Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20160920 From: dembicky@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2016 12:26:57 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, September 20, 2016 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- L.Hebb L.Hebb, S.Mahadevan. ARCTIC 22:45 06:27 G.Steffanson INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ---------------------------------------------------------------- NA01/O 19:10 06:43 3.0 0.6 0 0 0.0 8.0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky The users wanted to get a video of the diffuser rotator working this evening, while we were closed. We found that the motor was not spinning the diffuser properly (either not rotating or with some trial and error finally getting it to rotate). We were not sure if it was or wasn't working properly last night. Bill is going to look at the issue in the morning. Clouds prevented us from opening until 22:45. We had partly cloudy skies for the next 4 hours then mostly cloudy, but we observed thru them anyhow. Later in the night we again tested the rotating diffuser and it appeared to be working for the one exposure they tested. Not certain it is reliably working and more off telescope testing is recommended. We could hear the whine of the motor when it was working over the intercom system. We took another test (3 images) the first image we did not hear a whine, it started during the 2nd exposure and was present during the 3rd. We could see a difference between the 1st image (it had a spike) and the 3rd, which the spike was smeared. The diffuser has a high pitched whine over the intercom when working and you can hear it turn off at the end of the exposure. Some exposures I could hear the whine over the intercom, others I could not so I am not convinced the diffuser rotator is working consistently. ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:54 arctic 775( 1240) 114 63 14.3 15.9 16.8 15.8 15.5 Semrock 0.80 21:55 NA2gdr 1502(35502) 114 63 14.3 15.9 16.8 15.8 15.5 clear 1.0 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 63 48 8 189 (S) 816 cloudy none 17:00 63 49 11 209 (SSW) 723 cloudy none 18:00 63 48 7 188 (S) 725 cloudy none 19:00 60 47 6 175 (S) 761 cloudy none 20:00 59 48 9 129 (SE) 796 cloudy none 21:00 59 47 14 134 (SE) 751 cloudy none 22:00 59 47 13 133 (SE) 915 mstly cldy none 23:00 58 49 17 127 (SE) 980 ptly cldy none 00:00 58 48 16 137 (SE) 857 ptly cldy none 01:00 58 47 17 137 (SE) 890 ptly cldy none 02:00 58 44 18 146 (SE) 833 ptly cldy none 03:00 57 43 18 150 (SSE) 857 mstly cldy none 04:00 56 44 18 147 (SSE) 1061 cloudy none 05:00 56 43 16 151 (SSE) 888 mstly cldy none 06:00 57 46 16 170 (S) 875 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: 1.2.2 Current TUI version: 2.5.1