Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20111102 From: dembicky@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2011 13:31:38 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, November 02, 2011 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Kasliwal M.Kasliwal DIS 18:20 20:00 B.Balick K.Kwitter,B.Balick DIS 20:00 00:55 A.Mukadam A.Mukadam SPIcam 04:55 07:20 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ---------------------------------------------------------------- PU02/R/D 18:20 20:00 0 0 0 0 0 1.7 0 0 UW06/R 20:00 01:00 0 0 0 0 0.0 5.0 0 0 UW01/R 01:00 07:14 0 0 3.9 0 2.3 0.0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky I couldn't control the mirror covers or eyelids (and I think tertiary) remotely. Got an odd M3 error. I switched to manual mode so we could at least get science and Called Fritz to fix the problem before second half. TOO program at start of night and a program swap for 2nd half. DIS slitviewer didn't want to work at checkout. dcamera not connected. It suddenly fixed itself after a while and several startNubs. Seeing was pretty poor at the start of the night with a cold front moving thru. My the second program though, the winds changed direction and the temps started to rise and our seeing improved considerably. Agile was having problems tonight. We tried swapping out a fiber converter box (as it seemed to be a timing issue) but that didn't fix the problem. Possibly a bad fiber. PR submitted I saw lost 1Hz signal on the Az drive while diagnosing the Agile problems. It went away when I restarted things. We switched to DIS since Agile was INOP and then the problems started with that instrument. Anjum wanted to use DIS in imaging mode, so I needed to swap a slitmask wheel with one loaded with her filter. When I went to home the wheel, the wheel would not home and just spun. We reset roboticsm changed slitmask wheels, and it would still not home. Bill was logged on and decided to come in to replace a motor controller card in DIS to see if that would fix the problem. It didn't appear to. PR submitted. We switched over to SPIcam at 04:15 since the DIS problem looked more serious. We then started having issues with the Az drive. It appeared to have got lost, then I started seeing slips on it. Bill was in the control room. We eventually set the telescope position and got focused and on the sky, finally, at 04:45. Telescope Motion error too large when I slewed to park. Telescope left at 101.8,20 (I think). Looks like it overshot to 105 and then came back too far and then the motion error killed the drive. Same problem Bill and I saw earlier in the evening. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UW01 A I/H 00:55 02:30 Agile would not take object images due to a timing problem/fiber/fiber converter box/ UW01 D I/H 02:30 04:20 Dis would not home the slitmask UW01 S T/H 04:20 04:55 Telescope slip errors and motion sensor errors halting Az drive. ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:37 dis-slit 432( -62) 85 70 -0.7 4.1 4.2 2.9 0.1 -- 3.70 20:07 dis-slit 356( -386) 44 48 -3.3 -1.2 -0.7 -2.0 -3.0 -- 4.00 04:43 SPICAM 439( -68) 23 53 2.8 0.6 1.0 0.7 1.6 BG40 1.30 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 45 -1 1 227 (SW) 385 clear none 17:00 43 0 1 293 (WNW) 356 clear none 18:00 40 0 1 187 (S) 399 clear none 19:00 30 16 10 90 (E) 421 clear none 20:00 26 15 18 73 (ENE) 342 clear none 21:00 36 0 4 261 (W) 455 clear none 22:00 35 -2 5 271 (W) 352 clear none 23:00 31 5 4 225 (SW) 447 clear none 00:00 35 -5 10 290 (WNW) 272 clear none 01:00 35 -7 10 354 (N) 241 clear none 02:00 34 -1 12 347 (NNW) 289 clear none 03:00 35 -11 9 345 (NNW) 244 clear none 04:00 35 -7 7 332 (NNW) 336 clear none 05:00 38 0 7 286 (WNW) 556 clear none 06:00 39 0 10 351 (N) 616 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