Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:43:07 -0000 (UTC) Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20130317 From: mcmillan@apo.nmsu.edu Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Sunday, March 17, 2013 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- T.Murphy R.McMillan APOLLO --:-- --:-- R.Beaton R.Beaton,K.Hamm DIS 21:15 01:10 J.Prieto J.Prieto DIS 01:10 06:20 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ---------------------------------------------------------------- UW14/R 19:21 20:21 0 1.0 0 0 0.0 1.0 0 0 DD07/R 20:21 01:10 0 0.9 0 0.1 0.1 3.7 0 0 PU04/R 01:10 07:01 0 0 0.4 0 5.4 0.0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Weather was poor at sunset, with clouds and nearby radar returns plus high dust and borderline winds. These conditions improved gradually over the course of first half. I did reclose briefly for a wind and dust spike, but the observers were taking cals anyway so it wasn't really time lost from their observing plan. If they hadn't been taking the cals I probably would have stayed open since conditions were just over the limits. The optics could probably use a CO2-clean nevertheless. The first science slew of the night had a motion error at 03:17 UT, showing large oscillations on the azimuth telemetry. This occurred with the telescope in the east-southeast, a different position from where we had similar trouble a few weeks ago. I reinitialized the axes and subsequent slews were fine. The second half observer started with DIS, but wanted to switch to echelle after a few hours. I had to power cycle ecamera again (which had also been done during checkout, so it seems like it's having trouble whenever it's quitet for some long period). Then, when we got the slitviewer working properly, the echelle shutter didn't open. Time lost includes instrument change, ecamera problem, and two exposures with no counts in them. We switched back to DIS and the remainder of the night went smoothly. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- PROG INST FAILURE MODE TIME (SEDFNVOG) TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DD07 D T/H 21:15 21:21 Az oscillation/motion err PU04 E I/H 04:35 04:55 Ech shutter stuck closed ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:26 dis-slit 435( 116) -120 52 6.4 7.2 7.7 7.5 6.4 - 1.60 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 47 14 21 300 (WNW) 12775 cloudy dust 17:00 47 13 14 267 (W) 2797 cloudy lt snow 18:00 48 14 27 284 (WNW) 8445 cloudy dust 19:00 47 11 25 271 (W) 18594 mstly cldy dust 20:00 45 9 24 271 (W) 5964 ptly cldy none 21:00 43 8 15 278 (W) 3825 clear none 22:00 43 8 31 282 (WNW) 1896 clear none 23:00 42 7 11 265 (W) 2111 clear none 00:00 41 5 23 287 (WNW) 4081 clear none 01:00 39 6 9 295 (WNW) 2098 clear none 02:00 38 11 15 318 (NW) 2266 clear none 03:00 38 12 16 326 (NW) 2817 clear none 04:00 37 12 12 305 (NW) 2195 clear none 05:00 37 13 14 304 (NW) 1811 clear none 06:00 36 13 4 302 (WNW) 1765 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: 2.0.0