APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY SDSS 2.5M OBSERVING LOG Sunday January 22, 2006 (MJD 53758) ---=== OBSERVING TEAM ===--- Swing: K. Pan Night: V. Malanushenko E.Malanushenko J. Barentine Support: French Leger (phone) ---=== OBSERVING PLAN ===--- Science! ---=== OBSERVING SUMMARY ===--- An intermittent failure of two flat field petals tonight caused us to lose a significant amount of time on our first plate, and wreaked minor havoc on the others. See Problems and Log for all the gory details. Despite the problems we finished 2 plates (1640 and 2368). After consulting French, we decided to close the telescope for the night at 10:00Z; he and the engineering crew will try to solve the problem today so as to have the telescope ready for observations on Monday night. ---=== OBSERVING LOG ===--- Afternoon: Spectrograph focus checked. No change was made. set for around 0 C. As usual details in problem section. 22:40Z: Fans on, east door and louvers open, west door cracked. Night: Open at 00:30Z under clear skies and virtually calm winds. During setup in twilight, there was a recurrence of last night's UDP port 30410 conflict. We recovered from this in the same manner as last night, using the prescription in Folklore. Viktor was logged in as observer on sdsshost2 when the problem occured. 01:30Z Cart 8 Plate 1640 (tile 9485, orion81) Last night we accumulated a total low (S/N)^2 of 7.6 in the red cameras on this plate and need <= 15 to declare it done. To keep the exposure sequence consistent and to make sure we end up with the required equal number of sky and object spectra, we started with a sky exposure and then proceeded as before (object, sky, object, sky, etc.) Here's a log of the exposures: Expnum OffsetA OffsetD Guide? low red (S/N)^2 ------ ------- ------- ------ --------------- 36626 +9" 0" N -- 36627 0" 0" Y 1.6 36628 -9" 0" N -- 36629 0" 0" Y 1.2 36630 +9" 0" N -- 36631 0" 0" Y 1.0 36632 -9" 0" N -- 36633 0" 0" Y 0.8 36634 +9" 0" N -- 36635 0" 0" Y 0.9 36636 -9" 0" N -- 36637 0" 0" Y 0.6 36638 +9" 0" N -- 36639 0" 0" Y 0.8 36640 -9" 0" N -- 36641 0" 0" Y 0.8 36642 +9" 0" N -- (Offsets are relative to the plate center; i.e., where offsets were last stickied.) The efficiency down the guide fibers was not much more than 50% throughout this time because of the variable seeing. With last night's data, we finished this plate with (S/N)^2 totals of 20.3 and 15.3 in r1 and r2, respectively. Golly, it takes a *long* time to finish these orion plates... But we think we know why. SoS requested a postCalib long before we finished this plate, but we decided to put it off until the end to save time (in fact, we would not have finished this plate before it expired if we did the postCalib in the middle of everything). However, it didn't take. We got this SOP error message: sp1> SOPGUI: postCalibs 1 1 mcpPut: SYSTEM.STATUS mcpPut: SYSTEM.STATUS Closing Flat Field Screen Flat field screen failed to close; quitting I had already left to change the cartridge, and saw the lamps come on as normal for a postCal while at the telescope. No images were taken. By the time Viktor and Elena could contact me about it, I had already switched cartridges. 06:50Z With slightly more than one hour til moonrise and an unpromising record of seeing over the last two hours, we decided not to switch to imaging. 