[mmaimcal] FYI: 2006 Apr 10 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Mon Apr 10 16:35:49 EDT 2006

Folks,

Yes, another one.  Comments, criticisms, corrections?

-Al
                     BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                          10 April 2006 - 23 April 2006

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT****************************
ALMA Quarterly Report material due 15 April.
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Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
See also the JAO ALMA Calendar overview at:
http://www.alma.cl/alma_project
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General Happenings
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Road to high site rough work
completed.  ACA working area earthwork is now complete.

Santiago: Early discussions on Santiago ALMA Offices at Vitacura continue.
System Requirements Review followup telecons and agenda resulted in plan for
24-25 April meeting in Garching (+ videocon).

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16000ft altitude): The AOS Technical Building
Foundation and Shell construction to be complete 2006-April-19.

TUC: Nutator specifications released for comment.

AOC: 1st LO phase drift tests show system is close to project specifications.
Offline and Pipeline tests concluded.  

ATF (ALMA Test Facility, VLA site): Optical Pointing Test report available.
Elevation axis amplifier repaired on AEC antenna.  

NTC: Acceptance testing of B6 (1.3mm) Cartridge No 1 under way.   A
x9 multiplier solution to providing B9 (.65 mm) power appears promising.
Cryostats No. 1 and No. 2 are operational at the NTC.
Intensive tests of the tunable filter bank (TFB) II card were completed with
participation of Escoffier, Quertier and Comoretto. Production TFB review
in Bordeaux 10-11 April.

NAASC (North American ALMA Science Center: Preparations for Internal
Review of NAASC Operations Plan scheduled for 11 April.  Posters and
Talks listed for Calgary AAS special ALMA Session.
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
 Mon  10 Apr
 Tue  11 Apr
10:30 AM-?: Internal Review of NAASC Operations Plan 
12:15 PM: NGC6334: A cluster of massive protostars resolved by the SMA
                Todd Hunter, SMA
 Wed  12 Apr
11:00 AM: SSR Telecon 
            http://almasw.hq.eso.org/almasw/bin/view/SSR/2006-04-12
 Thu  13 Apr
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: Management IPT Telecon
11:00 AM: Calibration Group telecon
            https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/CalAgendaMinutes20060413
 Fri  14 Apr Holiday Chile, North America, Europe
 Sat  15 Apr 
 Sun  16 Apr Easter
 Mon  17 Apr Holiday, Europe
 Tue  18 Apr
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
                 NA IPT Leads Telecon
4:00 PM-5:00 PM: NAScienceIPT teleconference (open to all interested 
                                 parties) (434)296-7082
 Wed  19 Apr 
             Late Abstracts and Early Registration DEADLINE
             Calgary AAS Meeting
10:30 AM-11:30 AM ScienceIPT teleconference
             https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/19Apr06Agenda
 Thu  20 Apr
 Fri  21 Apr Complex Molecules in Space: Present status and prospects with 
             ALMA 8th thru 11th May 2006, Fuglsøcentret, Denmark
             Registration Deadline
 Sat  22 Apr
 Sun  23 Apr 
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
 April 24-25     All day         SRR followup meeting   Garching
 April 27                        ALMA Board Telecon
 April 28        1900 UT         ANASAC Telecon
 May 3           1500UT          ASAC Telecon
 May 3           1700UT          NAASC Telecon
 May 25                          ALMA Board Telecon
 June 13-14    	 all day 	 ALMA Board Meeting 	Santiago
 Aug 1                           Move of PSI to ATF
 Sept 22-23      evening         Dave Matthews Band     CV JPJ Arena opening
 November 9-10 	 all day 	 ALMA Board Meeting 	Madrid 	TBD
 Nov 13-16    all day Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics Madrid
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ****************************
ALMA Memo #547:  Estimate of the ALMA Cryostat Hold Time
Author:  G. A. Ediss

    In this paper we attempt to calculate the operational hold time 
for the ALMA front-end cryostat, given the reported thermal loading, 
thermal capacity and leak rates.

View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #547 at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma547/memo547.pdf
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ALMA Memo #548: Performance budget estimation on the ACA system
Authors:  Hitoshi KIUCHI (NAOJ), and Satoru IGUCHI (NAOJ)

This memo describes the performance budget estimation on the ACA 
system. The most significant thing of interferometer is to maintain 
the signal coherence. We will discuss the performance budget through 
the estimation of the signal-to-noise ratio and the signal coherence.

View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #548 at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma548/memo548.pdf
******************************ALSO OF INTEREST*****************************
                2nd pan-ALMA Conference : 2nd Announcement

Dear Colleague,

The 2nd pan-ALMA conference on "Science with ALMA: a new era for  
Astrophysics" will be held 13-16 November 2006 in Madrid, Spain. The 
venue will be the campus of the CSIC (Consejo Superior de 
Investigaciones Cientificas), in the centre of town. 

Information on the 2nd pan-ALMA meeting is available via

       http://www.oan.es/alma2006/   (final slash is mandatory)
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ALMA presentations at the January Zmachine meeting are available on line 
through links at www.zmachines.net
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Post Doctoral Research Associate Studies of high-mass star formation
Salary up to £26,401 per annum (Ref: EPS/108/06)

THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY JODRELL BANK OBSERVATORY

A postdoctoral position is available to work on a new VLA high resolution 
radio continuum survey of the Galactic Plane. This Large VLA Project has 
been awarded ~400 hours of observing time and will begin in June 2006; it 
will cover the same area as the northern GLIMPSE survey made by the 
SPITZER satellite. The postdoctoral fellow will take charge of the 
observations, reduction and exploitation of the survey, aimed principally 
at the study of high-mass star formation. Collaboration with other members 
of the international team is envisaged.

The position is available immediately for a period of two years in the 
first instance, with the possibility of extension beyond this date.  The 
appointment will be as a Research Associate, with a starting salary in the 
range of £24,886 to £26,401 per annum.

Application forms and further particulars are available at 
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/vacancies or from EPS HR Office, The 
University of Manchester, Sackville Street Building, Manchester M60 1QD, 
Tel: 0161 275 8837; Fax: 0161 306 5037 or email: eps-hr at manchester.ac.uk.

Quote ref:  EPS/108/06

Closing date: Monday 1 May 2006

Informal inquiries may be made to Philip Diamond, tel: 01477 571321, 
email pdiamond at jb.man.ac.uk
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Anne Dutrey informs us of a CNRS post-doctoral position at the Observatory of 
Bordeaux. The position is opened for two years and will start on september 
2006 at the Observatory of Bordeaux. The application deadline is June 2006. 

The position is dedicated to the modelling of chemistry in proto-planetary 
disks in order to interpret observational data obtained with the IRAM array.  

Interested people can read the dedicated CNRS web page 
http://www.k-projects.com/cnrs_postdocs/public/departement_details.php?IdDpt=9&Dep=SDU&NumOffre=2&Langue=en
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Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the
preceding biweekly period to Jennifer Neighbours or Al Wootten via e-mail
(jneighbo at nrao.edu or awootten at nrao.edu).

The calendar will be issued between late Friday and sometime on Monday by
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Past issues are available at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html