This is an informal log of noteworthy events in the life of the WHT. Sources of more detailed information include:
1987
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Oct Primary aluminised?
1988
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Nov Primary aluminised, secondary aluminised (twice)
1989 (observing with TAURUS, FOS, GHRIL, FLEX, QUBES)
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May 10 One-month standdown to commission Cass A&G box.
Jul 10 6-week standdown to commission ISIS.
Sep 4 1-month standdown for dome.
Nov 7 Primary aluminised.
Dec 14 ISIS polarisation commissioning begins.
1990
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Jan 3 MES (Manchester Echelle) run.
Feb 7 CFX (control-file observations) commissioning - never adopted.
Mar 5 Secondary standdown.
Apr 16 Autofib (1?) on telescope.
Jun 4 1-month Cass rotator standdown.
Oct 1 1-week dome-shutters standdown.
Nov 28 Primary aluminised
1991
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Jun 24 UES commissioning begins.
Jul 19 First FAST run (Genzel).
Nov 18 Primary aluminised.
1992
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Mar 16 LDSS commissioning begins.
Jun 12 First Leicester-photometer run.
Oct 6 Primary aluminised.
Nov 2 2-week tube-straightening standdown.
1993
----
Jan Martin Fisher measured differential flexure between top and bottom
ends -0.56 +- 0.24 mm, confirming improvement due to starightening
and small enough to allow PF commissioning to go ahead.
Jan Ladder installed to allow safer access to cube from UES platform.
Jan Top end of telescope being cleaned.
Jan Guide-star server installed? Reported in Gemini 3/93.
Feb Cable wrap amplifier burnt out.
Feb One of dome motor brakes burnt out, dome filled with fumes.
Feb Rudi Le Poole carrying out thermal audit.
Mar 8 large instrument-storage cupboards installed in gantry.
Mar New 6100-A dichroic and longer BFOLD for ISIS installed by SPW.
Mar Duckboards installed outside WHT to leave ice-free path.
Mar 19 Ethernet shorted in cable wrap, now using spare.
Mar 29 Standdown until Apr 1 to replace cable wrap.
Inspection of cable wrap revealed many twisted and torn cables.
Cables and links replaced.
WYFFOS table and supports installed during standdown.
Mar 30 INT mirror and 2 IAC mirrors aluminised in WHT tank.
Apr Old optics lab emptied of equipment in preparation for conversion to
instrument-test area. Aluminising area also emptied of instruments
and cupboards.
Apr Tea room refurbished (double in size, new units)
Apr Daylight IR observing of SN1993J by team from IAC (starting half
an hour before sunset).
Apr Extensive observations of SN1993J with UES.
May Welder visited from Tenerife to mend cracked welds in WHT dome rail.
Jun 1 Standdown until Jun 3 to inspect new cable wrap and replace cables.
Jun 12 Hitchhiker team observing until Jun 26 (last run this year).
Jun 27 Open day.
Jun 30 Leap second inserted.
Jul 18 Open day.
Aug Microthermal sensor array installed by Brian Hucklesby.
Aug Imaging polarimetry commissioned.
Aug 4 NOT mirror aluminised in WHT tank.
Aug 15 Open day.
Aug 29 Open day.
Sep 5 Open day.
Sep 12 Open day, last of year. 4130 visitors on the 6 open days.
Sep 15 Crane tests.
Oct 12 Dave Gellatly installed PF electronics crates and fibre trunking.
Oct Large numbers of tourists leaking onto observatory site because
Roque road closed.
Oct 21 Primary aluminised - Aluminising standdown until Oct 24.
Nov 22 PF commissioning until Dec 5.
Dec Martin Fisher found that movement of images at GHRIL was due to
Nasmyth mirror seating badly against a bracket. Realigned.
Dec 24 Run with ARNICA IR instrument until Jan 2.
1994
----
Jan Worst storm for 5 years left domes (and everything else on mountain)
thickly sheathed in ice. Some minor damage from falling ice.
Jan 20 PF commissioning until Jan 31, nearly wiped out by bad weather.
Feb Ray D showed video taken by Martin Fisher from prime focus, showing
hot air billowing across altitude bearings on either side.
Feb Control-room partitioning installed.
Mar Schedule in middle of month changed around to accommodate
Vilchez (he had to observe in Hawaii). Net effect is that
2 dark service nights become slightly brighter.
Mar ISIS pointing 1.5", UES 3"
Mar 1 Angela Baldwin (great-great-granddaughter of William Herschel) and
husband visited WHT, and presented us with portraits of William and
John Herschel.
Mar 3 Manual logging of observations stopped; automatic logging
begun (LOGFORMAT format 12).
Mar 12 Dave King installed new dichroics 4500, 5400, 5700, 6100, 7500
on 5 mounts, each with 1 dichroic, 1 mirror. Old dichroics retired.
Mar 15 New door being installed between control room and corridor.
Apr Prime-focus commissioning completed.
