From: Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20101201 Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2010 13:34:48 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, December 01, 2010 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- N.Chanover A.Verbiscer SPICam 18:20 23:56 Y.Shen Y.Shen Tspec 00:08 04:45 V.Meadows V.Meadows,T.Robinson TSPEC 04:45 06:40 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- NM03/R 17:06 00:00 0 0 2.7 0 4.2 0.0 0 0 PU06/R 00:00 04:40 0 0 0 0 3.5 1.2 0 0 UW03/R 04:40 06:40 0 0 0 0 0.0 2.0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan A clear night with good seeing throughout. Unfortunately, we were delayed in getting on sky because of some serious problems. A problem with limit switches prevented homing the secondary and caused the worst delay, starting in the afternoon and continuing past sunset; since the observer missed afternoon cals and also twilight, some night time then needed to be used for dome flats. Next there was the unusual combination problem that the tertiary had moved in rotation but didn't know about it, reporting correct position with clamps closed, so it took a little while to figure that out although the correction was simple once diagnosed. Once we got on sky we had to spend some extra time correcting pointing and collimation because of the secondary position being not quite right; finally, focusing spicam took extra time because the subframing script was broken. All told, we didn't get going on science until 8 pm, but after that the telescope behaved very nicely. Triplespec was also having a problem; the slitmask is stuck at the position of the 1.1" slit, making true darks impossible. This did not really cost the observers any time, however, and they got some good data. Guiding with triplespec was temperamental as usual, but not unmanageable. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NM03 S T/H 17:06 18:20 Secondary limit switch trouble NM03 S T/H 18:20 18:50 Tertrot lost NM03 S T/H 18:50 19:50 Sec trouble sequelae ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:06 SPICAM -200( -497) 48 53 4.7 4.9 4.6 4.2 4.3 R 0.72 00:17 TSPEC -57( -332) 138 48 5.5 4.2 4.7 3.7 4.3 Ks 0.85 Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 48 30 7 224 (SW) 602 clear none 17:00 41 30 3 254 (WSW) 547 clear none 18:00 39 29 1 256 (WSW) 692 clear none 19:00 38 28 5 2 (N) 693 clear none 20:00 39 28 5 4 (N) 502 clear none 21:00 39 27 5 31 (NNE) 495 clear none 22:00 37 26 3 340 (NNW) 428 clear none 23:00 38 26 9 360 (N) 524 clear none 00:00 41 24 7 37 (NE) 268 clear none 01:00 41 23 10 53 (NE) 209 clear none 02:00 41 25 10 85 (E) 266 clear none 03:00 40 25 8 92 (E) 301 clear none 04:00 41 25 4 138 (SE) 272 clear none 05:00 41 25 8 142 (SE) 234 clear none 06:00 40 26 5 154 (SSE) 312 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: 2.14.0 Current TUI version: 1.8.4