APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY SDSS 2.5M OBSERVING LOG Saturday October 25, 2003 (MJD 52938) ---=== OBSERVING TEAM ===--- night: Howard Brewington, Steph Snedden swing: Jurek Krzesinski support: Jon Brinkmann (by phone) ---=== OBSERVING PLAN ===--- Science! ---=== OBSERVING SUMMARY ===--- Bad weather kep us closed all night. No science (sigh). Spectrograph collimation problem. ---=== OBSERVING LOG ===--- Afternoon checkout: ------------------- DAs ok, imager ok., MIGs ok. Spectrographs: ok, but the air temperature is dropping rapidly - the focus check was delayed till twilight to allow spectrographs to cool down to -2.5 C. Telescope fiducialized. Night: ------ Clouds, high wind, followed by clouds and snow, followed by clouds and high humidity. We were closed all night. Curses. We had problems with the spectrograph focus/collimation. Jon was consulted by phone. Although we finally got the focus in spec, there appear to be problems with the collimator mirror actuators on sp1, or problems communicating with them. See the problems section for details. Since the weather was bad, no science time was lost. ---=== IMAGING RUN SUMMARY ===--- Run Time Stripe Lambda Last Flavor Comments Start End Begin End Frame ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4213 22:30Z 23:06Z 100 O 80.72 89.62 73 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):n QA Procedures Done (y/n):n UT Exp Time flavor comment (S/N)^2 totals ========================================== b1 r1 b2 r2 ----- sequence 22896, plate -9999 ------- 22:30 22896 0.0 bias 23:14 22898 10.0 flat 23:19 22899 2.0 arc 23:37 22900 2.1 arc 23:40 22901 2.1 arc 02:05 22906 2.1 arc 02:07 22907 2.1 arc 02:30 22908 2.1 arc 02:32 22909 2.1 arc 03:37 22910 2.1 arc 03:40 22911 2.1 arc ----- sequence 22912, plate 1582 ------- 05:24 22912 2.1 arc 05:27 22913 2.1 arc lots o' collimation 06:45 22914 2.1 arc tweaks 06:47 22915 2.1 arc 07:32 22916 10.0 flat 07:34 22917 2.0 arc 08:07 22918 10.0 flat 08:13 22919 10.0 flat 08:24 22920 10.0 flat 08:36 22921 10.0 flat 08:45 22922 10.0 flat 08:56 22923 10.0 flat 09:04 22924 10.0 flat 09:10 22925 2.1 arc 09:13 22926 2.1 arc 09:35 22927 2.1 arc 09:38 22928 2.1 arc 09:48 22929 2.1 arc 09:50 22930 2.1 arc 10:00 22931 10.0 flat 10:02 22932 2.0 arc ---=== TELESCOPE OFFSETS AND SCALE I ===--- Time Instrument Az Alt Rot Scale pos offset pos offset pos offset ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---=== TELESCOPE OFFSETS AND SCALE II ===--- ---=== DATA TAPE SUMMARY ===--- Goes: N/A Stays: N/A ---=== 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 22:00Z 33 19 19 75 (ENE) 805 - cloudy 22:33Z 31 17 20 77 (ENE) 733 - " 23:05Z 30 15 28 73 (ENE) 788 - " 23:37Z 29 14 32 70 (ENE) 903 - " 00:07Z 27 13 23 58 (ENE) 1003 - " 00:38Z 26 13 16 70 (ENE) 1007 - " 02:24Z 25 13 28 67 (ENE) 871 - " 02:55Z 24 13 17 71 (ENE) 1144 - " 03:28Z 22 16 22 57 (ENE) 3663 - " 04:00Z 21 18 26 73 (ENE) 2023 - " 04:32Z 21 18 30 70 (ENE) 1546 - " 05:04Z 21 18 17 73 (ENE) 787 - " 05:36Z 21 18 26 55 (NE) 641 - " 06:09Z 21 19 19 67 (ENE) 750 - " 06:41Z 20 19 25 72 (ENE) 601 - " 07:11Z 21 20 26 61 (ENE) 1652 - " 07:41Z 21 20 23 62 (ENE) 590 - " 08:13Z 21 20 25 68 (ENE) 744 - " 08:45Z 21 20 22 73 (ENE) 925 - " 09:17Z 21 20 20 67 (ENE) 457 - " 09:47Z 21 19 25 70 (ENE) 380 - " 10:18Z 21 19 28 72 (ENE) 627 - " 10:51Z 20 19 24 70 (ENE) 473 - " 11:23Z 21 19 29 72 (ENE) 453 - clear ---=== TELESCOPE STATUS ===--- 23:50Z Enclosure doors opened. 03:00Z Doors closed again. Blower & fans off. Telescope stowed at 30 deg alt. with cartridge 8 mounted. Spectro auto-fill connected. Counterweights at 270. 11:19Z - Spectro dewar weight: 277 11:19Z - Imager dewar weight: 253 ---=== SOFTWARE USED ===--- IOP/SOP: v3_120_0 Watcher: v2_24_0 MCP: v5_22_0 TPM: tpm_v2_33_0 AstroDa: v14_47 TCC: 2.7.1 sdssProcedures: v1_77 SoS: v4_10_6 hoggPT: v1_6_9 plate-mapper: v4_3_1 ---=== MIRROR NUMBERS ===--- PRIMARY: -------- Scale: 1.000000 MIGS TONIGHT NOMINAL Axial A 0.5430 0.5460 Axial B 0.6450 0.6290 Axial C 1.0890 1.0900 Trans D -8.6010 -8.5750 Lateral E 10.8839 10.9093 Lateral F 10.8585 10.8712 GALILS Commanded: 4600. -2850. 850. -7250. 19000. 18450. Actual: 4600. -2850. 850. -7250. 19000. 18450. SETMIR VALUES PriDesOrient: 0.00 0.00 15.20 829.90 1.60 PriOrient: 0.00 0.00 14.91 830.49 3.19 SECONDARY: ---------- Focus: 0.00 Air Temp.: -1.3 Alt.: 30.145694 MIGS TONIGHT NOMINAL Axial A 1.5110 1.5100 Axial B 1.1000 1.0990 Axial C 1.1120 1.1160 Trans D -0.8300 -0.8210 GALILS Commanded: 1628631. 1548184. 1574477. -3900. -8750. Actual: 1628650. 1548200. 