07:07Z Cart 2 Plate 1774 (tile 1279, chunk92). GTF bailed out on the first try for some reason; SOP complained, without details, that a gflat was not taken. We reissued the GTF and it worked the second time. GSOGTF. However, on the preCalib, we got the same message about flat field screens failing to close and bailed out on us. Could it be that there were actually defunct petals? Tune in to today's episode of "Problems Section" to find out. Eventually back to science with the first exposure for 900 s at 07:50Z. Finished in three exposures with a low (S/N)^2 of 17.9. 09:00Z Cart 4 Plate 2371 (tile 1697, chunk 131) Problems again on GTF. We had repeated instances of SOP complaining that the gflat was too faint, but we were certainly getting white light down the guide fibers in our saoImage. Immediately suspecting FF petals not opening completely, we once again brought the telescope around to 100 degrees azimuth to watch the petals open and close as commandedc manually. This time when we closed the petals, 7:30 and 9:00 again did not close at first, but after a delay of a few seconds they did close completely. This time, FINALLY, watcher showed the bad state of the two petals in the telescope cartoon. We did another GTF -gflat with the same result -- the gflat was too faint for SOP. We ran the covers open and closed again manually, and this time watcher sensed bad states for several of the FF petals, despite the fact we saw them open and close correctly on the low-light cam. One more try before calling French and.... success. We have no idea why. 09:18Z GS after many, many GTF's. After setup we issued a preCalib command and were met by a quick failure of the flat field petals again. Called French. See Problems section. Closed the telescope for the night on his advice at 10:00Z. French is en route to the site to fix the problem during the daytime. endNight rejoiced, even though we didn't :-( ---=== IMAGING RUN SUMMARY ===--- Run Time Stripe Lambda Last Flavor Comments Start End Begin End Frame ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5990 21:38Z 21:56Z 100 O 155.80 160.38 45 ignore ---=== IMAGING RUN DETAILS ===--- ---=== SKIPPY RESULTS ===--- Run Frame nFrames stars muErr muRms nuErr nuRms rot az el --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---=== LTMATCH RESULTS ===--- Run Field nFields alt az nGood rowMean rowSig colMean colSig rot ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---=== SPECTROSCOPY DATA SUMMARY ===--- Summary Checked (y/n): y QA Procedures Done (y/n): y UT Exp Time flavor comment (S/N)^2 totals ========================================== b1 r1 b2 r2 ----- sequence 36618, plate -9999 ------- 21:37 36618 0.0 bias ----- sequence 36619, plate 1640 ------- 21:49 36619 10.0 flat 21:52 36620 2.0 arc 21:56 36621 2.1 arc 21:58 36622 2.1 arc ----- sequence 36623, plate -9999 ------- 23:26 36623 0.0 bias ----- sequence 36624, plate 1640 ------- DONE w/ previous signal 01:41 36624 10.0 flat 01:43 36625 2.0 arc 02:04 36626 900.1 target (sky) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 02:23 36627 900.1 target 0.4 1.9 1.6 1.6 02:41 36628 900.1 target (sky) 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 02:59 36629 900.1 target 0.8 1.6 1.3 1.2 03:16 36630 900.1 target (sky) 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 03:34 36631 900.1 target 0.3 1.6 1.4 1.0 03:52 36632 900.1 target (sky) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 04:10 36633 900.1 target 0.3 1.2 1.2 0.8 04:28 36634 900.1 target (sky) 0.0 0.1 0.6 0.1 04:46 36635 900.1 target 0.3 1.0 1.2 0.9 05:04 36636 900.1 target (sky) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 05:22 36637 900.1 target 0.1 0.8 0.7 0.6 05:40 36638 900.1 target (sky) 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 05:58 36639 900.2 target 0.8 1.2 1.1 0.8 06:16 36640 900.2 target (sky) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 