Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20120403 From: dembicky@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 13:07:46 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, April 03, 2012 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- A.McKay A.McKay ECHELLE 18:30 01:07 M.Klaene J.Dembicky, R.McMillan Echelle, DIS 01:07 03:45 AGILE 04:30 06:38 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ---------------------------------------------------------------- NM02/R 19:34 01:10 0 0 0 0 0 5.6 0 0 EN01/R 01:10 06:38 0.8 0 0 0 1.5 3.1 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky During checkout I noted that DIS was slightly off level (from the tape mark). I re-zero'ed it (using tape not level since DIS was mounted) and it was -0.79 deg off from level. Echelle flat fielded mask acquire and track test. USNO_A2_number RA2000 Dec2000 MagB MagR Plate Arcsec 1125.06425365 11:59:57.888 +27:00:21.79 16.1 15.3 320 35.66 10s Boresight guiding worked fine, 5s field star guiding worked fine. Repeat of last nights DIS slitview vs. spectra focus (with better seeing tonight) X=1002 slit focus=384 1 Nom 4.9 5.364 2 +25 3.994 4.516 3 +50 3.532 4.23 4 +75 3.166 4.425 5 +100 4.188 5.484 6 +125 4.393 5.634 7 nom 4.505 4.635 slit Focus = 414 After slitviewer focus adjustment Slit focus = 481 8 nom 3.621 4.352 11 +25 3.87 5.044 10 +50 5.1 5.82 14 nom 3.579 4.346 16 -25 3.486 4.05 17 -50 4.746 5.158 18 -75 4.74 4.872 19 nom 4.39 5.228 It now appears that the slitviewer focus is about 25 steps above nominal spectrograph focus, but seeing was variable so this may not quite be exact. It is pretty close though and wasn't enough for Russet to try to improve any farther. Checked collimation with Agile, looked fine. Tracking errors (only one set before clouds close us) N transit SLit images 281-338 Image 281 az 177,6 Alt 63.9) Alt Error = 0.43, Az right, Alt down image 311 az 179.6 alt 63.9 alt err 0.25 az err = near 0 image 317 az 180.0, 63.9 alt err 0.1 az err = 0 transit image 324 az 180.5, 63.9 alt err = -0.19 az err = 0 image 336 az 181.3, 63.9 alt err = -0.74 az err = 0 Russet called and reported snow falling at mile marker 5 at 03:40 but not showing on radar. The clouds were getting worse so I opted to close for weather. I re-opened at 04:45 to try to do a pointing model. Found Gmech offline, restarted I nubs Started pointing model (Biggrid) The NA2 guider filter wheel was off and needed to be homed. I thought that it was 1 filter off (R+ND2 is actually B), which explains why it took me so long to get the instrument focused as the stars were so bright. I decided to run the pointing model without homing the wheel (the filter didn't match what was stated) as I was running out of time to get a full model now. I had to remap the gmech controller filter wheel during the middle of the pointing model, the filter wasn't what I thought was in place and it wasn't finding stars in tpoint. For some reason tpoint had several stars it couldn't identify, usually too faint although they were not far from center. I had to skip several stars for this reason. The sky was clear while taking the data so clouds were not a factor. I then ran out of time tonight with the pointing model. 63 data points were measured, due to the various gcam issues. Plots and data sent to the relative persons. I did NOT implement this partial model. I believe that I homed the GMECH filter wheel correctly but I would ask the day crew to check/re-home it again. I couldn't find several stars (although they were in the frame, just very faint) for the model, which didn't make sense but homing the wheel is a simple task. I also checked if DIS was still level at the end of the night (using tape marks on rotator) and it appeared well aligned. Since we move/rotated the dcam, a new set of flats masks need to be take for each slit. This can be done in the day (I will try to do it in the afternoon). ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:49 ECHELLE 650( -887) 141 70 2.0 4.2 3.0 4.2 2.2 ND2 0.95 19:51 ECHELLE 476(-1133) 148 65 2.2 2.7 2.3 2.3 1.7 ND3 1.00 00:17 ECHELLE 473(-1263) 288 75 0.2 0.3 0.8 0.3 0.1 clear 1.00 00:33 dis-slit 401( -289) 283 72 0.2 0.2 0.7 0.2 0.0 -- 1.40 01:01 dis-slit 414( -263) 311 68 1.1 0.5 0.8 0.6 0.7 -- 1.50 01:47 dis-slit 481( -181) 294 60 1.4 0.6 1.0 0.9 0.8 -- 1.50 04:02 GUIDER 376( -240) -44 54 0.9 0.5 0.9 0.7 0.5 R+ND2 2.00 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 42 24 14 253 (WSW) 1300 mstly cldy none 17:00 39 23 16 298 (WNW) 1353 mstly cldy none 18:00 39 23 10 262 (W) 1310 ptly cldy none 19:00 38 23 8 258 (WSW) 1508 ptly cldy none 20:00 36 21 6 188 (S) 1971 ptly cldy none 21:00 36 19 13 185 (S) 2195 mstly clr none 22:00 36 19 15 194 (SSW) 2299 mstly clr none 23:00 35 21 13 216 (SW) 1756 ptly cldy none 00:00 34 23 11 208 (SSW) 1352 ptly cldy none 01:00 33 24 14 221 (SW) 1282 ptly cldy none 02:00 34 23 12 264 (W) 1341 ptly cldy none 03:00 33 23 13 260 (W) 1318 ptly cldy none 04:00 33 23 13 262 (W) 1357 ptly cldy none 05:00 33 22 10 298 (WNW) 1626 clear none 06:00 33 22 12 295 (WNW) 1461 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: 1.9.5