Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20190624 From: cgray@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:17:41 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Monday, June 24, 2019 ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- M.Prescott M.Prescott ARCTIC 20:24 01:05 G.Stringfellow G.Stringfellow Tspec 01:17 05:23 INST SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ---------------------------------------------------------------- NM05/R 20:24 01:10 0 0 0 0 4.8 0.0 0 0 CU06/R 01:10 05:48 0 0 0 0 0.1 4.6 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: C.Gray 5 nights of beautiful weather in June?! Shocking!! I'm just glad I was here to witness it or I never would have believed it. We had a perfectly clear night with good seeing and everyone was able to use all their time. I will note that CU06 was rather peeved during his observations. Apparently, a student of his was supposed to conduct coordinated observations using ARCSAT but the student fell asleep and missed all alarms. That poor kid is going to have a rough day tomorrow... No problems tonight (yay!) --------- The Story of the International Venus Conference Epilogue - The Leaving and the Loo And thus it was, the Fourth Age of Venus Information began, and the International Venus Conference, though eternally bound by friendship and science, was ended. Loading up our bags and boarding our buses, we began the two hour journey back to the airport. Halfway through the journey we stopped at a rest area so people could use the loo and grab a quick bite to eat. In the parking lot there lived a giant dinosaur statue towering over an owl statue (because Japan). Now, who does not love roadside dinosaurs? I was excited to take a picture but it was quite a ways away and, having missed the bus once already, I was NOT about to risk missing it again. We were all expecting a short stop; indeed when we made this stop on the way to the conference no one needed the bathroom and so drove on. However, our organizer informed us that we would be stopping here for 45 min. Complete. Chaos. People needed to be at the airport in an hour to make their flights! It was decided that we would leave in 30 min. No, when everyone got back on the bus. No, in 20 minutes. OK, maybe 15 minutes. Our departure time was confusing, to say the least. Two of us who had been left behind during the excursion immediately set up a buddy system while others conducted a head count. Well, this at least meant that there was at least time to see the dinosaur! Jumping out of the bus and running to the dinosaur statue, I was able to take a few quick shots before literally running back to the bus. Having found my seat I knew that *I*, at least, would be returning to the airport. As the bus began to fill back up and we started getting ready to depart, someone came running up towards our bus, shouting and arms flailing. The first bus had left one of its people behind! Good grief, was there no one going over a checklist?! After the excursion disaster, the thought of a bus leaving yet another person behind was appalling. However, I have to admit, this person was not particularly well liked... In fact, after he boarded our bus and began using very loud colorful language towards several people, many of us silently communicated (with quiet snaps of our fingers and mouthing of 'Dang! Almost!') that it really was too bad that he caught up to us. And so we began a headcount. Now, you would think that a bus full of astrophysicists would be able to count a bus full of astrophysicists. However, you would be surprised in how many of us forgot to count ourselves. With six different people each counting at least three different times, we were finally able to confirm that there were 25 people onboard, and away we went. Unfortunately, we were now forced to listen to *that* guy complain loudly on his phone for nearly the rest of the trip. It would seem his bus, while abandoning him, had kept all his luggage. As we left quite a bit later, it was unclear if our bus would catch up in time to the first bus in order for him to pick it up luggage. I am not ashamed to admit that some of us were snickering behind our hands. We were dropped off at the airport (I am not sure if that guy was able to catch his luggage in time to board his flight), said our goodbyes, and made our way back home. I think the moral of this story is: never trust scientists in large groups, especially not scientists who study Venus. If given the opportunity to misbehave or conduct critical life errors, we will. It is safer for everyone to just keep us locked away in a conference room all week or, at the very least, implant some tracking devices... ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:30 arctic 246( 1202) 96 74 15.2 17.9 17.7 17.2 15.7 3250 1.27 21:44 arctic 386( 1263) 254 73 16.1 16.3 16.6 15.8 15.6 3250 0.86 00:25 tcamera 591( 1483) 121 64 16.3 15.6 16.3 15.6 15.5 Ks 1.20 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 71 24 11 262 (W) 242 clear none 17:00 66 24 18 260 (W) 310 clear none 18:00 68 24 8 256 (WSW) 327 clear none 19:00 65 23 11 274 (W) 308 clear none 20:00 63 19 11 224 (SW) 337 clear none 21:00 59 15 9 228 (SW) 327 clear none 22:00 61 17 6 208 (SSW) 320 clear none 23:00 60 17 6 205 (SSW) 327 clear none 00:00 62 19 1 188 (S) 324 clear none 01:00 61 18 4 255 (WSW) 554 clear none 02:00 62 18 6 261 (W) 367 clear none 03:00 61 18 4 256 (WSW) 313 clear none 04:00 61 17 6 239 (WSW) 337 clear none 05:00 60 17 6 257 (WSW) 419 clear none 06:00 57 15 3 216 (SW) 352 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: 1.2.4 Current TUI version: 2.6.0