From: Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20090925 Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:04:23 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, September 25, 2009 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- T.Murphy R.McMillan APOLLO 19:00 19:40 P.Strycker P.Strycker,R.Kuruvada, NAIC,Agile 19:40 06:15 N.Chanover NST SCHED(TWILIGHT) WEATH EQUIP OBS DAY NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DD01/O 19:04 20:04 0 0 0 0.3 0 0 0 0 0 NM01/O 20:04 06:00 0 0 0 0 6.2 3.7 0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Another photometric night. Temperature and dewpoint (and focus) varied less than last night, but seeing was still somewhat variable -- mostly quite good, though. APOLLO once again had laser trouble despite success during tests the previous day. We did some tests of guide camera and telescope behavior, and found that our old method of using uncomputed offsets is incompatible with the new controller; we will change to computed except for very small offsets. APOLLO handed over time about 20 minutes early. NAIC performed beautifully and got lots of wonderful data. A seeing spike as Jupiter was setting prompted the decision to follow it ONLY down to 9 degrees tonight. I was doing some tests with Agile during first half (and found a successful workaround to the fast-image counter bug), but the filter wheel was not communicating and said it was not connected. At a convenient time I went upstairs and wiggled some wires; I wasn't completely certain I had changed anything, but the filter wheel started communicating after that. However, the error "Image was available too early" showed up when we tried to use the instrument, and I had to scramble through the documentation for a while before finding the setheartbeat fix. Agile also required a substantial change in tertiary tilt to fix the pointing. The dewpoint sensors for 3.5m and 2.5m agreed nicely and appeared to reflect reality until after 6 am, when the 3.5m sensor went crazy, reading dewpoint many degrees above air temperature. At first I thought it was the daily recalibration cycle, but it didn't settle back to the right value, and then a few minutes later it went crazy again -- so that's real misbehavior. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DD01 A I/H 19:48 20:04 Laser not flashing ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:54 NAIC 0( 569) 22 40 10.7 12.0 11.1 10.6 11.1 700 nm 1.08 21:01 NAIC -25( 467) -114 69 11.4 11.1 11.2 10.1 11.0 700 nm 0.81 23:32 NAIC 0( 498) -116 39 11.8 10.6 11.0 9.3 10.5 700 nm 1.15 01:31 NAIC -25( 532) -125 18 12.1 10.9 11.9 10.4 11.4 700 nm 1.20 03:55 AGILE 25(-1876) -78 46 11.8 10.8 11.4 10.1 10.9 V+ND2 0.94 Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 57 34 11 275 (W) 576 clear none 17:00 56 27 14 305 (NW) 461 clear none 18:00 54 27 5 288 (WNW) 446 clear none 19:00 52 30 5 304 (NW) 496 clear none 20:00 51 31 8 326 (NW) 478 clear none 21:00 53 30 7 355 (N) 467 clear none 22:00 53 24 5 9 (N) 363 clear none 23:00 53 30 3 253 (WSW) 407 clear none 00:00 53 30 1 232 (SW) 564 clear none 01:00 53 26 6 311 (NW) 408 clear none 02:00 53 30 4 323 (NW) 532 clear none 03:00 53 33 1 329 (NNW) 761 clear none 04:00 53 34 4 273 (W) 690 clear none 05:00 53 32 5 261 (W) 649 clear none 06:00 50 34 3 254 (WSW) 712 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