[mmaimcal] FYI: 26 Mar 2007 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Al Wootten awootten at nrao.edu
Wed Apr 4 14:42:39 EDT 2007


Folks,

Comments, contributions, corrections?  Thanks, Al

                    BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                        26 Mar 2007 - 9 April 2007

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT***************************
The ALMA Board held the first of its 2007 meetings in Tokyo at the National 
Center of Sciences of Japan, not far from the moated grounds of the 
Imperial Palace.  Dr. Yoshiro Shimura, President of the National Institute 
of Natural Sciences, welcomed the Board members to Tokyo with remarks on 
the bright future of ALMA and extended his heartfelt wishes that the Board 
members might enjoy their stay in Tokyo.  
Among other topics, Rick Murowinski reported on the achievement of the first 
fringes at the ALMA Test Facility in New Mexico.  The Joint ALMA Office 
presented a plaque commemorating this milestone to Richard Wade, the 
Chairman of the ALMA Board.
The AUI/NRAO - NAOJ Master Agreement for ALMA Goods and Services was signed 
by NRAO Director K. Y. Lo and NAOJ Director General S. Miyama on 2007 
March 27.  
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
Photos of activity may be found at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html
Sky: Venus shines brightly as the evening star in the west this month.
Saturn rides high in the evening sky, and Jupiter and Mars highlight the
morning sky.  The Moon shines waning near Jupiter at dawn on Easter Sunday.

SCO: The ALMA Board received the Operations Plan review from the Chair of 
the panel, Pierre Cox, in Tokyo and asked the JAO for its response.  Design
documents for the new central building were received; committees to consider
the documents are being formed.  The AMAC will meet in Santiago 29-30 Jun,
just after the Board meets there on 27-28 June.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): The tender for construction of the
first antenna foundations at the AOS was released 2007 March 6.  Bids for 
the AOS Technical Building Transporter Hangar have been received.  On
4 Apr, Precipitable Water Vapor at APEX was ~0.4mm.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude):  There are 436 people working
at the OSF site.  The VertexRSI antenna No. 1 pedestal is in transit 
to the OSF from Houston, as are backup structure elements shipped from
Germany.  Mockup racks were successfully delivered for AIPS1-PAS (Antenna 
Integration Point Chile - (antenna #) 1 Provisional Acceptance on-Site).

ATF: Radiometric pointing improvements continue to be attempted.
Holography tests have resumed, with acceptance tests scheduled on the Vertex
antenna.  Optical pointing will resume with the AEC antenna with a goal
of acceptance in the coming fortnight.

AOC: First pre-production on-axis fiber optic cable wrap assembled.
The offline CASA test is completed and the test report has been posted to
http://tinyurl.com/2csths .  CASA simulator work continues toward
community release 2007 Q2.  Nicolas Troncoso, new member of the AIV 
(Assembly, Integration and Verification) team, will be in Socorro for 
training.

NTC (NRAO Technology Center): Provisional Acceptance In-house (PAI) 
measurements for B6 (1.3mm) cartridge No 2 completed; it is installed
in a dewar.  Front End Integration Center  (FEIC) Documentation being 
updated so that costs to complete the European FEIC can be better understood.
At the NA FEIC beam patterns for B6, B7 (.85mm) and B9 (.65mm) were measured.
Upgraded Holography transmitter and receiver No. 1 was shipped to the
ATF.  Assembly and test of the 2-antenna correlator has begun. 

NAASC: CASA simulator development were pursued as McMullin and Kumar
visit the NAASC.  Some early results developed by Reid were shown the
ALMA Board.  Hales and Emerson working at the ATF.
A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php
A number of ALMA-related science discussions will occur during the
next fortnight at the NAASC; see the listings below.
Registration for the workshop 'Transformational Science with ALMA:
Through Disks to Stars and Planets' to be held 22-24 June 2007
is under way:  See http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/disk07/ for schedule.
***************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
 Mon  26 Mar - ALMA Board meeting, Tokyo
 Tue  27 Mar - ALMA Board meeting, Tokyo
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
 Wed  28 Mar - Euronews Space Magazine visits OSF
 Thu  29 Mar - 
4:00 pm - Mike Skrutskie, UVa
                  "Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer WISE"
 Fri  30 Mar -
 Sat  31 Mar -
 Sun  1 Apr -
 Mon  2 Apr - Deputy Project Scientist Alison Peck joins JAO Santiago
1:15 pm - Full Moon
 Tue  3 Apr -
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
4:00 pm:  Aaron Evans Stony Brook University
   "Luminous Infrared Galaxies and the Host Galaxies of Quasi-Stellar Objects"
 Wed  4 Apr -
10:30 am: ASAC Telecon
 Thu  5 Apr -
1:00pm - Star Formation discussion group, NAASC.  Special guest M. Heyer.
4:00 pm: Mark Heyer, U. Mass.
            "Interstellar Turbulence in Molecular Clouds"
 Fri  6 Apr - NRAO Spring Holiday; Chile and Germany Good Friday
 Sat  7 Apr -
 Sun  8 Apr - 
 Mon  9 Apr -
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
 Mar 25-27                       ALMA Board Meeting     Tokyo
 Mar 29          all day         B7 MRR                 Santander, Spain
 Apr 4           1430 UT         ASAC Telecon
 Apr 19          13:30 UT        ALMA Board Telecon
 May 7-8         all day         ASAC f2f meeting       Tokyo
 May 14-16       all day         FE optics CDR          IRAM
 May 17          21:30 UT        ALMA Board Telecon
 Jun 27-28                       ALMA Board Meeting     Santiago
 Jun 29-30                       AMAC f2f Meeting       Santiago
******************************* 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



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