06:34 36641 900.2 target 0.6 1.4 1.3 0.8 06:52 36642 900.2 target (sky) 0.0 0.1 0.4 0.1 ----- sequence 36643, plate 2368 ------- 21.6 17.3 20.9 19.9 DONE 07:47 36643 10.0 flat 07:49 36644 2.0 arc 08:08 36645 900.1 target 08:25 36646 900.1 target 08:43 36647 900.1 target 08:46 36648 10.0 flat 08:48 36649 2.0 arc ---=== TELESCOPE OFFSETS AND SCALE I ===--- Time Instrument Az Alt Rot Scale pos offset pos offset pos offset ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 01:46Z 8 1640 79.88 0.0020 65.36 0.0011 246.44 0.0017 1.000100 07:17Z 3 2368 47.07 0.0013 68.35 0.0003 220.01 0.0202 1.000070 ---=== TELESCOPE OFFSETS AND SCALE II ===--- ---=== DATA TAPE SUMMARY ===--- Goes: JL Stays: JL ---=== FOCUS LOG ===--- setmir piston Temp Wind Time Inst scale M1 M2 Foc Az Alt (C) MPH Dir filt fwhm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 01:47Z 8 1640 1.00010 -988 573 250 80 65.5 -3.8 9 90 -- 1.5 07:51Z 3 2368 1.00007 -691 705 150 26 72.7 -3.6 6 125 -- 1.3 ---=== WEATHER LOG ===--- Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust DIMM Sky 21:36Z 35 10 7 243 (WSW) 1317 - Clear 22:07Z 37 11 5 211 (SSW) -9999 - Clear 22:38Z 34 10 7 220 (SW) 1160 - Clear 23:10Z 35 10 6 256 (WSW) 1297 - Clear 23:50Z 33 10 2 200 (SSW) 1258 - Clear 00:20Z 30 9 5 208 (SSW) 1240 - Clear 00:50Z 27 9 4 105 (ESE) 1262 - Clear 01:20Z 26 11 8 90 (E) 1118 - Clear 01:51Z 25 11 10 90 (E) 1139 - Clear 02:23Z 23 12 10 88 (E) 1064 - Clear 02:53Z 22 12 10 88 (E) 1021 - Clear 03:25Z 22 12 10 90 (E) 1091 - Clear 03:56Z 24 11 12 112 (ESE) 1112 - Clear 04:27Z 23 11 12 111 (ESE) 1234 - Clear 04:58Z 25 9 9 110 (ESE) 1314 - Clear 05:28Z 25 8 7 91 (E) 1306 - Clear 05:59Z 24 8 6 91 (E) 1122 - Clear 06:29Z 24 3 6 81 (E) 850 - Clear 07:00Z 25 1 1 128 (SE) 862 - Clear 07:30Z 25 5 1 171 (S) 1015 - Clear 08:00Z 25 4 2 165 (SSE) 1021 - Clear 08:31Z 26 7 4 183 (S) 1054 - Clear 09:01Z 24 5 5 113 (ESE) 1096 - Clear 09:31Z 26 5 2 167 (SSE) 1044 - PtlyCldy 10:03Z 25 7 5 178 (S) 1119 - PtlyCldy 10:33Z 26 6 5 121 (ESE) 1096 - PtlyCldy ---=== TELESCOPE STATUS ===--- 22:40Z Fans on, east door and louvers open, west door cracked. 00:30Z Enclosure off 10:00Z Enclosure on, fans off, louvers and doors closed Telescope closed early because of a hardware problem. Telescope parked at 121,30 with Cart 4 (Plate 2371) mounted Counterweights at 245 Spectro autofill reconnected No interlocks bypassed Dewar weights at 10:30Z Imager: 162lbs 19psi Spectro: 162lbs 21psi ---=== SOFTWARE USED ===--- IOP/SOP: v4_12_0 Watcher: v2_31_0 MCP: v5_26_2 TPM: tpm_v3_3_0 AstroDa: v15_10 TCC: TCC 2.7.2.1 August 6 2004 sdssProcedures: V2_09 SoS: V4_10_7 hoggPT: v1_6_9 plate-mapper: v4_3_1 ---=== MIRROR NUMBERS ===--- PRIMARY: -------- Scale: 1.000000 MIGS TONIGHT NOMINAL Axial A -5.8430 -5.8440 Axial B -5.6810 -5.6770 Axial C 0.9320 0.9420 Trans D -9.9940 -9.9940 Lateral E 10.3759 10.3759 Lateral F 11.9507 11.9380 GALILS Commanded: 4700. -2450. 3000. -7800. 3300. 3000. Actual: 4700. -2450. 3000. -7800. 3300. 3000. SETMIR VALUES PriDesOrient: 0.00 -1.68 7.05 385.25 92.02 PriOrient: 0.00 -1.52 7.02 384.99 93.81 SECONDARY: ---------- Focus: 0.00 Air Temp.: 1.4 Alt.: 30.112075 MIGS TONIGHT NOMINAL Axial A 1.5400 1.5420 Axial B 1.0610 1.0470 Axial C 1.1710 1.1650 Trans D -0.1220 -0.1240 GALILS Commanded: 1593564. 1602376. 1554547. -6800. -5900. Actual: 1593450. 1603650. 1554300. -6800. -5900. SETMIR VALUES SecDesOrient: 1257.00 15.87 0.00 -50.00 136.76 SecOrient: 1256.76 15.51 -0.36 -49.79 136.97 ---=== PROBLEMS IN DETAIL ===--- Spectro Focus Details: sp1 sp2 Coll_motor_A 2249 -11506 Coll_motor_B 2254 -14781 Coll_motor_C 2238 -14119 sp1> caget tpm_TM_PMSSAvg tpm_TM_TelairAvg.VALA tpm_TM_PMSSAvg -1.34214 tpm_TM_TelairAvg.VALA 1.3575 b1 r1 b2 r2 Mean Offset .02 .03 .08 -.21 Recommended Piston -300 1850 Indicated best focus temperature now around 0 C. Flat Field Petals Stop Participating ------------------------------------ Around midnight, we started getting failures of commanded preCalibs and postCalibs with the error message that "Flat field screen failed to close; quitting". The watcher display never indicated stuck FF petals, so we thought the error might be spurious. However, it was literally preventing us from taking calibs. So we hauled the scope around to 100 deg in azimuth so it was more or less facing directly at the outside low-light cam, turned on the FF lamps and cycled the covers open and closed. Sure enough, the petals labeled 7:30 and 9:00 were stuck open. We cycled the covers open and closed a few times from the control room in hopes that the offenders would unstick themselves, but no dice. We bundled up and packed it down to the scope to watch the covers open and close firsthand. I stood on a ladder near the two cranky petals while Viktor cycled them open and closed from the laptop on the 2.5m. There was no evidence that the two petals were even trying to lift when the set was commanded closed. I grabbed hold of 7:30 and tugged a little; there was some resistance but I could rotate it a few degrees fairly easily. Nearby, 6:00 wouldn't hardly budge, so I suspected that the rotor shaft on the petal motors had possibly come loose from the clamps that couple it to the petals. I didn't figure motor failure, because my recollection with the NMSU 1m mirror covers was that motor failures leave the rotors immobile rather than swinging freely. (French says that actually this would not be the case necessarily with these motors). I pushed gently against 7:30 in the expected direction of motion as I had Viktor actuate the covers; both 7:30 and 9:00 started moving immediately. Viktor cycled the covers several times as I stood and watched to make sure we would not have a repeat of the failure. Satisfied with the result, we went back to observing with the understanding that we would watch for failures through the rest of the night. We think this problem explains the low efficiency during our observations of Plate 1640. Odds are the petals failed on the preCalib for this plate; they all opened properly at the start of the night when we were preparing the telescope, but the two stuck petals probably failed to open after the preCalib finished. Again, we never had any indication in watcher that there was a problem. It was only when we actuated the covers for the second time -- almost five hours later -- that we had the first indication something was wrong. With two of eight petals closed, losing 1/4 of the light, it's no wonder it took us so long to finish that plate! Later on Cart 4 the problem with the petals recurred again. This time we called French, who asked us to investigate the problem. On his instructions, we connected the pendant controller for manually actuating the mirror covers and ran them open and closed with French on the phone. He determined, from our observations, that the problem most likely was in the controller for the motors that actuate the mirror covers, rather than a failure of either the motors or the drive train. With 3.5 hours left in the night, he felt it was unlikely the problem could be solved before the night ended, but that work on the problem in the daytime would make it possible to hand the telescope back to us for tomorrow night's observing. With that we closed the telescope for the rest of the night.