Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20160120 From: dembicky@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 13:48:17 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Wednesday, January 20, 2016 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- T.Murphy R.McMillan APOLLO 17:33 18:18 M.Klaene J.Dembicky, R.McMillan X 18:18 01:30 04:30 06:15 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ---------------------------------------------------------------- AP02/R 17:33 18:18 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.8 0 0 EN01/O 18:18 06:55 0 3.0 0 0 2.1 7.6 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky Reset controllers (alt/az/NA2 rot/Agile rot) Resetting agile rotator controller fixed the communication issue seen prior. Checked both NA2 and Agile rotators for operation. TCC35m seemed fine. Telescope tracking on the moon was fine (nn-sidereal). Confirmed it is running 1.22. Russet and Candace Homed tertiary and mirrors, Zero'ed NA2 rotator (0.230) Russet checked DIS internal focus Fixed the 1.5 DIS slit mask. Shack Hartmann collimation check. It suggested a change but also the seeing was not good, so Russet opted to leave things alone. Poinitng Model 44MPH gusts hit us at the end of a slew and moved the telescope in alt, halting the axis. I halted the pointing model as we were only a few points had been taken. 2016-01-21 05:36:49 .tcc.0 0 tcc w BadAltStatus; AltStat=71.120361,0.946880,4960071409.70000,0x0000e001; AltDTime=0.12 2016-01-21 05:36:49 .tcc.0 0 tcc i AzStat=224.434557,0.002450,4960071409.70000,0x00000000; AzDTime=0.12 2016-01-21 05:36:49 .tcc.0 0 tcc i TCCPos=224.435079,64.306290,0.000000; AxePos=224.434852,71.234129,0.004833; Moved the telescope out of wind and waited a few minutes to see if the wind was going to calm down. I tried another attempt at a Pointing model as the wind gusts dropped below 35MPH around 23:40. Seeing was miserable at 3.3 arc sec. The winds started blowing again as soon as I started the model and went over 42MPH. I parked the telescope out of the wind and waited some more. I started another attempt at a pointing model, this time clouds and seeing didn't help matters much, but I slugged through. Humidity was on the rise as well. I aborted my 3rd attempt at a pointing model (31 stars) when the humidity shot up and clouds rolled in. I didn't feel comfortable staying open with these changing conditions. I decided it best to close the enclosure as well. I attempted another pointing model at 04:40. Seeing was still dismal at 2.6 arc sec. The site fire alarm system had trouble on line 1 of the phone system around 05:20. I silenced the alarm. Humidity stopped observations at 06:16. I got 58 stars total (56 good, 2 were bad, #48 & #49) ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:33 shack 600( 647) 91 59 -0.3 -0.1 0.6 -0.1 -0.4 -- 1.50 22:10 guider 736( 362) -52 47 -1.2 -0.7 0.1 -0.7 -1.0 R+ND2 2.20 23:43 guider 840( 373) 87 43 -3.3 -2.5 -1.7 -2.8 -3.2 R+ND2 3.30 04:47 guider 970( 278) 72 59 -9.6 -6.7 -4.8 -6.9 -8.2 R+ND2 2.60 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 37 15 12 262 (W) 106 clear none 17:00 37 18 21 241 (WSW) 150 clear none 18:00 35 18 21 235 (SW) 236 clear none 19:00 34 15 18 256 (WSW) 391 mstly clr none 20:00 33 17 16 268 (W) 612 clear none 21:00 32 17 17 282 (WNW) 218 mstly clr none 22:00 30 17 18 335 (NNW) 187 mstly clr none 23:00 28 9 20 342 (NNW) 283 mstly clr none 00:00 25 8 26 328 (NNW) 296 mstly clr none 01:00 22 14 16 4 (N) 231 ptly cldy none 02:00 20 16 17 347 (NNW) 153 cloudy lt snow 03:00 18 14 27 356 (N) 151 mstly cldy none 04:00 16 8 23 31 (NNE) 116 mstly clr none 05:00 16 9 18 22 (NNE) 118 mstly clr none 06:00 18 11 21 73 (ENE) 122 mstly clr humid 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: 1.0.4 Current TUI version: 2.5.0