Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20130123 From: dembicky@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:19:22 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, January 23, 2013 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Klaene J.Dembicky,R.McMillan NA2gdr, Agile 17:36 07:15 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ---------------------------------------------------------------- EN01/O 17:36 06:54 0 0 0 0 1.8 11.5 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Zero'ed rotator +0.367 deg off I spent a few minutes at the start getting some light pollution photos for Mark from the 3.5m enclosure. We had a problem getting TPOINT to run, wouldn't find stars in NA2 guider even though there was one there. Russet fixed the problem remotely. Once TPOINT was running we then had some problems (motion errors) with the alt axis during the first pointing model. I tried doing a couple axis inits for the first 2 then went up into the dome to investigate further (nothing obvious). I then stopped the drives (red button) and restarted. Several alt slews up and down and then resumed the pointing model (halt at pt 31, 38, and 40, skipped the others. Had another alt error at 62, and then SPIcam started having problems as well (when it rains it pours). After about 2 hrs of diagnosing, and trying various fixes, we figured out that the axis wasn't reading the upward magna-sensor corrections. Fritz had me reboot both controllers (probably only alt needed it, but to be safe). That seemed to fix the problem and I was able to slew up and down several times. I then slewed to a star to focus and again, motion controller error. This time a current problem with the drive. I investigated for binding and didn't really feel any. The telescope might be a little out of balance in alt as pulling it down was easier, and drifted longer, than going upwards. Informed Bill about this as well. Slewed several times from dome, no noises and the current was back down to around 4-5A. Balance probably should be checked by daytime engineers. At this point we just restarted the pointing model again. All ran smoothly this time around. 23:30, turned off spicam cryro-tiger @255K I noticed some intermittent spikes in the alt_error dataq plot while doing the pointing model. Steady at 4 arc sec error with a quick drop to -1 arc sec error and then back up to the 4 arc sec error. Implemented new model. Russet came in to help with the collimation and homing mirrors and we quickly broke the remote screen sharing on the obs3 Mac. It was running earlier when Russet had me check from obs1 but alas not once we actually needed to use it. Russet checked collimation with Agile. We then homed the mirrors, then checked and adjusted collimation with Agile a moderate amount. Ran second pointing model and implemented. Russet said things looked good with smaller change than she expected. Fixed NA1 pointing. Fixed TR2 pointing. ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18:27 SPICAM 1640( 1506) -20 57 7.2 8.0 7.2 7.8 6.9 SDSS r 0.73 19:14 GUIDER 640( 532) -56 43 8.7 8.1 8.1 8.2 8.4 clear 0.81 19:15 NA2gdr 4296(34296) -56 43 8.7 8.1 8.1 8.2 8.4 clear 0.81 23:23 GUIDER 440( 204) 33 52 6.0 5.9 6.5 5.9 5.7 Red ND2 0.72 23:24 NA2gdr 35(30035) 33 52 6.0 5.9 6.5 5.9 5.7 Red ND2 0.72 03:50 NA2gdr -123(29876) 33 72 4.7 4.4 5.0 4.4 4.3 R 0.84 03:50 GUIDER 450( 123) 33 72 4.7 4.4 5.0 4.4 4.3 R 0.84 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 47 6 3 250 (WSW) 251 ptly cldy none 17:00 47 2 7 321 (NW) 37 ptly cldy none 18:00 46 2 7 303 (WNW) 38 ptly cldy none 19:00 49 5 10 280 (W) 28 ptly cldy none 20:00 46 3 5 273 (W) 26 ptly cldy none 21:00 46 1 7 273 (W) 34 ptly cldy none 22:00 44 0 7 229 (SW) 51 ptly cldy none 23:00 44 1 10 217 (SW) 31 mstly clr none 00:00 42 0 12 221 (SW) 44 clear none 01:00 43 4 12 218 (SW) 64 clear none 02:00 42 6 12 253 (WSW) 73 mstly clr none 03:00 42 7 14 252 (WSW) 33 mstly clr none 04:00 41 12 11 265 (W) 123 mstly clr none 05:00 41 18 20 295 (WNW) 276 mstly cldy none 06:00 41 22 19 314 (NW) 352 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: 2.0.0