec, so we were at relatively high alt 82deg) waiting for the users object to fall below. It was difficult to tell in the users images since they wanted the stars quite defocused for their program. The 2nd half program with SPIcam may be more revealing. We could tell right away that something wasn't tracking right with the NA2 guider/Spicam. I called Fritz and he worked in real time on the problem while we watched the guider for improvments (and SPicam images as the final say). He had the parameters adjusted by 02:15 (I am calling the time from the start of 2nd hald until then loss due to equipment.). Guiding/tracking was much better after Fritz did his magic. Dust levels started to rise at the end of the night. I reversed the press fans and closed the lovers. Dust counts were close to 5K at one point but mostly in the 3-4k range during 2nd half. ------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 01:34 SPICAM 146( 835) 240 55 16.1 16.9 16.9 16.1 16.4 UW C 1.30 01:35 NA2gdr 1032(31032) 240 54 16.1 16.9 16.9 16.1 16.4 R 1.30 02:25 SPICAM 147( 807) 240 45 15.1 16.1 16.1 15.4 15.5 strom y 1.91 02:27 NA2gdr -897(29102) 240 45 14.8 16.0 16.0 15.3 15.4 R 1.80 03:18 SPICAM 162( 702) 342 69 12.3 14.0 13.6 13.2 13.0 strom y 2.60 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 63 44 19 80 (E) 587 cloudy lt rain 17:00 67 41 18 51 (NE) 552 cloudy lt rain 18:00 66 41 19 64 (ENE) 768 mstly cldy lt rain 19:00 60 43 30 68 (ENE) 884 mstly cldy none 20:00 64 39 16 68 (ENE) 935 mstly cldy none 21:00 66 37 5 3 (N) 1031 mstly cldy none 22:00 64 38 1 349 (N) 1118 ptly cldy none 23:00 64 38 8 46 (NE) 1032 ptly cldy none 00:00 64 38 6 20 (NNE) 1067 ptly cldy none 01:00 63 43 13 131 (SE) 1420 mstly clr none 02:00 60 45 12 93 (E) 1786 mstly clr none 03:00 55 43 22 73 (ENE) 1225 mstly clr none 04:00 54 46 12 89 (E) 4210 mstly clr none 05:00 56 47 9 89 (E) 4910 mstly clr 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 1.6