[mmaimcal] FYI: 18 December 2006 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Al Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Mon Dec 18 16:59:09 EST 2006
Folks,
Comments or contributions?
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
18 December 2006 - 1 January 2007
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT***************************
ALMA's Year in Review 2006 This observer's candidates for the top ALMA events
of 2006:
January - Chilean Local Labor hiring agreement between ESO and AUI.
March - The Board approves selection of the ESO's Vitacura site as the location
for the ALMA Headquarters building in Santiago.
May - the National Science Board approved NSF's request for additional funding
for ALMA. This action provides the NSF Director with spending authority that
covers the revised baseline as approved by the ALMA Board.
June - Operations phase ramps up. Chris Carilli has been appointed Head of
the North American ALMA Science Center, Paola Andreani has been appointed
ARC Manager for ESO and John Hibbard and Ryohei Kawabe continue as acting
ARC Managers for NRAO and Japan. Later in year New Operations Plan nears
completion. Head of Administration for Joint ALMA Observatory hired Dec 06.
June - first ALMA antenna pad constructed, at the Vertex Site Erection
Facility at the OSF.
June - Array Operations Site Technical Building construction contract signed
by AUI and ConPax.
July - Amendment #2 to the Agreement Concerning the Construction of the
Enhanced Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) Between ESO,
NSF and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan was executed by
all of the parties, marking the beginning of the trilateral ALMA project.
August - Operations Support Facility Construction Contract signed between
ESO and VVMO.
November - More than 300 astronomers meet in Madrid for the second ALMA
conference, Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics, held 13-17 Nov.
December - Signal connectivity through the ALMA prototype system from
transmitter to correlator achieved at ALMA Test Facility.
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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
Sky: Saturn rises around 9 pm, Venus emerging from the very early sunsets
this week. Other bright planets are low in the morning sky.
The sunspot group causing last week's coronal mass ejections and aurorae
(http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/images2006/14dec06f/dmsp1_dec1415.gif)
has passed behind the solar limb.
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Work continues toward the immediate
goal of enclosing and powering the technical building by late January,
including an internet connection to the OSF and beyond.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Work has started in the Vertex
Site Erection Facility (SEF) area. Excavation for foundations, earth grounding
and utilities is ongoing. Building erection will begin in January 2007.
Currently there are 357 persons working on the site of which 187 use the
ALMA and Contractor's lodging facilities, and 147 live in the VVMO camp.
Extension of the contractor's camp continues with 80 of 160 new beds in use.
Delivery date was Feb 2007.
Images at http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html
TUC: D. Emerson traveled to the ATF to assist in PSI tests. Holdaway is
working on a final design for the extended configuration.
NTC (NRAO Technology Center, Charlottesville): First Band 9 (650 GHz)
cartridge passed tests on 2006-Dec-12. It will be installed in the cryostat
after Christmas, joining bands 3 (3mm), 6 (1.3mm), and 7 (.87mm) for the
first complete bilateral cartridge set in a cryostat. Integrated testing
for electromagnetic compatibility continues. At IRAM, B7
Cartridge No. 2 is ready to be shipped to the NTC/FEIC.
Informal reviews were held by the LO photonics group of the Line Length
Corrector and LO Photonics Receiver.
NAASC: Planning for the workshop 'Transformational Science with ALMA:
Through Disks to Stars and Planets' to be held 22-24 June 2007 continues.
Early registration is under way; registration will open with the new year.
See http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/disk07/
A. Hales traveled to the ATF to assist in PSI tasks.
ATF: Prototype Antenna racks have been installed in the VertexRSI antenna.
The 2-antenna correlator was successfully updated and tested at the ATF.
Evaluation frontends were used to detect the holography signal, followed
through to the correlator. Holography testing continues with improving results.
Software has been updated to post-ACS (ALMA Common Software) Version 6.
ESO: "Today is a great day because the ESO Council has authorised us to go
forward with the final design of the next flagship telescope of ESO,", says
Catherine Cesarsky, ESO's Director General, speaking of the decision by the
ESO Council to go ahead with the design study for an European Extremely
Large Telescope.
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 18 Dec -
Tue 19 Dec -
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
5:59 PM - International Space Station 47 deg above NW horizon.
Wed 20 Dec
9:01am - New Moon
9:30am - Science IPT telecon
Thu 21 Dec
7:22pm - Summer solistice occurs in Chile.
Fri 22 Dec - Half Day (Chile)
A flurry of meteors may emerge from Ursa Minor (the Little Dipper) on
Dec. 22nd between 18 and 23 hours UT when Earth runs into a filament of
debris trailing comet 8P/Tuttle. Meteor forecaster Peter Jenniskens of the
SETI Institute anticipates as many as 39 meteors per hour, best seen from
Europe and Asia.
Sat 23 Dec - Holiday (Japan) The Emperor's Birthday
Sun 24 Dec
Mon 25 Dec - Holiday (Chile, NA, Europe) Merry Christmas!
Tue 26 Dec - Holiday (Chile, NA, Europe)
Wed 27 Dec
Thu 28 Dec
Fri 29 Dec - Half Day (Chile)
Sat 30 Dec
Sun 31 Dec
Mon 1 Jan - International Holiday. Happy New Year!
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
Jan 3 ASAC Telecon
Jan 16-17 '07 all day Transporter FDR
Jan 18 '07 ALMA Board telecon
Jan 29-30 '07 all day B9 Cartridge CDR
Jan 30-1 Feb all day AEM antenna PPDR Mestre
Feb 6-7 B9 cartridge CDR Groningen
Feb 15 ALMA Board Telecon Telecon
Mar 9-12 all day IPT F2F MEETING Chile
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ***************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*****************************
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