From: Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20100807 Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 12:23:24 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, August 7, 2010 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH ------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene R.McMillan SPIcam,SH 02:15 05:45 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B -------------------------------------------------------------------- EN02/O 20:05 06:13 6.1 0 0 0 2.3 1.7 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan We had storms and clouds in the evening, and then threat of possibly more rain even as the clouds started to break up. The cloud camera got some light sprinkles that the rain sensor didn't pick up, but it was more than I wanted on the telescope. I did some in-dome tests with APOLLO and some analysis of last night's pointing model data and I was considering giving up for the night, but then a particularly large sucker hole suckered me in. I started out trying to do a high-altitude tracking test with SPIcam, but I made a number of mistakes which probably invalidated the test. In the meantime, the seeing was very good and the sky was mostly clear, so I was enticed into playing with the Shack-Hartmann instead. I started on a star at moderate altitude and found that a change was recommended from last night's collimation. I wasn't sure if this might be because the telescope temperature hadn't quite settled yet, but after some repeat measurements I applied the change. Then I followed a bright star through a very high altitude transit, over 89 degrees. Occasional clouds, a brief threat-of-rain scare (but no rain), and really terrible tracking made it difficult, but I was able to get some usable measurements of how the collimation changes at the highest altitudes, which has not been possible before. This information will contribute to our efforts to improve high-altitude tracking, but for now, tracking continues to be prohibitively bad within 5 degrees of the zenith. Spicam 2030 173.9 0600 169.1 ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 02:14 SPICAM 0( 609) 84 74 14.9 15.5 15.2 14.9 14.9 r 0.85 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 71 48 14 249 (WSW) 170 cloudy rain 17:00 62 50 16 131 (SE) 503 cloudy rain 18:00 61 50 14 133 (SE) 809 cloudy rain 19:00 57 50 9 95 (E) 408 cloudy lt rain 20:00 57 50 12 123 (ESE) 399 cloudy none 21:00 58 49 7 177 (S) 354 cloudy none 22:00 63 46 14 186 (S) 435 ptly cldy none 23:00 63 46 12 181 (S) 349 ptly cldy none 00:00 61 47 11 187 (S) 389 ptly cldy lt rain 01:00 57 48 5 185 (S) 849 ptly cldy none 02:00 58 48 5 281 (W) 398 mstly clr none 03:00 58 48 8 306 (NW) 199 ptly cldy none 04:00 58 48 9 284 (WNW) 264 ptly cldy none 05:00 58 48 9 315 (NW) 243 ptly cldy none 06:00 58 49 6 292 (WNW) 243 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: 1.8.0