[mmaimcal] FYI: 23 Oct 2006 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Fri Oct 27 17:51:41 EDT 2006

Folks,

Comments, corrections or criticisms?

Clear skies,
Al
                     BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                         23 October 2006 - 6 November 2006

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
Over two dozen containers containing the VertexRSI site erection 
facility building left Texas bound for Chile last week.
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More than four dozen astronomers, geodesists and meteorologists met
9-11 October near the Wettzell Fundamental Station in Bavaria for a
workshop on water vapor radiometry.  Presentations will be posted; until
then please see the news article: http://tinyurl.com/jytkq
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T. Hunter reports that eSMA had its first tests since the JCMT 6-month
shutdown was completed.  The SMA can now slew the CSO remotely. Fringes
were obtained with 9 antennas (7SMA + CSO + JCMT) on a record number of
baselines (34 out of 36) on MWC349.  (One antenna is in maintenance.)
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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; there was an outburst to 4th
magnitude on 24 October.

Santiago: System Technical Requirements rev B is approved by the
Change Control Board (CCB).

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Completion of design of road,
fiber and array layout on site is occurring.  The design of the inner
4km configurations was approved by the Change Control Board.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude):  Holography tower under
construction to finish early December.  OSF construction earthworks
continue.  Temporary building for Assembly, Integration and Verification
(AIV) is under construction and scheduled for completion 2006 Nov 7.
There are about 183 persons working on the site; 113 use ALMA and
contractor's lodging facilities, which are at capacity.

TUC: Holdaway has been at Chajnantor working on the design of the 
largest ALMA array configurations.

NTC: The second B6 (1.3mm) cartridge to be delivered is undergoing
acceptance testing.  Danilo Torres (RF) started work in Charlottesville 
with Antonio Perfetto.

OC: Alain Baudry visiting week of 23 Oct.
New hires for Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) in Chile have
begun training.  Juan Gallardo (Mech), Mauricio Zambrano (SW) and Juan
Pablo Caram (Elec) started this week in Socorro.

ATF: The AEC antenna can now be moved.  AEC Consortium Official
antenna training to start on 2006 Oct

ESO: ESO STC meeting this week.  The PAI meeting for Band 9 (.65 mm)
Cartridge #1 was held on 2006-10-17/18 at SRON in Groningen, The
Netherlands. The meeting was successful.
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
  Mon  23 Oct -
4:00 pm: C. Norman: "What we have learned from the Chandra Deep Field South"
  Tue  24 Oct
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
  Wed  25 Oct
10:30 am Science IPT Telecon
  3:45 pm S. Weinreb: Frontiers of Radio Astronomy -- Science and 
Technology
            MEC 339, U. Va.
  4:00 pm Rogier Windhorst, ASU: The James Webb Space Telescope: How can
           it measure First Light, Reionization, and Galaxy Assembly? CV Aud
  Thu  26 Oct
All Day: # Innovative Approaches to Radio Astronomy Technologies: A
           Tribute to the Career of John Payne.  CV-Aud
10:00 am BE/IRAM Digitizer Clock (DGCK) design informal review AOC 280
  Fri  27 Oct
12:00 pm: ELF Talk, NTC.  S. Weinreb: "Views of the Square Kilometer Array."
  Sat  28 Oct
  Sun  29  Oct Daylight Savings time ends in U. S.
  Mon  30  Oct
  Tue  31  Oct  Deadline CSO Proposals
                US: Halloween
                Holiday (Germany): Holy Day
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
  Wed  1 Nov    Holiday Chile & Germany:  All Saint's Day
10:30 am: ASAC Telecon
  1:00 pm: NAASC Telecon
  Thu  2 Nov
  Fri  3 Nov    Holiday Japan: National Cultural Day
  Sat  4 Nov
  Sun  5 Nov
National Radio Astronomy Observatory Community Open House:
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM at NRAO Charlottesville/ER.
  Mon  6 Nov
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
  Oct 26          all day         First EASAC f2f meeting   Japan
  Nov 6-7         all day         ACA correlator CDR     Japan
  Nov  13                         Move of PSI to ATF     N. M.
  November 8-10 	 all day 	 ALMA Board Meeting 	Madrid
  Nov 13-17    all day Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics Madrid
   Jan 16-17 '07   all day         Transporter FDR
  Jan 29-30 '07   all day         B9 Cartridge CDR
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
The Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) encourages observing
participation by astronomers from both U.S. and non-U.S. institutions.
Proposals for observing time should include the CSO cover form (please 
use the latest version available on the web, a short abstract, and a two 
page scientific justification.  The proposals will be reviewed by an 
external peer group committee and should be sent by 31 October for the 
observing period 1 February through 31 July as more fully described at:
http://www.submm.caltech.edu/cso/cso-call.html
Please send proposals by mail.
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   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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   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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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