May 2 GHRIL autoguiding commissioned.
Jun 1 WHT active at 3 focal stations in one night (ISIS, UES, GHRIL).
Jun 14 Crosswires removed from tube because diffraction spikes interfering
with coronograph observations of disks round stars.
Apr 15 MPE's 3D IR camera on until Apr 21
Apr 22 PF commissioning until May 31 Jul 18 Moreno observing with Coronograph
Sep 19 UES A&G upgraded, bigger fibres, better throughput
Oct 11 AUTOFIB2 commissioning until Oct 20
Nov 14 3-night standdown for aluminising, replacement of data optical fibres
by 62.5-micron industry-standard fibres, move of electronics racks
to back of control room
Nov 15 Shack-Hartmann at several elevations
1995
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Jan 25 GHRIL IR-derotator chassis aligned by Sue Worswick. Derotator will
be aligned with chassis in Cambridge.
Mar 10 New control desk installed by John Mills, Clive Amos et al.
Mar 30 Ken Pounds (PPARC chief exec) visits ING
Jun ISIS optics serviced (SPW/DLK)
Jul 10 David Walker's UCL team testing ISAAC adjustable collimator on
telescope
Oct 3 Observed all night with mirror support off (by accident!)
Oct 4-7 CO2-snow cleaning tests (reflectivity increased 80% to 85%) and
aluminising of primary.
Oct 8 Shack-Hartmann test data rubbish because wrong spacer in
Nov 20 Secondary mirror aluminised during prime-focus run.
Nov LORAL CCD commissioning cancelled; 6 half-nights released for
S/D work.
Nov 24 Secondary transducer no.1 dead (dead at least since Aug 14).
Fixed next day.
Dec 23 Cass TF term set to -10
1996
----
Jan 10 New (Nov 95) Cass pointing model entered by JMB. Rms now 1.1"
during CALIBRATE
Jan 11 Primary, secondary and Nas flat CO2-snow-cleaned by Mariet. Nas flat
showed some improvement
Jan 16 Nasmyth flat cleaned with PL25 spray-on, peel-off, noticeable
improvement (less grainy appearance)
Feb 20 Nobel-prize winning medics visit WHT, but only have 5 mins, because
they have to rush for a flight to Lanzarote
Mar 18 Shack-Hartmann tests at aux port (CRB/SPW) show sig more spherical
aberration than autumn 1994, probably consistent with numbers from
aux-port and TV out-of-focus imaging
Mar 18 Newly-coated IR derotator being installed at GHRIL (SPW/MBROX)
Mar 24 Nasmyth flat removed
Mar 25 Nasmyth flat aluminised (first time for years), reinstalled
Mar 27 after slight delay due to failure of glue on one pad
Apr 3 5000x8000 NAOJ mosaic camera goes on PF for 2 weeks
Jun 27 Nasmyth mirror cleaned with PL25
Jun 29 Royal opening of Galileo; visitors see Galileo mirror in
WHT aluminising area
Jul 30 Secondary (primary according to MBROX) snow-cleaned.
Sep 30 Primary (only) aluminised, secondary looking good.
No reflectivity measurement (new monitor acquired at time of
aluminising).
1997
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May 5 Nas flat PL25-cleaned
Jun Nas flat misaligned??
Jul 6 Nas flat PL25-cleaned (refl. .85 before, .86 after)
Oct 15 TCS commissioning cancelled (software group not ready),
reverted to S/D + INTEGRAL
Oct 29-30 Site-properties conference in Los Cancajos
Oct 30 Prins Willem (NL) visits at night, opens Dutch open-tower solar
telescope Oct 31 and visits WHT dome during day
Nov 9 Major CCD electronics / DICI problem, both arms of ISIS unusable,
5.5 hours lost (largest downtime for years)
Nov 10 Aluminising primary mirror.
1998
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Jan 8 CIRSI run.
Jan 10 Two observers (WHT and INT) taken ill with flu?, whisked off site
Mar UES slit jaws not going to reported width. Traced in early Jun
to dekker scraping against jaws.
May 22 Final run of Japanese mosaic CCD at WHT PF.
Jun 2 4 of 6 Nasmyth-flat pads being reglued off telescope (other 2
were reglued last (?) year). 2 of the 4 came loose ver easily,
so flat may not have been positioning correctly.
Jun 3 Nasmyth flat back in, awaiting alignment
Jun 9 - 11 JOSE run, incl one night data in good seeing with simultaneous
DIMM observations. They found the IR derotator throughput to be
poor (dirty surfaces).
Jun 15 Secondary baffle off (for K skybr measurements)
Jun Az oscillations, +- 0.5 arcsec, about 2 Hz, after WHIRCAM put on
at Cass?
Jun 23 Rotator collimation correction being incorrectly calculated by
new TCS - claim for paybacks possible
Jun 27 Long-slit UES derotator not installed for Vors run - claim for
payback possible.
