[mmaimcal] FYI: 9 Oct 2006 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Al Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Thu Oct 19 16:50:42 EDT 2006
Comments, criticisms, etc?
Al
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
9 October 2006 - 23 October 2006
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT****************************
Two American astronomers who used radio astronomical techniques to develop
evidence on the origin os the universe and how it spawned galaxies were
awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.
The researchers, John Mather of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md., and George Smoot of the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, will split the
prize. Dr. Mather served for many years on the ALMA Management Advisory
Committee, or AMAC. ALMA expects to transform our understanding of how
galaxies developed in the very early universe through its orders of
magnitude improvement in sensitivity and resolution over existing
instruments at the wavelengths at which the radiataion from these young
galaxies peaks.
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Members of the ANASAC met in Charlottesville to discuss their response
to charges, now being prepared.
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The Fifth IRAM Millimeter Interferometry School was held October 2-6,
2006 in Grenoble, France. The capacity crowd of more than five dozen
learned the basic elements of millimeter interferometry. A session
on ALMA was included.
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The opening ceremony of AMiBA (Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy)
was held at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii on 2006 October 3. NRAO
Director Fred Lo attended the ceremony. AMiBA, a millimeter interferometer,
was constructed by ASIAA (Academia
Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics) and National Taiwan
University for polarimetry of microwave background radiation and detection
of distant clusters of galaxies using the Sunyaev ZelÕdovich effect.
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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: Comet Swan: http://cometography.com/lcomets/2006m4.html
is a naked eye/binocular object now.
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Tender documentation is being
prepared for antenna foundation construction. The architectural finishes,
mechanical and electrical installations work for the AOS TB is ongoing.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): VVMO started excavation works
at the OSF and has scheduled to complete those by mid of October.
Construction of the Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) building
started. Site preparation is under way for the holography tower for which
construction began 2006 Oct 2. Currently there are approximately 225
persons working at the site of which approximately 134 uses the ALMA and
ContractorÕs lodging facilities, which are fully occupied. Bids were opened
for the ALMA Camp and Contractors Camp extensions. Electrical cabling
is ongoing for the Vertex and Melco site erection facilities, finishing in
late October.
TUC: Emerson held further holography meetings and is arranging manpower
for ATF holography tests. Holdaway continues to develop the plan for
the larger array configurations.
NAASC: Vertex antenna invar cone fully completed and en route to the
Kilgore, Tx antenna integration facility. The yoke and support cone
are in the final machining process. Nutator bid documents are at NSF
awaiting approval. New NA ALMA postdoc Antonio Hales arrived in
Charlottesville.
NTC: Alain Baudry visiting week of 16 Oct. A successful provisional
acceptance in-house (PAI) review for the first Band 6 (1.3mm) cartridge
was held Sep 27. Measurements of the B6 cartridge installed in cryostat
#2 continued controlled for the first time by the measurement system
hardware and software. Design Review for the Line Length Corrector
and the LO Photonic Receiver is scheduled for CÕVille, December 14.
Various hardware, firmware and software upgrades supporting the move
of the 2-antenna correlator from Socorro to the ATF are ready. All
card components of first 3 production Tunable Filterbank (TFB) cards
have been assembled.
HIA: The second Band 3 (3mm) cartridge to be delivered is in
acceptance testing.
AOC: Work on readying system for prototype system integration (PSI)
at the ATF continues with improvements made to the Local Oscillator
Reference Receiver (LORR). Move to the ATF now scheduled for Oct 29.
FLOOG fringe tracking tests proceeding well, understanding progressing.
ATF: AEM Production antenna PPDR date is planned for 13-15 of December.
AEC Consortium starting work on maintenance and restart of the
long-stationary AEC antenna. Official training to start on 2006 Oct 23.
Verification of hardware and software of the first holography system at
the ATF (on the Vx prototype antenna) made progress. Work continued on
system #2.
ESO: The CfT for the design and prototyping of the amplitude calibration
device has been extended to 2006 Oct 27 after requests from bidders.
Final preparation for delivery and acceptance of the first
Band 9 (,65mm) pre-production cartridge leads to the PAI meeting on
2006-10-17/18 at SRON in Groningen, After receiving new information
on the WVR tests at the SMA priority was given to continue the SMA
tests. More than five dozen attended the Fifth School on Millimeter
Interferometry held in Grenoble; a session was devoted to ALMA.
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 9 Oct - US + Chile: Columbus Day
Japan: Health and Sports Day
All Day: Workshop on water vapor radiometry, Wettzell, Bavaria
Tue 10 Oct
All Day: Workshop on water vapor radiometry, Wettzell, Bavaria
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 11 Oct
AM: Workshop on water vapor radiometry, Wettzell, Bavaria
Science IPT face-to-face meeting, ESO.
Thu 12 Oct
Science IPT face-to-face meeting, ESO.
Fri 13 Oct
Sat 14 Oct
CARMA (Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy)
FIRST CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Sun 15 Oct
Mon 16 Oct
Tue 17 Oct
All Day: B9 PAI meeting, SRON, Groningen
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 18 Oct
All Day: B9 PAI meeting, SRON, Groningen
Thu 19 Oct
Fri 20 Oct
Sat 23 Oct
Sun 24 Oct
Mon 25 Oct
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
Oct 8 - 11 all day WVR Workshop Wettzell, Bavaria
Oct 29 Move of PSI to ATF
November 8-10 all day ALMA Board Meeting Madrid
Nov 13-16 all day Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics Madrid
Dec 13-14 all day AEM PPDR
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ****************************
ALMA Memo No. 556 Observational Modes Supported by the ALMA Correlator
R. Escoffier, G. Comoretto, C. Broadwell, R. Lacasse, J. Webber, A. Baudry
2006-08-26
Observational modes including multi-resolution operation supported by
the ALMA correlator hardware and firmware are presented.
View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #556 at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma556/memo556.pdf
******************ALSO OF INTEREST*****************************
ALMA PROJECT SCIENTIST
The ALMA Project Scientist is responsible for ensuring that ALMA is
constructed and commissioned in such a manner as to meet the scientific
requirements of the ALMA Agreement. As a Key Staff Member of the JAO, the
Project Scientist will contribute to decision making, overall policy
development and strategic planning. The Project Scientist reports directly
to the ALMA Director and interacts closely with the Project Manager and
Project Engineer.
Please see:
http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml#CL0005
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CARMA (Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy)
FIRST CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Deadline: 14 October 2006
Proposals for observations using CARMA at 3 mm in the C and D
configurations (beamsizes 1.8 and 4 arcseconds respectively) during
the period 1 January to 30 June 2007 are due on 14 October 2006.
CARMA is the merger of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory millimeter
array and the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association array, and
comprises 15 antennas on a 2200m elevation site, Cedar Flat, in the
Inyo Mountains of California.
CARMA is operated by the Universities of California (Berkeley),
Illinois, and Maryland, and the California Institute of Technology,
under a cooperative agreement with the University Radio Observatory
program of the National Science Foundation. Approximately 30% of the
observing time will be awarded to PIs outside the partner
universities.
Proposals should be submitted using the electronic form at
http://carma.astro.uiuc.edu/proposals/ before 17:00 CDT 14 October,
2006. Detailed information, including sensitivities and proposal
submission instructions, may be found at the CARMA website,
http://www.mmarray.org. Questions may also be addressed to Dr. Douglas
Bock (dbock at mmarray.org).
There will in the future be twice yearly calls for 1 and 3 mm in all
antenna configurations.
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Jansky Fellowship
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) announces the 2007
postdoctoral Jansky Fellowship program that provides outstanding
opportunities for research in astronomy. The Jansky Fellows formulate
and carry out investigations either independently or in collaboration
with others within the wide framework of interests of the Observatory.
Prior radio experience is not required and multi-wavelength projects
leading to a synergy with NRAO instruments are encouraged. The NRAO also
encourages applications from candidates with interest in radio astronomy
instrumentation, computation, and theory.
Please see:
http://www.nrao.edu/administration/directors_office/jansky-postdocs.shtml
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Asian Radio Astronomy Winter School Second Circular
Asian Radio Astronomy Winter School January 22-26, 2007
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
Registration is open for the Asian Radio Astronomy Winter School.
Please visit the on-line registration page on our web site
(http://vsop.mtk.nao.ac.jp/RAWS2007/), and fill out all items in the
registration form. The deadline for registration *with financial support*
is October 6, 2006.
The final deadline for registration is November 3, 2006.
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