Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20111115 From: dembicky@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:31:18 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, November 15, 2011 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Strauss M.Strauss, R.Alexandroff TSPEC 16:10 04:32 J.Zinn M.Kasliwal M.Kasliwal DIS 04:32 05:45 W.Ketzeback J.Dembicky Echelle 05:45 06:26 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ---------------------------------------------------------------- PU04/R 17:11 04:26 0 0 0 0.5 4.0 6.7 0 0 PU02/R/D 04:26 05:26 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 NM05/W 05:26 06:26 0 0 0 0 0.0 1.0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky ToO program again tonight. Slitty computer was down (or frozen, non-responsive), couldn't take images or connect to via timbuktu. rebooted slitty computer on intermedate level. Problem solved. TSPEC started tracking somewhat poorly @ 10:4044 (Alt 35, Az 69). Slit images of 45s with a slow drift to the upper left, even when guiding (it was not locking well onto a bright star either). Observer just started exposure and I had them stop and recenter as the target was very faint. It had been tracking well all night. See TSPEC slit image 745 and the next 746 (guider on) and 747 guider can't lock. I slewed the telescope a ways (saw several slips on both axis) and then had the observer re-slew to their object to clear any magna-sensor errors. Magna-sensor dumps at 10:59:36 (alt) & 10:59:46 (az). This didn't fix the drift problem. Next we tried rotating the rotator (and the re-slewing) to see if it was a rotator error (could be rotator mis-alignment which causes poor tracking). The rotator slew seemed to fix the drift problem. I found the rotator to be slightly off from the tape marks when I mounted DIS. It is far enough off that it should be re-zero'ed tomorrow. Variable seeing at the end of the night, between 1.4 - 2.3 arc sec from NA2 guider. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PU04 T T/H 03:45 04:15 Poor guiding due to accumulated NA2 rotator errors(?) ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:34 TSPEC 624( 351) 111 61 2.3 4.4 3.7 3.9 2.2 Ks 0.75 05:54 dis-slit 300( -372) 168 52 0.9 0.3 0.6 0.4 0.4 -- 1.40 06:56 ECHELLE 451(-1259) 237 37 0.5 0.1 0.5 0.3 0.2 ND3 1.40 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 38 18 10 287 (WNW) 511 clear none 17:00 37 19 12 281 (W) 534 clear none 18:00 37 18 12 275 (W) 491 clear none 19:00 36 19 14 245 (WSW) 414 clear none 20:00 34 24 9 265 (W) 444 clear none 21:00 36 22 10 268 (W) 371 clear none 22:00 37 20 9 280 (W) 378 clear none 23:00 37 19 12 290 (WNW) 369 clear none 00:00 36 20 8 334 (NNW) 403 clear none 01:00 35 22 12 322 (NW) 412 clear none 02:00 34 20 12 11 (N) 472 clear none 03:00 34 18 9 5 (N) 501 clear none 04:00 34 20 24 354 (N) 535 clear none 05:00 33 20 17 343 (NNW) 599 clear none 06:00 33 20 13 353 (N) 552 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: 2.15.0 Current TUI version: 1.9.3