Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 07:25:42 -0600 (MDT) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 201010121 From: "Jack Dembicky" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Thursday October 21, 2010 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- J.Bally A.Ginsburg TSPEC --:-- --:-- W.Ketzeback J.Dembicky Echelle --:-- --:-- J.Carlberg J.Carlberg Echelle 02:40 06:57 PROG SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ------------------------------------------------------------------ CU05/R 18:32 01:00 0 6.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 DD02/O/W 01:00 02:00 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 UV03/R 02:00 07:04 0 0.7 0 0 0 4.4 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky More testing at start of thenight to try to re-create the NICFPS problems reported in PR1180. Rotated and tracked at user position from UT100928. 1s exp, FS 1, tracking. I also took some 10s exposures as well. I could visually see rain coming down in the basin from a storm cell about 30 miles away at sunset, and appeared slowly heading this way. I held off opening at sunset for this reason, even though the rest of the sky was pretty good. It didn't take long for more clouds and precipitation to head our way. Got a block pattern on image nicfps/test_10s.1374 (10s exp, FS=1, Rot about 202 deg) Thunder snow storm at 21:25. We had hail just before and then light snow and thunder and lightning. We opened around 02:40. Out of Focus star on Echelle slitviewer (collimation check), -8000 um out of focus, telescope opened about 20 mins. Image proc-e0034.fits Tertpoint failed (new position rejected msg). Initial focus star fell about 1/2 way from slit to edge of field. Pointing was better for users first star (about 1/4 way to edge from slit. 2nd half observer noted he lost his internet connection for about 30s, after that images did not download automatically for him, guider images downloaded fine. Not sure if this is a bug or coincidence. He was running 1.8.4 I pushed the humidity limits tonight (and it was definately humid outside). Humidity was 70-89% outside, with it close to 88% at the end of the night, with a dewpoint depression of the structure, air, and secondary as low as 1.5 deg depression difference. At the end of the night, I felt some moisture on the inside railing of the main doors, no visible moisture on the primary, no moisture felt on the outer mirror cell by the primary, no moisture felt on the top end tubes. The secondary (and top end) got the coldest of all the structure. I wanted to get another out of focus dougnut for Russet at the NA1 port at the end of the night (with the telescope at equilibrium) but there was no time left after my observer finished taking their science data. Probably not a big deal since the collimation will be checked again in the next couple of days. ------------- FAILURE 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 02:51 ECHELLE 398( -690) 34 62 0.1 2.2 2.8 1.0 1.1 ND3 1.40 04:28 ECHELLE 291( -840) -4 31 0.1 0.4 1.2 -0.1 0.2 ND3 1.40 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 43 31 9 259 (W) 623 ptly cldy none 17:00 46 35 17 242 (WSW) 602 ptly cldy none 18:00 42 32 20 224 (SW) 511 ptly cldy none 19:00 40 31 16 223 (SW) 566 ptly cldy none 20:00 41 30 15 217 (SW) 579 cloudy lt rain 21:00 36 34 14 213 (SSW) 560 cloudy lt snow 22:00 35 35 7 263 (W) 8517 cloudy lt snow 23:00 34 34 10 265 (W) 27809 cloudy humid 00:00 34 32 12 268 (W) 469 cloudy humid 01:00 34 31 13 268 (W) 430 cloudy humid 02:00 33 30 14 247 (WSW) 360 ptly cldy humid 03:00 32 27 10 262 (W) 225 clear none 04:00 32 28 7 264 (W) 217 clear none 05:00 32 25 11 270 (W) 120 clear none 06:00 31 29 6 266 (W) 162 ptly cldy 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: 2.13.0 Current TUI version: 1.8.4