Travis, Nutsinee, Jeff K., Betsy, Ed, Cheryl, Hugh, Jim, Stefan, Sheila, Elli, pretty much everyone in the control room!
This log is meant for fellow operators, but commissioners might find it useful as well.
- We started relocking in the afternoon. Locking green went well. There was an argument about whether to request LOCKED NO SLOW or LOCKED WITH SLOW FEEDBACK (as stated in the Initial Alignment Wiki). I went for LOCKED NO SLOW because I knew it worked two Saturdays ago but I didn't know when was the last time wiki got updated (and I also don't know what LOCKED WITH SLOW FEEDBACK was). It is a good idea for the person who's maintaining the Ops wiki to put in the date and the content that was being updated (this was already brought up by TJ, but I just wanted to emphasize how important it is if we are going to use the wiki as the reference so we know we can trust it).
- Everything went well up until MICH DARK LOCKED. The counts on the BS output were awfully high and the AS port wouldn't go dark. The solution to this in a normal situation would be to request DOWN and wait until the beam splitter becomes settle. However, Stefan found that there was a change in the LSC MICH filter and the Guardian tried to turn on the filter that no longer existed (Guradian turning on a blank filter wasn't a problem, the problem was a filter was supposed to be there). He reverted the filter to the way it was the night before. Then everything worked again. I wasn't sure if this difference showed up in the SDF or not.
- Mode Hopping! Soon as you approach DRMI LOCKED, get the IFO_ALIGN window ready. You will have to touch the beam splitter if the RF18 (pink) is low. You have to act quick! Or the interferometer will give up on you. Use AS port camera as a reference for pitch/yaw and watch "pink" and "purple" to see if you go the right way.
- We lost lock at LOW NOISE ESD ETMY. After that we had difficulty relocking ETMY green. Power dropped after WFS was engaged. Shortly after Travis found that the TMSY slide bar was off from Kissel's screenshot in the morning (or last night?). After we put TMSY yaw back to where it was and the arm was able to lock in green. Not only the screenshot never hurt, but it has also proven to be helpful!
- We also switched ISI Windy Blend filters on for ALL Quads because the wind was reaching 35 mph (and we thought might have lost lock because of that). However, TURNING ON WINDY BLENDS TRIPPED BOTH ETMX AND ETMY ISI. Jeff demands all ISI filters are set the same while Sheila thinks it's okay to leave the Windy blend at the corner station on. Personally I would turn on the corner station windy blends iff I'm desperate. Since the wind wasn't too bad we switched the filters back to "Quite" (I'm sure it should spelled "Quiet"). This configuration worked fine the night before.
- Then we lost lock at LOW NOISE ESD agian. At least we got all the way there right after maintenance period!
- Ed was updating the Wiki during the relocking. It should be as up-to-date as it possibly can right now.
LOCKED NO SLOW: no tidal relief
LOCKED WITH SLOW FEEDBACK: tidal is feed to the ETM (will keep the green laser frequency constant)
It makes little difference, if you only spend a small amount of time in this mode. On the other hand, I am not aware of any reason why LOCKED WITH SLOW FEEDBACK wouldn't be the better option under any circumstances.