APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY SDSS 2.5M OBSERVING LOG Thursday December 24, 2009 (MJD 55190) ---=== OBSERVING TEAM ===--- Elena Malanushenko Steph Snedden Kaike Pan (afternoon) Snow clearing: Howard Brewington Norm Blythe Frances Dan Long - pre-dawn Xmas visit to hook up the enclosure winches. ---=== OBSERVING PLAN ===--- Science: MARVELS: First 6 hours BOSS: last 5 hours ---=== OBSERVING SUMMARY ===--- We were not able to open because of humidity, then blowing snow, then a building motion failure. We are pretty sure the latter problem was due to ice on the power rail. We had to call Dan Long in on Xmas morning to set up the winch and cable system to close the building back up (yes the rail heater was on). Thanks much Dan. We did the sparse-plugged plate test for BOSS and re-did taking some out-of-focus arcs and flats using the sparse-plugged plate. The spectro 180-liter dewar will need changing during the day. It has one more fill in it, so should last until an observer is awake, if no one gets to it sooner. ---=== OBSERVING LOG ===--- Afternoon: ---------- Howard, Norm, Frances, and Kaike cleared snow and ice around the 2.5m telescope, and from walks to Dorms, to the 2.5m enclousre, and to the machine shop. All actors and systems are checked and working properly. BOSS spectrograph collimations were checked with cartridge 13. Due to belowing snow, we will likely not be able to open soon, cartridge 12 (spare plugged plate) is mounted for cloudy night test. High humity prevents us from evening ventilation. 22:30Z MARVELS ThAr lamps on. Night: -------- I've never seen the apron so free of snow after a snowstorm. Kudos to everyone for their snow clearing efforts. We will be able to work if the humidity and blowing snow let us. Wind gusts of only 15 mph caused snow to blow from nearby trees at the enclosure apron. The snow covered trees are quite beautiful, but may be a problem for us tonight. The cloud camera cover was frozen to the base. If we need it, we will have to thaw it with a hot air gun. 01:00Z - Started sparse-plugged plate tests. -------------------------------------------- The first step was to fine tune the focus. We accidentally took a Hartmann without letting the lamps warm up (frames 105483, 105484). We did a second Hartmann (frames 105485, 105486) with the lamps warmed, and there was a negligible difference in the results. requested collimator motor moves: r1:-3345 b1: 7.2 deg. r2: -230 b2: 3.3 deg. We moved a conservative -1000 steps on r1 to see if another Hartmann would ask for a move of -2000 (a sanity check of the Hartmann reductions on a sparse-plugged plate). Another Hartmann taken(frames 105487, 105488 requested collimator moves: r1: -2488 b2:7.2 deg r2: -322 b2: 3.3 deg. r1 was moved -2488. The Hartmanns seemed to work well on the sparse-plugged plate. On to the sparse-plugged plate test: Note that the arc lamps were allowed to warm up two minutes prior to exposures being taken. 01:12Z - 30 sec. flat, frame 105489 (normal calibration frame) 5 sec. arc, frame 105490 (normal calibration frame) arc lamps kept on. 01:23Z - 2 sec. arc (frame 105491) 01:26Z - 40 sec. arc (frame 105492) Ignore exposure 105493 - neon lamps were off. 01:37Z - 2 sec. arc (frame 105494) 01:40Z - 40 sec. arc (frame 105495) Arc lamps off. Sparse-plug test complete. -------------------------------------------------- Out-of-focus flats and arcs with the sparse-plugged plate. We did this test earlier in the month, but did on a fully plugged plate. We repeat it with the sparse-plugged plate. 01:46 - Check of focus Hartmann (frames 105496, 105497) All cameras in focus. 02:07Z - In focus 30 sec. flats (frames 105498, 105499) In focus 4 sec. arcs (frames 105500, 105501) 02:23Z - Moved focus +2000 from best focus. +2000 from focus 30 sec. flats (frames 105502, 105503) +2000 from focus 4 sec. arcs (frames 105504, 105505) 02:35Z - Moved focus to +1000 from best focus. +1000 from focus 30 sec. flats (frames 105506, 105507) +1000 from focus 4 sec. arcs (frames 105508, 105509) 02:49Z - Moved back to best focus. In focus 30 sec. flats (frames 105510, 105511) In focus 4 sec. arcs (frames 105512, 105513) 03:02Z - Moved focus to -1000 from best focus -1000 from best focus 30 sec. flats (frames 105514, 105515) -1000 from best focus 4 sec. arcs (frames 105516, 105517) 03:17Z - Moved focus to -2000 from best focus -2000 from best focus 30 sec. flats (frames 105518, 105519) -2000 from best focus 4 sec. arcs (frames 105520, 105521) Motors returned to in focus positions. --------------------------------------- 04:10Z - Elena managed to get the cloud camera cover unstuck, using the hot air gun. 04:20Z - Dewpoint depression is above the opening limit, but blowing snow is still a problem for our tree-level telescope. 