Sep 7 Aluminising primary mirror.
Sep 10 Shack-Hartmann tests at Cass, FWHM < 0.2 arcsec
Sep 11 - Oct 1
CALIBRATEs ~ 5 arcsec. Time service discovered to be 1 sec out.
Oct 12 Cass TT moved 5 deg out of synch with cable wrap, trashed a
linear potentiometer. No damage in wrap.
Oct 27 Final run of WHIRCAM as common-user instrument.
1999
----
Jan 17? Opening WHT after storm, buckets of water poured out of A&G box.
Jan 17 2.5 hours lost to lightning damage (of CAMAC), and 2 hours more
Jan 23 (failure of UES rotator encoder).
Jan 20 Telescope driven accidentally into a dewar, damage to one clamp
on a cryostat.
Feb 1 SAURON commissioning begins.
Feb 2 SCAM commissioning begins.
Mar 3 Final run of TAURUS as common-user instrument.
Apr~10 A&G mirrors all PL25 cleaned (BaRT), need alum after the flood
May 6 1 kg pulley-weight fell onto bare mirror from PF.
Some permanent scratches. 1 night lost.
CALIBRATE coefficients same on nights before and after, so
mirror not moved.
May 13 PF observers report elliptical images (ell ~ 0.05 - 0.1),
in elevation direction.
May 26 ELECTRA commissioning, hampered by having to use WHIRCAM as
detector.
Jun 21 ELECTRA commissioning.
Jul 1 CIRSI run.
Aug 25 Power cut early morning for half an hour, backup batteries
failed, all day needed to recover systems.
Sep 21 TEIFU commissioning.
Oct PF observer working at dec = -4, images marred by dozens of tracks
of geostationary satellites (this turns out to be the dec at which
they lie when viewed from the latitude of La Palma).
Oct 8 SAURON run.
Nov 1 TRIFFID run.
Dec 8 SCAM commissioning.
Dec 31 WHT scheduled closed (first night ever).
2000
----
Jan 1 No time lost to Y2K bugs.
Feb 7 Thomas Augusteijn deputy WHT telescope manager from today.
Feb 10-16 A&G and ISIS off. INGRID folding flat installed in A&G.
ISIS red-arm focus problems investigated. ISIS slit cleaned.
Mar 2 Final LDSS run as common-user instrument.
Mar 16 INGRID commissioning.
Mar 27 SAURON run.
Apr 24 200th anniversary William Herschel's discovery of IR radiation
Apr 25 SCAM commissioning delayed by delay in delivery of liquid He.
Jun 1 Prince Felipe of Spain visits, takes an image of M51, files
no defect reports.
Jun 2 Seeing 0.8 arcsec at all 3 telescopes at start of night,
1.0 arcsec at all 3 telescopes at midnight. First recorded
occasion when ~ no dome seeing in any of the 3 telescopes?
Jun 13 May 1999 gouges in primary mirror ground out to relieve stress.
Two patches of surface ~ 1 cm in diameter have been lost.
Mirror trial washed with water (5% improvement in reflectivity)
and then with water/detergent (1.5% further improvement) before
aluminising.
Aug 14 NAOMI commissioning hampered by telescope oscillations,
now almost eliminated by fine-tuning telescope-control feedback
loop.
Sep 1 SAURON run.
Sep 9 NAOMI commissioning.
Sep 18 Stannddown night for installation of He pipes in Cass cable wrap.
Sep 29 SCAM run (first half night lost after failure of motor in cooler).
Dec 20 First NAOMI science run wiped out by bad weather.
winter 2000/01 - best Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb weather for at least 10 years
2001
----
Jan ISIS data-acquisition switched to ultradas.
Mar 6 Commissioning INGRID with new aspheric.
Mar 14 SAURON run.
May 29-31, Jun 4-15
NAOMI commissioning + 2 nights service observing
Jun 26 Bent gripper found in AF2, replaced.
Sep 23 Severe coma introduced after focus drive sent to limit
(after replacement of drive belt, which came off),
causing a counterweight to crush a cable connector and
tilt the secondary mirror 1 mm off its kinematic mount.
Oct 17 Bottom shutter repaired.
Oct 17 ING board visit WHT.
2002
----
Jan 26 Start of commissioning run for Rayleigh laser guide star.
Jan 30 FOS finally removed from ISIS (improves balancing).
? UES removed from Nasmyth platform
Dec GRACE dedicated AO enclosure installed on old UES paltform
2003
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Mar NAOMI moved into GRACE
Oct 8 ING board visit WHT
2005
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Sep Bush fires
Sep 28 Service night with ISIS red and blue, aux, INGRID and OASIS - record?
2006
----
Jun 11 Spanish minister of science and educ (MEC) visits WHT, sees NAOMI
Aug (or Sep) rain fell on WHT, date unknown, rainspots cover ~ 10% of
surface
Oct 6 Half-metre area of primary experimentally washed (half with soap)