[mmaimcal] FYI: 19 June 2006 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Al Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Thu Jun 22 18:19:16 EDT 2006
Folks: Comments criticisms or tantrums welcome...
Al
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
19 June 2006 - 3 July 2006
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT****************************
ALMA Special Session at Calgary AAS Meeting:
"Imaging Star Formation in the Cosmos with ALMA"
Members of the NAASC, including our Canadian colleagues, organized a
special session at the June meeting of the American Astronomical
Society (AAS). The June 5th afternoon session was filled to capacity,
with nearly 200 AAS and Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) members
in attendance to hear presentations on "Using ALMA to Disentangle
the Physics of Star Formation in Our Galaxy by Douglas Johnstone
(NRC-HIA, U. Victoria), "Imaging Star-Forming Gas in Nearby
Galaxies with ALMA by Jean Turner (UCLA), and "ALMA and Distant
Galaxies by Andrew Blain (Caltech).
The special session included an accompanying poster session (#51), with
nine posters and one in session #56 on the 3mm cartridge. These posters
also traveled to the JAO in Santiago the following week. Invited
session 30.01 featured Christine Wilson speaking on "Luminous
Infrared Galaxies with the Submillimeter Array: Probing the Extremes
of Star Formation.".
Powerpoint and pdf versions of the talks from the special session and
several of the posters are collected at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/AAS/ -- J. Hibbard & Crystal Brogan
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Jonathan Williams of Hawaii was appointed as the
new ANASAC Chair. Jonathan has been enlisted to organize ANASAC input into
key US community issues, such as a potential grants-with-observing
time program, as well as to perform a general review of the North
American ALMA operations plan. A listing of the current ANASAC
membership and dates of scheduled meetings are given at
www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/admin.shtml. The community is encouraged to
contact their ANASAC representatives with any ideas or questions on NA
ALMA operations or the Science Center. -C. Carilli
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Madrid meeting registration is now closed, having reached the limit.
The number of participants in the conference is over 300; the limit
is 280. There are many requests for contributing talks. In order to
have a reasonable scheduling of the meeting and to give the participants
half a day for visiting Madrid, the LOC and the SOC, have decided to add
one day to the meeting, i.e., the new dates are Nov 13-17. Participants
should be sure to make their hotel reservations soon.
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The ALMA Board held its eleventh face-to-face meeting on 13-14 June 2006
in Santiago Chile. Afterward, there was a trip to the ALMA
site to examine the considerable progress made so far in ALMA construction
there. F. Lo and R. Booth, respectively, served as alternate members for
A. Sargent and E. van Dishoeck, who were unable to attend. P. Ho attended
as an Observer from the Japanese delegation. Among its major actions, the
Board
* approved the ALMA Science Requirements Document pending some wording
adjustments,
* discussed the duties of the Project Scientist; a search for a suitable
candidate is expected to commence soon,
* concurred with the Director's recommendation that ESO proceed with the
placement of the OSF construction contract,
* discussed progress made on developing the Operations plan,
* recommended that the NSF/ESO/NINS amendment Version #2 recommended by
the Board's Working Group be executed by the parties by June 30, 2006,
* Agreed to a revision to the draft ALMA Agreement amendment # 2,
* Requested that the Director base the operations plan on a single time
allocation committee while the Executives further examine this modality
for ALMA in coordination with the Directors' Council and the Chilean Board
Member,
* Concurred in NSF's proposal to appoint John Bally to the ASAC.
Noting that I. Corbett's long association with the Board is drawing to a
close, the Board expressed its profound thanks to him for his many years
of service to the ALMA Project and noted his substantial contributions in
enabling the success of the partnership. To that appreciation, we add
our own!
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June 20th, 2006 - - The House Appropriations Committee has sent all of
its FY 2007 funding bills to the floor. The National Science Foundation
receives $6 billion, the full amount requested as part of the American
Competitive Initiative and an increase of $439 million above FY06.
