Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:18:22 -0600 (MDT) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20100330 From: "Jack Dembicky" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday March 30, 2010 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene J.Dembicky DIS 19:30 21:00 B.Ketzeback J.Dembicky Echelle, TSPEC 21:00 22:30 M.Klaene J.Dembicky Fastcam 22:30 07:20 TSPEC, NICFPS PROG SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ------------------------------------------------------------------ EN01/O 19:30 21:00 0 0 0 0 0.9 0.6 0 0 NM08/W/D 21:00 22:30 0 0 0 0 0 1.5 0 0 EN01/O 22:30 06:44 0 0 0 0 0 8.3 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Tonights Engineering tasks -------------------------- 1 - DIS Slitviewer should be ready for testing tonight - DONE I Checked DIS slitviewer guiding using both boresight and fieldstar guiding during twilight. Both worked fine. 1a - DIS image of out of focus star to check collimation (prefer multiple stars across field) - DONE Focus sweep images are in /export/images/Q1APO/UT100331/DIS Nominal +/- 25 +/- 50 +/- 75 +/- 100 +/- 700 +/- 400 My conclusions are the schmidt cameras cause too much distortion in the out of focus images (the secondary shadows are skewed). This was kind of expected but now has been confirmed. 2- eAurigae - DONE Data in /export/images/Q1APO/UT100331/echelle and tspec 3 - Fastcam - DONE I needed to reboot the Fastcam PC, it was giving me some warning about not allowing me to log in because resources were not available and that windows had not been activated on the machine. A soft reboot fixed the problem. The FastcamLogTel script didn't seem to record the first set of observations for the wrt000alt60 data. I took a second set (another star since the first was too low now). Again the script didn't work. I called Bill and he requested I just record the UT start/end times and he will fish the weather info out manually. I think I had the telescope positioned wrong for wrt000alt60 & wrt000alt60a observations (According to the documentation I think I had both about 20 deg off from into the wind. wrt000alt60b - correct pointing start UT06:37:00 End UT06:52:00 wrt045alt60 - start UT06:57:00 end UT07:12:00 wrt090alt60 - Start UT07:16:20 end UT07:31:20 wrt180alt60 - start UT07:41:10 end UT07:56:10 4 - an image and then accompanying spectra might be useful maybe with NicFps and Tspec? - DONE M82 with TSPEC and NICFPS (J,H,Ks). Data in /export/images/Q1APO/UT100331/TSPEC and nicfps 5 - NICFPS ND filter testing - DONE (Data directory /export/images/Q1APO/UT100331/nicfps) The flats directory contain the ND filter flats (not in a subdir) and the flats/no_filter the non filtered flats. Sorry for the messy structure. I started first with M13, then I hit the max alt limit half way thru my measureuments. Then I went to M12 (lower and no chance of hitting the alt limit) and noticed part way thru the first sequence that the rotator didn't rotate. I re-initialized the drives and reslewed then started the M12 exposures over again. M12 actually gave me a nicer spread of stars in the field than M13. M12_Ks_0_0_49 is actually had a X=+45 offset, center dither position. I stopped the script and restarted with the correct file designation (m12_Ks_45_0). no_filter/M12_J_0_0.0001-.0005 are bad no_filter/M12_J_0_0.0006-.0010 were out of focus +200 steps I then defocused another +200 steps (+400 total) for the remainder (and redid J again). The cluster was bright without the ND filter The last sets of exposures I was swamped with twilight. Not sure where they went unusable but it appeared that the last several images were being saturated by background. ------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:48 dis-slit 287( 462) 120 50 10.2 11.3 10.6 10.1 10.4 -- 1.60 20:24 dis-slit 253( 369) 120 56 10.2 10.3 10.2 9.4 9.8 -- 1.53 20:59 ECHELLE -20( -616) 239 49 10.2 9.9 10.2 9.3 9.8 ND3 1.70 21:56 TSPEC 175( 595) 237 37 9.9 9.8 10.1 9.5 9.9 Ks 1.20 23:12 FASTCAM 150( 927) -58 75 9.9 9.8 10.2 9.6 9.8 -- 1.10 00:35 FASTCAM 300( 1044) -83 58 8.9 8.9 9.3 8.5 8.8 -- 1.20 04:21 NICFPS 66( 619) 329 53 6.8 6.9 7.2 6.4 6.7 J 0.96 04:25 NA2gdr -1826(41173) 328 52 6.9 6.9 7.2 6.4 6.8 clear 1.00 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:00 60 17 17 235 (SW) 1930 clear none 17:00 57 13 24 266 (W) 2408 clear none 18:00 55 13 27 249 (WSW) 2027 clear none 19:00 52 11 20 263 (W) 2215 clear none 20:00 50 9 25 263 (W) 1867 clear none 21:00 50 10 31 261 (W) 2024 clear none 22:00 50 11 23 269 (W) 3352 clear none 23:00 50 10 21 267 (W) 2847 clear none 00:00 49 10 23 263 (W) 2414 clear none 01:00 49 10 24 288 (WNW) 2186 clear none 02:00 47 10 27 293 (WNW) 2154 clear none 03:00 46 11 21 276 (W) 1865 clear none 04:00 45 12 30 282 (WNW) 1920 mstly clr none 05:00 44 14 25 267 (W) 2054 mstly clr none 06:00 43 14 17 267 (W) 1915 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: 2.11.1 Current TUI version: 1.7.1