From: Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20100806 Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2010 12:14:14 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Friday, August 6, 2010 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene R.McMillan NA2gdr,SH 20:30 06:00 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- EN02/O 20:06 06:13 0 0 0 0 7.2 2.9 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan A productive night of engineering. I was able to open near sunset and started with a large pointing model which had extra points to give us a better diagnostic of the altitude axis. Altitude was well-behaved and we got some interesting results; azimuth had some trouble during the data taking; see motion errors starting at UT 04:13:42. I tracked this down to a mess (probably a squished moth) on the azimuth drive surface, and after a couple of small moves and wipedowns, the telescope was able to continue and the azimuth behavior evened out. The motion errors did add a little extra noise to the model results, but it wasn't too bad and didn't affect the altitude diagnostics we were looking for. Once the large pointing model was done, the telescope was cool enough for collimation. The Shack-Hartmann recommended a moderate change in collimation, which I applied. Clouds prevented me from checking the result right away, but a few hours later I was able to confirm that the collimation was much improved. In the meantime, Nick and Bill came in and we proceeded with some tests of using small pointing models to level the azimuth drive disk. After just three iterations we got the AN and AW parameters down to about 3 arcseconds, which we judged to be the best achievable. After using very small pointing models to confirm and update these adjustments, I finished up with a normal 80-point model for ongoing use. Spicam 2030 174.1 0600 169.3 ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:16 dis-slit 150( 613) 52 56 15.5 17.4 16.8 16.1 16.2 1.20 01:38 SHACK -125( 1001) 218 64 15.0 14.8 15.2 14.4 14.8 1.20 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 69 49 6 187 (S) 128 mstly cldy none 17:00 72 48 3 217 (SW) 205 mstly cldy none 18:00 67 47 9 218 (SW) 30 mstly cldy none 19:00 68 48 1 221 (SW) 96 mstly cldy none 20:00 63 49 7 89 (E) 190 ptly cldy none 21:00 60 51 10 92 (E) 328 ptly cldy none 22:00 60 50 11 89 (E) 226 ptly cldy none 23:00 60 50 10 85 (E) 270 ptly cldy none 00:00 58 50 9 111 (ESE) 314 ptly cldy none 01:00 59 50 10 89 (E) 437 ptly cldy none 02:00 59 49 9 118 (ESE) 559 ptly cldy none 03:00 60 45 7 102 (ESE) 549 mstly clr none 04:00 59 45 2 120 (ESE) 442 mstly clr none 05:00 60 44 4 134 (SE) 435 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: 2.13.0 Current TUI version: 1.8.0