----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mauna Loa Solar Observatory Observer's Log ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mon Mar 28 17:13:03 GMT 2022 Year: 22 Doy: 087 Observer: mcotter WEATHER COMMENT: mcotter: Mon Mar 28 17:15:33 GMT 2022 Temp: 40.9f, Humidity: 28%, Pressure: 28.668in, Wind: 4mph from 123 degs, Skies: Relatively clear skies but slightly hazy with a thick gray inversion very noticeable on the horizon just above Haleakala. Bits of high altitude Cirrus clouds scattered in diferrent areas of the sky. ___end___ GENERAL COMMENT BY mcotter: Mon Mar 28 17:15:38 GMT 2022 Opened windows upstairs ___end___ GENERAL COMMENT BY mcotter: Mon Mar 28 17:15:44 GMT 2022 PM Blew off UCoMP O1 ___end___ GENERAL COMMENT BY mcotter: Mon Mar 28 17:15:49 GMT 2022 PM Blew off Kcor O1 ___end___ Mon Mar 28 17:17:37 GMT 2022 Running UCOMP Cookbook all_wavelenght_coronal_flat.cbk line 0 Mon Mar 28 17:21:22 GMT 2022 Kcor Focus/alignment program exited UCoMP COMMENT BY mcotter: Mon Mar 28 17:24:14 GMT 2022 Ucomp instrument now running. ___end___ KCOR COMMENT BY mcotter: Mon Mar 28 17:25:43 GMT 2022 Kcor instrument now running, though the sky is quite bright. Polarization checked good: Mid, Bright, Dark, Mid. ___end___ Mon Mar 28 17:33:11 GMT 2022 UCoMP Paused for clouds Mon Mar 28 19:16:26 GMT 2022 UCoMP Restarted from pause Mon Mar 28 19:16:28 GMT 2022 Running UCOMP Cookbook all_wavelenght_coronal.cbk line 0 Mon Mar 28 19:36:45 GMT 2022 UCoMP Paused for clouds Mon Mar 28 19:50:39 GMT 2022 UCoMP Restarted from pause Mon Mar 28 19:53:37 GMT 2022 UCoMP Paused for clouds Mon Mar 28 20:02:04 GMT 2022 UCoMP Restarted from pause Mon Mar 28 20:06:44 GMT 2022 Running UCOMP Cookbook all_wavelenght_coronal.cbk line 0 Mon Mar 28 20:09:59 GMT 2022 UCoMP Paused for clouds WEATHER COMMENT: mcotter: Mon Mar 28 21:13:15 GMT 2022 All morning bands of high altitude Cirrus clouds have been blowing from west to east making their way through the viewing area of the instruments. In order to maximize data being taken I have been starting and stopping the instruments during small breaks of blue (clear) sky conditions. While this is a bit time consuming, the data taken by the instruments is adding up. There appears on the satellite images a large pattern of Cirrus still coming our way, so at some point it may get too thick to observe. ___end___ WEATHER COMMENT: mcotter: Mon Mar 28 21:21:09 GMT 2022 Along with the bands of high altitude Cirrus making its way in from the west, Orthographic clouds are beginning to come into the viewing area from the north-northeast. Additionally, clouds are starting to form then disperse directly above the observatory and aerosol levels have increased dramatically, making the sky very bright at this time. ___end___ GENERAL COMMENT BY mcotter: Mon Mar 28 21:31:20 GMT 2022 The dome shutter doors and windows have been closed at this time due to adverse sky conditions. ___end___ GENERAL COMMENT BY mcotter: Tue Mar 29 02:32:27 GMT 2022 It has been overcast since late morning, so Ben and I took some time to discuss improvements to the spar performance as it relates to flexure, weights & moments and issues relating to instrument mounting. While doing this we wanted to determine the amount of flexure that was taking place on the base plate of the Kcor instrument where the detectors are mounted relative to the plane surface of the spar. We had previously mounted a 12' long x 3" wide x 1" thick length of extruded aluminum (80x20) along the north face corner of the spar that is tangent with the south spar plane to give us additional areas to mount equipment. The extruded aluminum extends approximately 2' lower than the bottom of the spar. We were able to attach a 90 deg bracket to the bottom section of the extruded aluminum that sits perpendicular to the bottom face of the Kcor detector back plate near its bottom edge. Keeping the spar pointing at zenith we mounted a bolt through the bracket and tightened it into position with the head of the bolt just making contact with the Kcor back plate. When we pointed the spar at east horizon we were able to measure a gap between the Kcor back plate and the bolt head of approximately .015". We believe the flexure to be approximately this value. At this orientation we repositioned the head of the bolt to the just touch the Kcor back plate. When we returned the spar to zenith there was no gap between the bolt head and plate, but a slight bit of positive engagement between the two surfaces. It is cloudy this afternoon so we were unable to confirm if this improved the flexure that we see in the Kcor image data, but we are interested to see the plots for this anomaly the next time we collect data to confirm if this has made a positive change in the flexure. ___end___ GENERAL COMMENT BY mcotter: Tue Mar 29 02:33:24 GMT 2022 Skies are quite overcast with a mist blowing through the area. ___end___ GENERAL COMMENT BY mcotter: Tue Mar 29 02:34:57 GMT 2022 The day started off hazy with high altitude Cirrus prevalent across much of the sky. By late morning clouds blew up from the Saddle Valley and the sky became completely overcast. ___end___ Tue Mar 29 02:38:22 GMT 2022 UCoMP Restarted from pause ONSITE STAFF: