[mmaimcal] FYI: 20 November 2006 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Al Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Mon Nov 27 15:06:10 EST 2006
Folks,
Comments?
Thx,
Al
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
20 November 2006 - 4 December 2006
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT****************************
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Talks (invited and contributed) from the recent and very successful
Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics, held 13-17 Nov in
Madrid, will be available on the conference webpage. It is expected
that the links will be active around December 15th.
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At the conference, new stills and animations of ALMA artist concepts
were provided by ESO. Copies of the stills are available at
http://www.eso.org/projects/alma/
and will soon appear in the NRAO image gallery. Also, the tenth edition
of the European ALMA Newsletter, featuring the recent workshop on water
vapor radiometry, is available from that website.
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The Sept/Oct 2006 ASAC report may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/asac/asac_sep2006.pdf
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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: Mercury is at greatest elongation, 20¡ west of the Sun. It's low
in the dawn. Fomalhaut shines highest due south right after dark, far
left of the waxing Moon. Fomalhaut hosts a debris disk which will be
imaged with ALMA. Saturn (magnitude +0.4, in Leo), rises around 10 or
10:30 p.m. The recently discovered 400 km ice fountains of its 500 km moon
Enceladus will make a good target for ALMA imaging (finest beam 50 km).
Santiago: Local hiring of AIV staff continues. Some staff are now
arriving at North American sites. The ALMA Board recently approved
the 2007 Construction and Operations budgets.
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Finish work at the Technical
Building is well progressed. Much of the final equipment to be installed
is now on the site.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): The AIV temporary building
was completed on 7 Nov 2006, on schedule. Holography tower is under
construction. Finished utilities installations in Vertex and MELCO SEF
Sites (except Fiber Optics) November 15, 2006, The ALMA contractors
camp capacity of 145 beds is exhausted. Contractor's camp extension
work was approved by NSF and is proceeding toward a mid-December delivery
date. Currently there are approximately 256 persons working at the site
of which approximately 124 use the ALMA and Contractor's lodging
facilities.
NTC: The first beam map (B6, 1.3mm) in a production cryostat was produced.
The first set of Band 3 warm optics shipped to the NA FEIC, where the first
B3 (3mm) cartridge, serial number 2, arrived, was unpacked and inspected
in preparation for PAS. PAS of the Band 9 Cartridge #1 at the NA FEIC is
scheduled for mid Dec. 2006. At this point a complete complement of
bilateral cartridges will be available at the NA FEIC.
NAASC: Operations plan meetings occurring daily week of 27 Nov.
F. DeLucia visiting from Ohio State to discuss ALMA line frequency needs.
AOC: Rodrigo Olguin (EE) started with AIV team. Work concentrates on
support of ATF activities, including the move of the prototype system to the
prototype antennas located there.
ATF: Achieved basic completion of Holography functionality at ATF.
The BEND AEC antenna racks were removed from the AOC on Nov 13 and moved
onto the AEC antenna on Nov 14. Checkout will be done the week of
Nov 20. The move of the proto-correlator and central LO will start the
week of Nov 27. The BEND antenna rack installation in the Vertex antenna
is planned for the week of Dec 04.
A proposed date for a meeting to review the results of the laboratory phase
of Prototype System Integration (PSI) is 24 and 25 January 2007 in Socorro.
ESO: The ESO Finance Committee (FC) approved a number of key items on 6
and 7 November 2006:
* Approval to negotiate a final contract for several
important EU FE IPT work packages, including those for production of
ALMA Cryostats and 4 - 8 GHz cryogenic amplifiers.
* A contract extension for the set up of the EU FEIC at RAL is being prepared.
* The proposed extension of the Computing agreements with European
Institutes that are already part of the CIPT, up to max 2011.
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 20 Nov -
Tue 21 Nov -
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 22 Nov
Thu 23 Nov - Thanksgiving Day, US and Japan
Fri 24 Nov - NRAO Holiday
Sat 25 Nov
Sun 26 Nov
Mon 27 Nov
B7 Cartidge No 2 PAI scheduled.
Tue 28 Nov
1:29 AM: First-quarter Moon.
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Noon: NAASC Tuesday Lunch: Weeds, Flowers, Clutter and a New Approach
to Removing the Spectroscopic Bottleneck in Millimeter and Submillimeter
Astrophysical Spectra - A Discussion Frank De Lucia from The Ohio State
University
Wed 29 Nov
9:30 AM: ALMA Science IPT Telecon
Thu 30 Nov
Fri 1 Dec
16:30 Chile: "Millimeter Detection of Spitzer selected hyperluminous
infrared Starburst Galaxies" Dr. Alain Omont, Institut d'Astrophysique
de Paris, France. ESO Conference Room, Vitacura.
Sat 2 Dec
Sun 3 Dec
Mon 4 Dec
Fourth Chilean School of Astrophysics--Interferometry in the Epoch of
ALMA and VLTI http://www.astro.puc.cl/school/
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
Dec 6 ASAC Telecon
Dec 6-7 all day ACA correlator CDR Japan
Dec 6-8 all day Molecular database meeting Leiden
Dec 7 ALMA Board telecon
Dec 14 all day LLC and LO Photonic Rx DR Cville
Dec 29 1800UT ANASAC 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 all day AEM antenna PPDR
Feb 6-7 B9 cartridge CDR Groningen
Feb 15 ALMA Board Telecon Telecon
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ***************************
ALMA Memo # 560: Methods for the Characterization and Measurement of the
Gain Fluctuations of Cryogenic Amplifiers
Authors: J. D. Gallego, I. Lopez, C. Diez, A. Barcia
Abstract: Since ALMA instrument will have low noise receivers with very
large instantaneous bandwidth, gain stability should be carefully specified
to avoid limiting the sensitivity of the total system. This memorandum
reviews the methods for the characterization of gain stability in the
time and frequency domain and presents examples of experimental setups
used for its measurement in the case of cryogenic amplifiers of the
type used in the IF of ALMA as well as its practical limitations.
Special attention is paid to some important but not widely known
effects, as the dependence of gain fluctuation with bias and its
variation across the band of the amplifier. Finally, the compliance
of one prototype 4-12 GHz InP cryogenic IF amplifier with the requirements
of ALMA project is discussed.
View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #560 which will be at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma560/memo560.pdf
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ALMA Memo # 563: Suggestions for SMA Connector Use on ALMA
Author: A. R. Kerr
Abstract: With over 600 receiver cartridges, ALMA will have several
thousand SMA connectors, many of which will be subjected to periodic
cryogenic cooling. At present, ALMA has no specifications on the proper
torquing of SMA connectors nor on whether any type of staking should
be used. This note summarizes the experience of a number of engineers
involved with receiver construction for radio astronomy and satellite
instruments, and suggests SMA connector tightening procedures for
ALMA.
View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #563 which will be at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma563/memo563.pdf
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*****************************
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