1574500. -3900. -8750. SETMIR VALUES SecDesOrient: 1257.00 0.00 -25.00 0.00 146.27 SecOrient: 1256.99 0.01 -25.00 0.26 146.55 ---=== PROBLEMS IN DETAIL ===--- Spectrographs: -------------- During the spectro focus check, we seemed to reach a limit on collimator actuator b on sp1. sp1> mechPiston -500 2003-10-26 02:54:58Z: Original command was !mb-500! 2003-10-26 02:54:58Z: expected reply was !mb-500 OK ! motor b: Mechanicals did not respond correctly; response was mb-500 Error: problem with motors (see previous error message) Original motor positions: {a -8781} {b -8981} {c -500} Current motor positions: {a -9280} {b -9481} {c -500} The mechSend s results: Bootup 719771169 SpectroID 1 SlitID 33 Air On Shutter_open_sensor Off Shutter_closed_sensor On Left_open_sensor Off Left_closed_sensor On Right_open_sensor Off Right_closed_sensor On Coll_motor_A -9280 Coll_motor_B -9481 Coll_motor_C -500 Requested_exp.time 0.0 Exp_time_left 0.0 Last_exp.time 2.1 Exp_state None Shutter_open_transit .71 Shutter_close_transit .55 Coll_motor_A_status 0x85 Coll_motor_B_status 0x84 Coll_motor_C_status 0x85 It turns out that goSpecFocus and collimate were asking for huge focus correction values (7000 to 10000 counts). We called Jon. He asked the correct obvious questions; are the slitheads latched? (yes.) Are the lamps all coming on with the same intensity? (apparently yes, although Ne and HgCd from lamp controller 1 flickered a few seconds before coming on.) Are the slithead latches engaging properly, or is a crushed moth preventing the slitheads from seating properly? (The slthead latches appear to be engaging properly, and no moths seen.) Then, we thought this problem might be because of the plate...the Taurus plate that was giving trouble the other night. So we mounted a cartridge with a survey plate. The large focus error persisted. Jon asked us to check the purge flow rate to the spectrograph optics (horrible visions of frost on the optics). Sp1 flow rate was 8, Sp2 flow rate was 5. Both were tweaked to 9. As a last ditch effort, we rebooted the mechanicals to both spectrographs. It did not make any difference. I noticed another problem that occurred with the mechPiston command. I issued a "mechPiston -500" which should have sent actuator c to a position of about -7680. Instead, it replied it was at -500, the same as the mechPiston command. I am not sure if the actuator actually moved or not, but... A flat showed that the sp1 X-positions were way off! 2075.6, 2084.7 for b1 and r1 XMAX. But when I tried to adjust the collimator actuators, I got: sp1> mechMoveColl 500 500 -500 sp1> IOP running as Backup Relay Server requestListen: listening 2003-10-26 07:45:18Z 69 sp1 camcheck 2003-10-26 07:45:20Z 69 sp1 SHOWREADVOLTS 2003-10-26 07:45:24Z 69 sp2 camcheck 2003-10-26 07:45:26Z 69 sp2 SHOWREADVOLTS 2003-10-26 07:45:32Z: registered (addr36) listener sdsshost:observer:2988 sp1> mechMoveColl 500 500 -500 2003-10-26 07:45:47Z: Original command was !ma500! 2003-10-26 07:45:47Z: expected reply was !ma500 OK ! motor a: Mechanicals did not respond correctly; response was ma500 Error: problem with motors (see previous error message) Original motor positions: {a 500} {b 508} {c -500} Current motor positions: {a 1000} {b 508} {c -500} sp1> mechSend s spMechVersion v2_5_0 Bootup 719771169 SpectroID 1 SlitID 40 Air On Shutter_open_sensor Off Shutter_closed_sensor On Left_open_sensor Off Left_closed_sensor On Right_open_sensor Off Right_closed_sensor On Coll_motor_A 1000 Coll_motor_B 508 Coll_motor_C -500 Requested_exp.time 0.0 Exp_time_left 0.0 Last_exp.time 2.1 Exp_state None Shutter_open_transit .72 Shutter_close_transit .56 Coll_motor_A_status 0x85 Coll_motor_B_status 0x85 Coll_motor_C_status 0x85 The mechMoveColl command was issued again, and this time it worked. I carefully moved the collimator position back in steps of 5 pix until XMIN and XMAX were in spec. I didn't see any more error messages about the mechanicals not responding correctly, but a couple of times, a commanded move of 5 pix didn't seem to move the mirror at all. After the mirror tilt was removed, the large focus adjustments were made again, this time successfully. Final mirror positions: Cartridge 8, T=-0.2C sp1: sp2: a=-12050 -10534 b=-12050 -10534 c=-20050 -10534 So what was wrong? Just a huge focus shift because of colder weather? I don't really think so. We also some problems communicating with the actuators, notably the odd shift in actuator c to a position of -500 when a mechPiston command should have sent it to a very different value (see above). I think the collimation system on sp1 needs to be looked at. PR 5726 was filed.