Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:47:05 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20120324
From: mcmillan@apo.nmsu.edu
                      Apache Point Observatory
                      3.5m Telescope Night Log
                      Saturday, March 24, 2012
                                                           ACTUAL
 ASTRONOMER      OBSERVER(S)            INSTRUMENT     START  FINISH
--------------------------------------------------------------------
C.Wu              C.Wu                  DIS            20:00   06:20
   INST       SCHEDULED     WEATH     EQUIP      OBS     NOT USED
 I/ROW/DN   START  FINISH   D    B    D    B    D    B    D    B
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
NM04/R     19:27   01:10    0    0    0    0   3.6  2.1   0    0
NM04/R     01:10   06:51    0    0   0.3   0   5.4  0.0   0    0
note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time
              ------------- ACTIVITY LOG --------------
Observing Specialist: R.McMillan
Clear first half, waves of thin clouds second half.  Seeing was generally
good although we weren't always able to monitor it.
Tracking was rather poor, made more of a problem because we had faint
guide stars that needed longer integrations, so sometimes the guiding lost
the star.  At one point I thought the problem might be due to some bad
magnesensor crossings so I had the observer stop an exposure so that we
could slew across some sensors, losing some time due to the abandoned
exposure.  This produced only a slight improvement in tracking behavior,
but with some juggling to get a shorter guide exposure time we were able
to get guiding to work better.  Another exposure was badly affected by
tracking drift, but that was also at the time of the strongest cloud wave
so the exposure might have been messed up anyway; given the ambiguity, I
didn't list that time as lost.
                    ------- FAILURE LOG -------
PROG   INST   FAILURE MODE     TIME
    (SEDFNVOG)   TI/SHU    START  FINISH  DESCRIPTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NM04    D         T/H      01:10  01:22   bad tracking/magnesensor crossing
            ---------------- FOCUS LOG ---------------
Time  Instrument  Focus     Az  El  Temp Strc Prim  Sec  Air  filt  FWHM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 19:09 dis-slit   296(  301) 120  50  11.0 13.5 13.2 13.3 10.8   -  1.15
 23:09 dis-slit   419(  244) 214  77  12.2 10.3 10.8  9.9 10.4   -  1.10
               ------------- WEATHER LOG ----------------
                                   Wind                      Precip.or
     Time   Temp F Dewp F  MPH  Direction    Dust    Sky    Conditions
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
     16:00    57    18     14   251  (WSW)   1155    clear     none
     17:00    58    19     17   211  (SSW)   1128    clear     none
     18:00    60    17     13   239  (WSW)    982    clear     none
     19:00    55    15     10   238  (WSW)    877    clear     none
     20:00    51    14      9   225   (SW)    972    clear     none
     21:00    52    14      6   195  (SSW)   1018    clear     none
     22:00    51    14      6   209  (SSW)    936    clear     none
     23:00    55     9      9   233   (SW)    304    clear     none
     00:00    55     9      5   204  (SSW)    388  ptly cldy   none
     01:00    52     8      2   211  (SSW)    697  ptly cldy   none
     02:00    54    10      7   227   (SW)    200  ptly cldy   none
     03:00    53     9      9   197  (SSW)    448 mstly clr    none
     04:00    53    10      9   185    (S)    651  ptly cldy   none
     05:00    52    12      7   164  (SSE)    881  ptly cldy   none
     06:00    52    15     12   137   (SE)   1075  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: 2.15.0
    Current TUI version: 1.9.5