Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20251111 From: dembicky@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2025 13:35:23 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Tuesday, November 11, 2025 PROG PI ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) -------------------------------------------------------------------- OU04 G.Garcia G.Garcia, D.Terndrup NM04 A.Peck A.Peck, B.Robertson ON-SKY PROG INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- OU04 NICFPS 17:13 23:53 NM04 ECHELLE 00:00 06:09 PROG SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DTN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ----------------------------------------------------------------- OU04/R 17:13 00:10 0 0 0 0 6.2 0.8 0 0 NM04/R 00:10 06:22 0 0 0 0 0.0 6.2 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: J.Dembicky I adjusted NICFPS rotation limits from -90 to +90 deg to =95 to +95. This allows the user to do a 180 inst flip without having to wait until it hits the rotator limit. We kept running into it rotating to -88.0 deg and then have to wait a couple minutes to let it hit the -90.0 limit then to a 180 deg flip. 5 deg on both sides should not be an issue with NICFPS. The northern lights danced all night long in our skies. Earth was hit with a big CME tonight, with more activity anticipated for tomorrow. Tonight's aurora were a deep red and visible to the naked eye, although even more impressive with a camera! About 04:30AM, if it wasn't for the moon in the sky, the aurora appeared to cover half of the sky on the all sky camera. No problems tonight. ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:32 NICFPS 637( 1603) 0 64 8.7 9.9 9.9 9.6 8.6 MK-J 0.59 17:39 NA2gdr 50882(50882) -4 64 8.6 9.7 9.8 9.3 8.6 R 0.97 18:52 NICFPS 516( 1415) -10 70 8.7 8.6 9.1 8.4 8.5 MK-Ks 0.71 00:00 ecamera 426( -114) -30 57 8.3 7.6 8.4 7.4 8.0 Clear 1.00 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 50 13 7 336 (NNW) 596 mstly clr none 17:00 49 9 15 352 (N) 228 mstly clr none 18:00 48 9 13 12 (NNE) 283 clear none 19:00 47 11 17 4 (N) 385 clear none 20:00 49 11 15 341 (NNW) 472 clear none 21:00 47 12 9 27 (NNE) 458 clear none 22:00 48 13 12 17 (NNE) 962 clear none 23:00 47 14 15 355 (N) 1392 clear none 00:00 47 15 10 24 (NNE) 1323 mstly clr none 01:00 49 14 6 348 (NNW) 595 mstly clr none 02:00 47 14 9 9 (N) 695 mstly clr none 03:00 49 14 4 4 (N) 730 clear none 04:00 47 14 3 357 (N) 1305 clear none 05:00 47 13 4 12 (NNE) 823 clear none 06:00 48 10 2 325 (NW) 475 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: 3.1.8