[mmaimcal] FYI: Jan 2 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Tue Jan 3 18:07:22 EST 2006

Folks:  

Comments, corrections, criticisms please.

Al
                     BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                          Jan 2, 2006 -- Jan 16, 2006

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*****************************
Happy New Year!  The new year presents a good time for reflection on the
old.  Therefore, this Calendar presents a list of top ALMA achievements
for 2005, in no particular order, and in my opinion only.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Colleagues,                                         22 Dec 2005

I am very pleased to inform you that Dr. C. Cesarsky, Director General 
of ESO, and Mr. H.-J. Habernegg, President of Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik 
GmbH, have signed the contract for the manufacture and delivery of two 
antenna transporters for ALMA today.

Let me take this important event for ALMA to thank all of you for your 
dedicated efforts and qualified work for the ALMA project during this 
very important and critical year of ALMA. I think we are on a good track 
and ALMA is certainly facing an interesting and challenging year 2006.

Have a good Holiday Season and a Successful New Year.

Hans Rykaczewski
European ALMA Project Manager
******************************** THIS YEAR*****************************
Top Ten ALMA achievements of 2006:
* Antenna contracts were signed for at least 53 production antennas.
* A contract was signed for the antenna transporters.
* A contract was signed for Construction of the foundation and shell of 
   the Array Operations Site Technical Building; by year's end substantial
   progress was visible (see link to photo below).
* Design Reviews were successful for all six first-light ALMA receiver 
   bands, the water vapor radiometers, the Japanese 12m antennas, and
   the Atacama Compact Array.
* ASIAA, Taiwan has entered the ALMA project through the signing of an 
   agreement with ALMA-Japan.
* ESO Council on 29-30 September, "...decides that the estimated increase
   ...in the cost to completion of the ESO share of the bilateral ALMA 
   project is affordable and compatible with ESO's strategic priorities."
* On 22 November President Bush signed into law H.R. 2862, directing
   that ALMA construction be fully funded for the eighth consecutive 
   year.
* A Cost Review of the rebaselined ALMA budget was held in 
   Garmisch-Partenkirchen 13-16 October.  The panel noted that "the science 
   capability of the array was extremely exciting, and that ALMA 
   remains an extremely exciting project for the future".  The Report
   was presented to the ALMA Board but is not yet public.
* Russell and Rykaczewski assume responsibilities as NA and EU Project
   Managers.  JAO turno Project Scientist system instituted.
* A Report was issued by the National Academy assessing the impact of 
   the ALMA technical performance and scientific program, concluding that
   "Two of the three Level One requirements, involving sensitivity and
   high-contrast imaging of protostellar disks, will not be met with either
   a 40- or a 50-antenna array."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
*******************************************************************************
General Happenings

AOS: Eduardo just sent along a photo taken today of AOS construction progress:
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/20Dec05A

NAASC:  The first of the ALMA Antenna Evaluation Group (AEG) results 
colloquia will be held 3 Jan at 4pm Eastern, with all sites connected.
1. *Overview* /(Mangum)/: General overview of the antenna evaluation
     performance results. 
   Al, noticing a deficit of video podcast material for the new Ipod,
transformed our ALMA movie, previously available on scarce DVD copies, 
into NRAO's first Video Podcast.  Viewable with iTunes, get it at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/videopodcast.html
It is about 77MB in size.
*******************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
 Mon  2 January
 Tue  3 Jan
4:00 PM: Colloquium on AEG antenna evaluation:
        *Overview* /(Mangum)/: General overview of the antenna evaluation
          performance results. 
 Wed  4 Jan
4:00 PM: ASAC telecon.
8:00 PM:  Rose Bowl; U. Tx. beats USC.
 Thu  5 Jan
 Fri  6 Jan
2:00 PM: ANASAC telecon.
 Sat  7 Jan
 Sun  8 Jan
 Mon  9 Jan
12:30 PM:  ALMA Town Meeting, AAS, Washington.
 Tue  10
 Wed  11
 Thu  12 Jan
Opening Reception, ZMachines conference http://www.zmachines.net/
 Fri  13 ZMachines conference
 Sat  14 ZMachines conference
 Sun  15 January 
 Sun  16 January 
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
ALMA Calendar--https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
    * Jan 4-7 -- URSI/NA, Boulder
    * Jan 4 --- ASAC telecon
    * Jan 6 -- ANASAC telecon
    * Jan 9 -- ALMA Town Meeting, AAS
    * Jan 9-12 -- AAS meeting, Washington
    * Jan 12-14 -- ALMA Zmachines workshop
    * Jan 26-27 -- ALMA Delta Cost Review, DC
    * Jan 28-29 ASAC face-to-face
    * Jan 30-Feb 2 -- NA ALMA Review, Charlottesville
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *****************************
******************************ALSO OF INTEREST******************************
******************************************************************************
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
e-mail to all NRAO scientific staff members and anyone else interested. 
A specific mailing list, alma-info, has been created for anyone wishing 
to receive it.
Past issues are available at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html