[mmaimcal] FYI: 16 July 07 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Alwyn Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Mon Jul 30 10:41:06 EDT 2007
Folks,
Comments, changes, contributions?
Thanks,
Al
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
16 July 2007 - 30 July 2007
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
The ALMA Board met in Santiago 27-28 June. The Board welcomed the two
new members from East Asia: Dr. P. T. P. Ho (Academia Sinica Institute
of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan) and Dr. H. Kobayashi (Director of
the VERA project, Japan).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Langley has been promoted to Division Head for the ALMA Back End
IPT and as the BE IPT Leader. Congratulations, Chris!
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Transitions: Jorg Eschwey, former head of the Site IPT, retired from
ESO last month. Lars-Ake Nyman assumed fulltime duties as Head of Science
Operations in the JAO at the beginning of July. William Garnier, fresh
from a position in the ESO-Chile PR department, began
his assignment as ALMA Public Relations Officer in the JAO on 2007 July
2. Ms. Alejandra Arraya, Senior Administrative Assitant in the JAO,
will be leaving ALMA at the end of June to move to London. Gloria
Norero is the new JAO Senior Administrative Assistant. Welcome,
Lars-Ake, William and Gloria, and godspeed Jorg and Alejandra!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
Photos of activity may be found at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html
Sky: Comet LINEAR (C/2006 VZ13), now passing the handle of the Big
Dipper should be viewable at magnitude 7.5 to 8.0. The weak Southern
Delta Aquarid meteor shower should produce some meteors the week
beginning 23 Jul. Venus and Saturn are low in the sky at sunset,
ceding dominance of the late evening sky to Jupiter.
SCO (Santiago Central Office): The ALMA Board met in Santiago 27-28
June. The Board welcomed the two new members from East Asia: Dr. P. T.
P. Ho (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan)
and Dr. H. Kobayashi (Director of the VERA project, Japan). Following
the recommendation of the ALMA Budget Committee and the ALMA
Director, the ALMA Board approved the contract for Band 9 (.45 mm)
receivers with NOVA, the contract to operate the European Front End
Integration center at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories and the contract
for Water Vapor Radiometers. The Board welcomed the initiative of the
University of Chile to construct a prototype frontend for ALMA Band 1
but noted that this welcome development does not constitute a selection
of a particular design. The Board approved the Technical Evaluation
Committee’s decision to recommend that the ESO Director General award a
design contract for the new Santiago Central Offices to Iglesias Pratt,
a major Chilean architectural firm associated with the OSF design,
including the option for underground parking, and a relocation of the
guard house. The ASAC Chair Lee Mundy presented its report to the Board.
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Design and engineering of the
AOS antenna station layout, interconnecting road system and power and
FO distribution, by M3 Engineering is nearing completion. Road layout,
antenna pad, power and FO distribution drawings have been distributed
for ALMA review. Sky transparency has been excellent over the past
week--nearly always below 1mm PW with several nights remaining below
0.5mm PWV.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): There are 488 people
working at the ALMA site. Work has begun on the AEM antenna lay down
facilities. Three mounts for the NAOJ 12m antennas are expected at the
OSF shortly; other components of these antennas have been delivered.
ALMA Camp extension buildings have been built, furnished and granted
provisional acceptance. Vertex and ALMA cabling is ongoing in the first
antenna. Major components of the second antenna are expected to leave
northern hemisphere ports in early August.
ATF: The ATF support team headed by Jeff Kern has started its support
work at the ATF. It has been approved to prolong ATF operation until
June 2008. The AEC antenna has been put back in operation after having
two sectors of the azimuth motors substituted. Emerson focussed the
antenna. The first steps towards dynamic interferometry were taken with
the attempt to use control software to set the delay of the digitizer
clock. Preproduction backends will be installed on the Vx antenna
during the upcoming period.
AOC: NAASC (and Socorro scientists) tested/evaluated the new alpha patch
software to CASA to help get it ready for the other ARC users.
Germany: The first antenna transporter successfully rolled out of its
hangar and commissioning by its manufacturer began. A CASA tutorial for
CASA testers organized by the ESO ARC was held at ESO for three days.
Reception was favorable. Attendees included people from the ESO
ARC, European ARClets, Japan and Taiwan.
NTC (NRAO Technology Center): Provisional Acceptance In-House (PAI) for
the third and sixth B7 cartridge was held in Grenoble on July 3. A PAI
review meeting for Band 9 cold cartridges SN 4, 6 and 8 was held at SRON
on 27-June-2007. Two cold cartridges may be shipped to the NA FEIC.
Assembly of FE #2 is in progress and is expected to finish by July 13.
Beam pattern acceptance data was acquired for Bands 6 and 7 at the Front
End Integration Center (FEIC).
The 2-antenna correlator is being shipped to the ATF. Testing and
integration of the 2 antenna correlator at ATF is foreseen for the first
week of August.
NAASC: The ANASAC will meet at the NAASC on 17 August.
A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php
The workshop 'Transformational Science with ALMA: Through Disks to
Stars and Planets' was held 22-24 June 2007
is under way: See http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/disk07/ for presentations.
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Sun 15 Jul -
Mon 16 Jul - Holiday Chile--Día de la Vírgen del Carmen
Holiday Japan--Ocean Day (umi no hi)
3:30PM: PSI/ATF telecon
Tue 17 Jul -
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 18 Jul - Holiday US
10:30AM: Science IPT telecon
Thu 19 Jul -
Fri 20 Jul -
4:00pm: Molecular Astrophysics Group, NAASC with presentations from Frank
Lovas, John Yates and Paul Ruffle (GB).
Sat 21 Jul -
Sun 22 Jul -
2:29AM - first quarter moon
Mon 23 Jul -
Tue 24 Jul -
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 25 Jul -
Thu 26 Jul -
Fri 27 Jul -
Sat 28 Jul -
8:04 am - New Moon
Sun 29 Jul -
Mon 30 Jul -
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
Jun 27-28 ALMA Board Meeting Santiago
Jul 26 ALMA Board Telecon
Aug 1 ASAC telecon
Aug 17 ANASAC f2f Cville
Sep 3 ALMA/Eu Community Day ESO
Sep 12-13? B6 CDR Cville
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
EVLA Memo # 111 2 to 4 GHz End-to-End Signal Path Tests
Authors: Keith Morris, James Jackson (NRAO) Date:July 19, 2007
Abstract: The complete EVLA 2 to 4 GHz (2.048 to 4.096 GHz) signal path
has been tested in the laboratory. The test was designed to exercise
the system consisting of the Gain Slope Equalizer, the 2.048 to 4.096 GHz
anti-aliasing filter, and the prototype 3-bit digitizer. Tests included
signal continuity, passband gain slope correction, and the effect of the
Gain Slope Equalizer on system noise figure (Y-factor).
View a pdf version of EVLA Memo #111 at:
http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/evla/memolist.shtml
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
Proposals for observations using CARMA during the period 1 January to 30
June 2008 are due on 13 September 2007. Detailed information, including
capabilities to be offered this semester, sensitivities, and proposal
submission instructions, may be found at the CARMA website,
http://www.mmarray.org.
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