Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20210510 From: dembicky@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Tue, 11 May 2021 12:10:03 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Monday, May 10, 2021 PROG PI ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) -------------------------------------------------------------------- JH07 R.Vervack R.Vervack UW07 K.Bell K.Bell BY01 B.Boizelle B.Boizelle WY03 C.Kobulnicky M.Brotherton ACTUAL PROG INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- JH07 DIS --:-- --:-- UW07 DIS 22:10 23:45 BY01 TSPEC 01:20 02:42 WY03 TSPEC 02:42 07:15 PROG SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DTN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ----------------------------------------------------------------- JH07/R 20:01 21:16 1.3 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0 0 UW07/R 21:16 01:10 2.3 0 0 0 1.6 0.0 0 0 BY01/R 01:10 02:40 0 0 0 0 1.5 0.0 0 0 WY03/R 02:40 05:58 0 0 0 0 3.3 0.0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky I got an alt error at 02:08:11 while I was running a focus sweep. Telescope was just tracking. Wind gusts were only 24MPH and I didn't see anything pushing the mirror on the dataq. Alt error again at 02:13 az 301 alt 52. Again in the middle of a focus sweep. This was the same star I used the past couple of nights to focus with. I slewed down/up in alt to see if that helps. The observer had issues with DIS slitviewer not transfering images to his machine. I had him log out and back in, didn't work, then close TUI and try again. I could see new images being taken on my end. He was getting the message that it was downloading but nothing transfered. My observer also noted that some of his data that he took earlier (after sunset) didn't all transfer either. My second observer logged in and was also seeing the same issue on their computer. I called Shane and his images were being delayed for him in Las Cruces. We seem to have good transfer rates down to Tularosa but things slow down from there. Shane suggested I do a hub/tcc restart, just to clean things up on our end if that is the issue. The issue remained after I restarted things on our end. Clouds persisted at the start of the 2nd program, so Keaton did his cals. If the skies improved, I would assist him in getting his target in the slit for his observations. We finally got on sky at 22:10. I used window mode with the DIS slitviewer so the transfers were not as large and this seemed to work. Shane worked on some stuff behind the scenes and we retried full frame images at 23:30 and things seemed much improved. I did start having an issue with the NA2 guider just before that, it kept turning guiding off when I started guiding with it. It had been working fine, we were using NA2 guiding since we were windowing the DIS slitviewer and there were no guidestars available). Since full frame images were transfering much faster now, we switched back to full frame guiding with DIS slitviewer. There may still be an issue with the NA2 guider but don't know since we are taking science and I am using a different guider. I closed the mirror covers at 23:45 when clouds appeared and I saw nearby radar returns, just to be on the safe side. The threat looked like it would miss us but I wanted to be safe. Clouds persisted after the rain threat went away, so we remained closed. When I closed, and the SDSS telescope was also closed, ARCSAT DID NOT automatically close even though the weather was enabled. After I opened then ARCSAT flagged a weather closure and closed at 01:17:36 Weather was a pain with clouds tonight. No problems with the 3.5m telescope and the internet seemed back to normal at the end of the night too. ------- FAILURE LOG ------- FAILURE MODE TIME PROG INSTR TI/SHU START FINISH DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- FOCUS LOG --------------- Time Instrument Focus Az El Temp Strc Prim Sec Air filt FWHM -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:19 dcamera 584( 1015) 300 51 12.9 13.9 14.1 13.6 13.1 ND7 1.42 22:14 dcamera 529( 878) 18 82 12.4 12.5 13.0 12.4 12.4 -- 1.02 01:31 tcamera 418( 1102) -53 60 10.9 11.3 12.0 11.4 11.1 Ks 1.12 02:47 tcamera 472( 1103) -73 46 9.8 10.0 10.8 9.9 9.8 Ks 1.26 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 57 13 25 262 (W) 584 mstly clr none 17:00 62 16 20 237 (WSW) 793 mstly clr none 18:00 60 15 23 266 (W) 940 clear none 19:00 58 15 19 236 (SW) 908 clear none 20:00 55 17 19 258 (WSW) 973 ptly cldy none 21:00 55 18 13 264 (W) 801 mstly cldy none 22:00 54 22 18 264 (W) 803 ptly cldy none 23:00 54 24 18 257 (WSW) 826 mstly cldy none 00:00 54 26 17 269 (W) 725 mstly cldy none 01:00 53 27 18 255 (WSW) 868 ptly cldy none 02:00 51 27 16 243 (WSW) 1217 ptly cldy none 03:00 50 27 11 257 (WSW) 1419 ptly cldy none 04:00 48 27 11 262 (W) 1096 ptly cldy none 05:00 47 25 11 268 (W) 1041 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 SOFTWARE ---------- Current TCC version: 1.4.2 Current HUB version: v20171231_01 Current TUI version: 2.6.0