[mmaimcal] FYI: 8-22 Oct 2007 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Thu Nov 15 15:48:38 EST 2007

Folks,

Corrections, comments or contributions?

Thx,
Al

                BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                          8 October 2007 - 22 October 2007

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
On October 19 at the ATF another stage was reached in the push for Dynamic
Interferometry.  Coherent fringes were detected on Jupiter and 2 quasars
(1751+096 and 1924-292) using automatically generated geometric delay
information.  Some manual intervention is still required to adjust the
"bulk" delays in the correlator, although single sample delays in the
Correlator and subsample  delays in the Digitizer Clock are being
automatically adjusted. ... The single remaining item needed to achieve
dynamic interferometry is the automated control of the bulk delay
in the correlator, after which we will begin to address the residual fringe
rate.  - Jeff Kern
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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
***************************************************************************
General Happenings
Photos of activity may be found at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html
Sky:  Mars rises as nught falls.

SCO (Santiago Central Office):  Preparations are being made for the ALMA 
Board and AMAC meetings in San Pedro and at the OSF next fortnight.  
Immediately following, the ESO Finance Committee visits the ALMA site, 
followed by its own meeting at Paranal.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude):  Construction of the transporter 
shelter will continue.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude):  There are 529 people
working at the ALMA site. VertexRSI antenna number one servo commissioning 
is underway.  VertexRSI antenna number two erection has begun in the Site 
Erection Facility.  Assembly of the first three MElCo antennas is complete.  
Holography Receiver #1 was installed on the first ACA 12-m antenna.

ATF: Repair work on the quadripod legs of the VertexRSI prototype antenna 
begins 22 October.  Roughly 54% of the time was used for active development 
(hardware and software) and science observations (primarily total power 
pointing), 21% of the time was used for passive data collection (archiving 
monitor points to troubleshoot hardware problems), 23% was down time, and 
about 2% was unscheduled.

AOC: Two production Local Oscillator Reference Receivers (LORR)s have 
been built for delivery to Chile in the near future.

NTC (NRAO Technology Center including North American Front End Integration 
Center (NA FEIC)):  The NA FEIC is awaiting shipment of a third cryostat 
from RAL.  FE( Front End) #2 is complete except for the LO Photonic Receiver 
and mounting of warm cartridge assemblies for bands 7 and 9.  Beam pointing 
with FE#1 will be repeated.  Mechanical construction of the second 2 
antenna correlator, destined for the OSF, progresses.  All cards to complete 
the 2nd Quadrant of the correlator have been assembled and construction on 
that quadrant has restarted.

NAASC: CASA Òboot campÓ for initial support personnel Oct 16-18 in AOC 
with teleparticipation of some NAASC personnel.
A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php
***************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
   Sun   7 Oct -
   Mon   8 Oct - 
4:00PM: ATF telecon
   Tue   9 Oct - 
   Wed  10 Oct - 
10:30am: SSR telecon
   Thu  11 Oct - New Moon
10:00am: Calibration telecon
   Fri  12 Oct -
   Sat  13 Oct - 
   Sun  14 Oct -
   Mon  15 Oct - 
4:00PM: ATF telecon
   Tue  16 Oct
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
   Wed  17 Oct -
10:30am: Sci IPT telecon 
   Thu  18 Oct -
   Fri  19 Oct -
   Sat  20 Oct -
   Sun  21 Oct -
   Mon  22 Oct - 
4:00PM: ATF telecon
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
   Oct 29-31                       ALMA Board Meeting  Santiago&San Pedro
   Nov 1-2                         AMAC Review            Santiago
   Nov 13-15                       Production Workshop    Cville-ER
   Jan 23-24                       Nutator CDR            ASIAA
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
Jobs for scientists interested in working on the commissioning of ALMA 
are available at both ESO and NRAO.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory invites applications for an 
ALMA Commissioning Scientist position.  This position is assigned to the 
ALMA project with operational duties in Chile.  The role of the ALMA 
Commissioning Scientist will be to assist the Project Scientist and the 
Deputy Project Scientist in planning and executing the scientific 
commissioning of ALMA.
We invite applications for one or more Assistant Scientist positions in 
the NAASC.  The primary responsibility of the successful candidates 
initially is to participate in ALMA Commissioning and Science 
Verification (CSV).
http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml
For ESO jobs please see:
https://jobs.eso.org/ESOCP370/default.asp?PageNo=DEFAULT
For ALMA jobs please see:
http://www.alma.cl/jobops/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Applications are invited for Submillimeter Array (SMA) Postdoctoral
Fellowships starting in fall 2008.  These positions are aimed chiefly at
research in submillimeter astronomy, and the successful candidates are
expected to propose and participate in science observations with the SMA.
See  http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/opportunities/fellowships/sma/
Please direct questions to smapostdoc at cfa.harvard.edu.
Online applications are due December 15, 2007.
***************************************************************************
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