Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20240309 From: mcmillan@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2024 13:11:38 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Saturday, March 09, 2024 PROG PI ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) -------------------------------------------------------------------- NM02 M.Croom M.Croom OU02 A.Moss A.Moss ON-SKY PROG INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- NM02 KOSMOS 22:10 23:20 OU02 ARCTIC 03:30 06:45 PROG SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DTN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ----------------------------------------------------------------- NM02/R 18:16 00:10 4.7 0 0 0 1.2 0.0 0 0 OU02/R 00:10 07:11 3.3 0 0 0 2.7 0.0 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: R.McMillan Daylight Savings Time started at 02:00, hence the time discrepencies. A small amount of snow remained on the roof of the dome, and thick clouds continued until near sunset so there was no chance of melting or crusting. I observed a wind limit of 15 mph, which surprisingly was true all night. The big problem was humidity, which spent a lot of time bouncing around near the limit, and the two outside dewpoint sensors didn't agree very well with each other. I opened for an hour during first half, only to have the humidity go back up again, and by then the telescope was cool so I had to wait for even drier air to open again second half. Both programs were able to get some useful data, at least. There were some oddities of connection and it was hard to tell where they were occurring. Before I came to APO I could log in to TUI but could not access APO webpages to help me prepare; by the time I reached the site this problem was apparently resolved. Later, the first half observer got disconnected from TUI and also could not access APO webpages for a period of over 15 minutes, but could access other non-cached webpages. While the first-half observer was mysteriously blocked, the second-half observer logged in successfully. I parked the dome facing southwest in the morning to maximize sunlight on the left side of the dome in particular. ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:23 khigh 150( 418) 112 74 -3.2 -1.6 -1.3 -2.7 -3.2 - 1.01 03:38 arctic 451( 683) 180 30 -3.1 -4.1 -3.0 -4.2 -3.6 BG40 1.68 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 29 28 4 289 (WNW) cloudy lt snow 17:00 28 26 5 275 (W) mstly cldy humid 18:00 27 25 1 224 (SW) ptly cldy humid 19:00 27 25 1 205 (SSW) mstly clr humid 20:00 27 22 2 235 (SW) clear humid 21:00 27 24 2 209 (SSW) clear humid 22:00 26 19 4 0 (N) clear none 23:00 23 20 1 148 (SSE) clear humid 00:00 21 19 5 34 (NE) clear humid 01:00 21 20 3 86 (E) clear humid 03:00 25 20 13 46 (NE) clear none 04:00 27 16 7 84 (E) 207 clear none 05:00 27 15 9 73 (ENE) 202 clear none 06:00 26 15 5 106 (ESE) 200 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 SOFTWARE ---------- Current TCC version: 1.4.2 Current HUB version: v20171231_01 Current TUI version: 3.1.3