Subject: 3.5m Night Log 20250217 From: mcroom@apo.nmsu.edu Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2025 13:51:07 +0000 (UTC) Apache Point Observatory 3.5m Telescope Night Log Monday, February 17, 2025 PROG PI ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) -------------------------------------------------------------------- UV03 A.Verbiscer A.Verbiscer GS04 S.Lepine S.Lepine BY01 S.Call S.Call ON-SKY PROG INSTRUMENT START FINISH -------------------------------------------------------------------- UV03 ARCTIC --:-- --:-- GS04 ECHELLE 02:12 05:00 BY01 TripleSpec 05:08 06:31 PROG SCHEDULED WEATH EQUIP OBS NOT USED I/ROW/DTN START FINISH D B D B D B D B ----------------------------------------------------------------- UV03/R 17:59 02:00 4.8 3.2 0 0 0.0 0.0 0 0 GS04/R 02:00 05:04 0 0.2 0 0 0.0 2.9 0 0 BY01/R 05:04 06:34 0 0 0 0 0.0 1.5 0 0 note: scheduled times listed include instrument change time ------------- ACTIVITY LOG -------------- Observing Specialist: M.Croom A. Townsend provided support. Thanks for the help assessing the unusual dust situation. Dust and clouds prevailed until 02:00. The 1-micron Outside dust counter and the handheld agreed to within 10%. Around midnight, dust levels dropped below limits, but when I opened the dome a foot or two, a flurry of particles were visible in my headlamp. I immediately closed the dome. Mirror covers were closed. Consulting with Sloan, we decided to place a pollen plate which showed significant levels of accumulation of some particles (unclear if it was pollen or just larger dust particles. The pollen counting station was InOp, so the assessments were qualitative. The particulate matter on the assay plates and the 1-micron counts diminished around 01:45. I was able to mount TSpec when A Half was washed out, Accordingly, GS04 was allowed to go over a little and BY01 got on-sky ahead of schedule. Note that a Window Systems update window is displayed on the lower right corner of the large wall-mounted weather display in the control room. I took no action since it was working fine and others will know better how to respond. ------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 02:19 ecamera 280( -254) 35 70 3.2 3.6 5.0 3.3 3.1 ND1 1.13 05:18 tcamera 436( 1045) 139 64 2.0 1.3 2.6 1.9 1.9 Ks 1.49 ------------- WEATHER LOG ---------------- Wind Precip.or Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:00 48 14 13 247 (WSW) 1124 mstly cldy none 17:00 46 14 27 255 (WSW) 1919 mstly cldy none 18:00 44 13 22 248 (WSW) 6849 cloudy dust 19:00 43 13 16 259 (W) 4828 cloudy dust 20:00 42 12 15 244 (WSW) 11469 cloudy dust 21:00 42 13 19 293 (WNW) 2628 mstly cldy dust 22:00 42 12 20 281 (W) 6085 cloudy dust 23:00 41 12 21 289 (WNW) 10862 mstly cldy dust 00:00 41 10 19 267 (W) 2441 ptly cldy dust 01:00 39 11 22 287 (WNW) 2376 mstly clr dust 02:00 38 11 26 267 (W) 2081 ptly cldy none 03:00 38 11 27 273 (W) 1012 mstly cldy none 04:00 37 10 25 264 (W) 790 ptly cldy none 05:00 36 12 26 274 (W) 851 ptly cldy none 06:00 34 11 14 250 (WSW) 839 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: 3.1.8