From: Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20090924 Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:35:02 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday, September 24, 2009 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- P.Strycker P.Strycker,D.Voelz, NAIC 19:10 06:15 B.Hull,R.Kuruvada NST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NM01/O 19:50 06:00 0 0 0 0 7.0 3.1 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan The night was photometric, with variable seeing and humidity. The 3.5m and 2.5m dewpoint sensors disagreed considerably, and the handheld sensor was even further off (reporting the lowest humidity of the three). Based on available evidence on cars and railings, I think the 3.5m sensor (giving the highest humidity) was the closest to being accurate, but it may have been a little too high. Because of this and the rapid changes, I pushed the humidity limit somewhat during a spike in the middle of the night, but eventually I closed during morning twilight a little earlier than the observer would have chosen to stop. The visiting instrument work went very smoothly; we easily got an instrument block and spent most of the night on science. The swings in air temperature and seeing did make it difficult to track the focus, and there was some image twitching that may have been seeing or may have been an un-relaxed PMSS, but generally telescope and instrument were well behaved. We broke the record (so far as I'm aware) for low-altitude science, getting planetary observations down to 6.6 deg altitude and slewing away just before the limit triggered. ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:35 NAIC -100( 405) 35 62 8.0 11.2 9.2 9.9 11.2 700 nm 0.96 20:16 NAIC -150( 296) -123 78 8.1 10.1 8.7 8.6 8.9 700 nm 0.87 23:20 NAIC 15( 331) -115 42 7.5 6.9 7.4 6.3 6.8 700 nm 0.81 01:09 NAIC -50( 251) -123 22 6.2 5.8 6.0 4.9 5.6 700 nm 1.60 05:23 NAIC 25( 284) 23 49 6.8 6.0 6.4 5.2 6.1 700 nm 0.81 Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 54 36 13 266 (W) 669 mstly clr none 17:00 52 34 6 303 (WNW) 692 mstly clr none 18:00 53 32 6 265 (W) 675 mstly clr none 19:00 46 29 1 235 (SW) 625 mstly clr none 20:00 46 27 2 126 (SE) 651 clear none 21:00 43 35 7 112 (ESE) 714 clear none 22:00 42 36 3 116 (ESE) 637 clear none 23:00 45 30 0 273 (W) 698 clear none 00:00 42 37 6 162 (SSE) 695 clear none 01:00 43 38 10 181 (S) 695 clear none 02:00 44 37 8 194 (SSW) 719 clear none 03:00 46 32 9 214 (SW) 695 clear none 04:00 43 36 8 216 (SW) 769 clear none 05:00 43 37 8 213 (SSW) 743 clear none 06:00 42 39 8 210 (SSW) 737 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