[mmaimcal] Atacama Adventure - Week Two

[Steven T. Myers]

Observing night tally for week two - 1.5 nights.  Lost 0.5 nights due to
cloud, 3 nights due to snowing, and 2 (otherwise clear) nights due to
the fact we couldnt get to the site and the generators failed.

A substantial snowstorm hit last Saturday and Sunday, with very high
(50 m/s?) winds and cold on Monday.  the Jama Pass highway was blocked
Sunday, and we got as far as the Japanese containers Monday, and finally
got to the CBI on Tuesday and found the Generators (the operating one
failed at 3am on Monday morning, and the backup never started) dead and
site without power.  The CBI dome was full of snow, and drifts blocked
most of the container entrances.  Six of us went up Wednesday and dug
the place out (took from 10am to 5pm).  The generator people from
Atlas-Copco will come up to help start them on Friday, and at best we will
have the system operational late Saturday or early Sunday.  Lost time due
to this storm - at least 1 week.

Accessibility during winter is a real concern.  This site is significantly
more difficult to reach than the Pampa la Bolla area, and although a paved
road would help alot, the problem has been drifting snow.  It took about
1 hour for the snow to drift in and cover our trail on Sunday and Monday.
Sunday was hopeless because the highway had drifted closed in places that
we couldnt skirt around by going off-road like we did on Monday.  The only
hope would have been a good access road up the west side like the old road
or the pipeline - we didnt get a chance to try, but that might have been
clear to the crest at least.

Note the NRAO site monitoring (at least the STIs) were down all this time,
and only were repaired by Angel yesterday.

Total CBI score for 4 May - 18 May 2000: 3.5 nights observing.

    -Steve

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|:| Steven T. Myers                      |:|  Associate Scientist      |:|
|:| National Radio Astronomy Observatory |:|                           |:|
|:| P.O. Box O                           |:|  1003 Lopezville Rd.      |:|
|:| Socorro, NM 87801                    |:|  Ph:  (505) 835-7294      |:|
|:| smyers at nrao.edu                      |:|  FAX: (505) 835-7027      |:|
|:| http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers      |:|                           |:|
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