Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:48:13 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20120314
From: "Gabrelle Saurage"
                      Apache Point Observatory
                      3.5m Telescope Night Log
                      Wednesday, March 14, 2012
                                                           ACTUAL
 ASTRONOMER      OBSERVER(S)            INSTRUMENT     START  FINISH
--------------------------------------------------------------------
M.Kasliwal        M.Kasliwal            DIS            19:20   21:16
M.Strauss         M.Strauss             TSPEC          21:30   06:45
   INST       SCHEDULED     WEATH     EQUIP      OBS     NOT USED
 I/ROW/DN   START  FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B    D    B
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
PU01/R     19:19   21:19    0    0    0    0   2.0  0.0   0    0
PU07/R     21:19   01:10    0    0    0    0   3.9  0.0   0    0
PU07/R     01:10   07:04    0    0    0    0   1.2  4.7   0    0
note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time
              ------------- ACTIVITY LOG --------------
Observing Specialist: G.Saurage
ecam issues at checkout. PR #1326 submitted.
M.Strauss (PU07) reports seeing pattern noise with TSPEC. He sent and email
describing it.
Also, the TSPEC guider was having trouble holding on to field stars after nods. They
were trying to observe pretty faint objects (faint enough that the object itself
could not be seen, even with background subtracting). The guide stars were also
faint. With long guide exposures we have extended time between guide corrections;
and if we get one bad image in between, there may be a minute or more in between
guide corrections. The concern is the telescope may drift while this is going on,
and that may explain why when the guide star does show up it is slightly off from
where the guider thinks it should be. It was off far enough such that the guider
complains and can not pull it back in. I was reselecting the guide star quite often.
When they moved to brighter stars we had no problems with guiding.
Mostly clear, decent seeing.
                    ------- 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 18:40 dis-slit   701(  586) 122  37   8.5 10.8 10.1  9.9  8.0     1.54
 20:32 TSPEC      460(  372)  30  68   7.6  8.1  8.2  7.6  7.2     1.02
               ------------- WEATHER LOG ----------------
                                   Wind                      Precip.or
     Time   Temp F Dewp F  MPH  Direction    Dust    Sky    Conditions
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
     16:00    55    11     14   238  (WSW)    793  ptly cldy   none
     17:00    54    11     11   215   (SW)   1006  ptly cldy   none
     18:00    53     9     14   255  (WSW)   1047  ptly cldy   none
     19:00    49     5     14   263    (W)    939  ptly cldy   none
     20:00    47     2     13   264    (W)    980  ptly cldy   none
     21:00    46     1     10   263    (W)    910  ptly cldy   none
     22:00    46     2     13   262    (W)    933 mstly clr    none
     23:00    46     2     13   239  (WSW)    777 mstly clr    none
     00:00    46     2     12   268    (W)    646 mstly clr    none
     01:00    46     1     18   266    (W)    722 mstly clr    none
     02:00    45     1     14   260    (W)    852 mstly clr    none
     03:00    45     1     12   264    (W)    919 mstly clr    none
     04:00    44     0     13   272    (W)    884 mstly clr    none
     05:00    44     1     10   278    (W)    975 mstly clr    none
     06:00    43     1     10   323   (NW)   1421 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: 2.15.0
    Current TUI version: 1.9.5