Includes $4.6 billion for research, $334.5 million above FY06; and
$832.4 million for science education, $16.2 million above the request.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration receives $16.7 billion,
$462 million above the FY06 base level. Funds the President's vision
for space exploration at $3.8 billion; provides full request for the
Space Shuttle; and restores $100 million above the request to
aeronautics research, and $75 million above the request for space
science.
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The world's largest airborne astronomical observatory has passed a
technical and programmatic review that could potentially lead to the
continuation of the mission. NASA's Program Management Council concluded
that there were no insurmountable technical or programmatic challenges
to the continued development of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared
Astronomy (SOFIA). The agency has developed a technically viable plan to
proceed with the development of the SOFIA aircraft, subject to the
identification of appropriate funding offsets.
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/jun/HQ_06240_SOFIA_update.html
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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
***************************************************************************
General Happenings
Sky: The Evening sky hosts Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Venus is
the morning star.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Approximately 90 people
are working on the ALMA site; the largest contingent is the Con-Pax
contingent building the nine antenna foundations at the Melco and Vertex
laydown areas. Work has begun on the utilities for these areas. The
Vertex building should arrive very soon. Signing of the contract for
the construction of the OSF has been approved by all parties and is
imminent. The ALMA Camp Recreation Room, adjacent to the dining
facility, should be complete by the end of this fortnight.
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): From 15-21 June, the APEX
facility has seldom registered more than 1mm of PWV; much of the time
it has been below 0.5 mm. S. Radford (Caltech) reports data from near
the summit of Chajnantor (5612 m) has generally shown lower values
than from a station near the CBI.
Santiago: A meeting on Assembly, Integration, Verification and
Commissioning (AIVC) was held in Santiago at the JAO offices.
Study continues of siting and needs for the permanent Santiago
Central Office in Vitacura.
AOC: Bidders conference for the nutator was held 31 May. Master Laser
specification and SoW review was held. An updated ALMA System Block
diagram was distributed. Move of hardware from the Socorro lab to the
ATF is scheduled to begin 2006-Aug-28.
***************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 19 Jun
All day: Assembly, Integration, Verification and Commissioning (AIVC)
meeting, Santiago
Tue 20 Jun
Mercury is at greatest elongation, 25° east of the Sun in the evening sky.
All day: Assembly, Integration, Verification and Commissioning (AIVC)
meeting, Santiago
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 21 Jun First Day of Winter (Southern Hemisphere)
Thu 22 Jun Venus, Moon and Pleiades nearby after sunset.
Fri 23 Jun
Sat 24 Jun
Sun 25 Jun New Moon
Mon 26 Jun St. Peter & St. Paul Holiday, Chile
Tue 27 Jun
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
4:00 PM-5:00 PM: NAScienceIPT teleconference (open to all interested
parties) (434)296-7082
Wed 28 Jun
10:30 AM EDT: Science IPT Telecon
Thu 29 Jun
Fri 30 Jun
Sat 1 Jul
Sun 2 Jul
Mon 3 Jul NRAO Holiday
Tue 4 Jul Independence Day Holiday, US.
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
Jun 19-20 all day AIVCSV Meeting Santiago
Jun 30 1800 UT ANASAC Meeting Telecon
Jul 25-26 FE face-to-fact CV
Jul 27-28 all day FE LO CDR CV
Aug 8-9 B7 cartridge CDR Grenoble
Aug 28 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 # 549: Reference values of arterial oxygen saturation and heart
rate at the ALMA site
Author: Seiichi Sakamoto
Abstract: Arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate at the ALMA
site were monitored with portable pulse oximeters for an astronomer over
five years. A set of data is presented to provide a reference range of
these values at the ALMA site.
View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #549 at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma549/memo549.pdf
******************************ALSO OF INTEREST*****************************
ALMA has openings for Head of Science Operations, Head of Technical
Services, and Head of Administration. Please see:
http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml
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