07:06Z - Started enclosure ventilation with doors mostly closed (blowing snow). 09:23Z - The blowing snow at the enclosure was much less, so we tried to open. When the enclosure got to about three feet open, the motor current became weak, the building stopped moving, and we could not move it back. We suspect ice on the power rail. Sigh. We bypassed the alt and wind baffle alt interlocks so we could (carefully!) move the telescope back to 30 degrees alt and hook up the spectro autofill system. We closed the east door, and left the west door open (the west door would hit the doghouse if we tried to close it). We called Dan, and he bravely drove to the site in the pre-dawn hours to hook up the cable and winch system. Much time was spent scrounging for the clam shell clamp pulleys, then a cotter pin for some pulleys we did find. Once we were set up, we were able to close the building with the winches, and contact on the power rail was re-established after moving most of the way closed. Dan checked that the rail heaters had indeed been turned on, and by eye, the ice accumulation didn't look all that bad, but it certainly behaved like an ice problem. Dan will discuss with French under what conditions we should attempt opening tonight, and will post instructions. All building motion interlocks that we had bypassed were re-enabled. 13:15Z endNight rejoiced. ---=== IMAGING RUN SUMMARY ===--- Run Time Stripe Lambda Last Flavor Comments Start End Begin End Frame ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---=== 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): QA Procedures Done (y/n): UT Exp Time flavor comment (S/N)^2 totals ========================================== b1 r1 b2 r2 ---=== TELESCOPE OFFSETS AND SCALE I ===--- Time Instrument Az Alt Rot Scale pos offset pos offset pos offset ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---=== TELESCOPE OFFSETS AND SCALE II ===--- ---=== FOCUS LOG ===--- setmir piston Temp Wind Time Inst scale M1 M2 Foc Az Alt (C) MPH Dir filt fwhm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---=== WEATHER LOG ===--- Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust DIMM Sky 21:59Z 22 16 13 323 (NW) 420 - Clear 22:31Z 22 16 7 347 (NNW) 447 - ' 23:03Z 20 15 7 27 (NNE) 438 - ' 23:36Z 19 14 11 355 (NNW) 609 - ' 00:32Z 16 13 4 330 (NNW) 476 - ' 01:04Z 16 13 12 27 (NNE) 841 - ' 01:36Z 16 12 16 7 (N) 590 - ' 02:08Z 15 11 12 352 (NNW) 934 - ' 02:40Z 15 10 9 14 (NNE) 923 - ' 03:12Z 15 10 13 6 (N) 650 - ' 03:45Z 15 9 8 349 (NNW) 681 - ' 04:17Z 15 9 14 358 (NNW) 686 - ' 04:49Z 15 8 0 304 (NW) 940 - ' 05:21Z 15 8 6 354 (NNW) 620 - ' 05:53Z 16 8 9 339 (NNW) 542 - ' 06:25Z 15 7 12 346 (NNW) 719 - ' 06:57Z 16 6 17 323 (NW) 368 - ' 07:30Z 16 4 11 342 (NNW) 661 - ' 08:02Z 17 4 15 334 (NNW) 275 - ' 08:34Z 17 1 10 347 (NNW) 452 - ' 09:06Z 17 1 12 330 (NNW) 334 - ' 09:38Z 19 -2 15 328 (NNW) 718 - ' 10:10Z 17 -6 10 345 (NNW) 287 - ' 10:42Z 20 -12 7 19 (NNE) 356 - ' 11:15Z 22 -13 11 342 (NNW) 559 - ' 11:47Z 22 -19 18 346 (NNW) 573 - ' 12:19Z 23 -20 5 5 (N) 795 - ' 12:51Z 22 -20 14 5 (N) 1138 - ' 13:23Z 22 -16 11 0 (N) 905 - ' ---=== TELESCOPE STATUS ===--- 07:06Z - Started enclosure ventilation, but doors mostly closed. 09:30Z - ventilation off. 09:30 - 13:00Z - closed enclosure Telescope at 30 deg. alt with cartridge 16 mounted. Spectro autofill system on. No interlocks left bypassed. 13:11Z - Spectro dewar: 74 lb; 23 psi ---=== SOFTWARE USED ===--- IOP/SOP: v4_40_0 Watcher: v2_36_0 MCP: v6_6_1 TPM: tpm_v3_5_0 AstroDa: v15_13_1 TCC: TCC 2.11.0 2009-06-24 sdssProcedures: SoS: plate-mapper: ---=== MIRROR NUMBERS ===--- PRIMARY: -------- Scale: 1.000000 MIGS TONIGHT NOMINAL Axial A -0.6990 -0.6940 Axial B -0.0360 -0.0410 Axial C -0.3770 -0.3710 Trans D 11.6080 11.6170 Lateral E 10.3759 10.3505 Lateral F 11.9507 11.9253 GALILS Commanded: 9900. 400. 5850. 1200. 2950. 2750. Actual: 9900. 400. 5850. 1200. 2950. 2750. SETMIR VALUES PriDesOrient: 0.00 -3.30 5.10 278.08 178.06 PriOrient: 0.00 -3.04 5.26 277.70 178.07 SECONDARY: ---------- Focus: 0.00 Air Temp.: -7.3 Alt.: 29.999997 MIGS TONIGHT NOMINAL Axial A 18.6320 18.6150 Axial B 15.6380 15.6120 Axial C 13.8620 13.8170 Trans D -11.7900 -11.7780 GALILS Commanded: 1600373. 1564632. 1585841. -7600. -12400. Actual: 1597700. 1566200. 1588100. -7600. -12400. SETMIR VALUES SecDesOrient: 1257.00 -4.00 -9.00 10.00 234.42 SecOrient: 1256.69 -3.28 -10.45 9.23 234.22 ---=== PROBLEMS IN DETAIL ===---