[mmaimcal] FYI: 13 Aug BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Mon Sep 10 18:35:34 EDT 2007

Folks,

Trying to catch up; here is some hoary old news.  Comments, 
contributions or calisthentics?

Al

               BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                          13 August - 27 August 2007

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
Dr. Robert L. Dickman will be the new Assistant Director for New Mexico 
Operations, beginning on October 1, 2007.   He was selected as the top 
choice after a comprehensive world-wide search process.  While in the 
NSF Astronomy Division over the past 15 years, he held a number of key 
positions, including Coordinator of the Radio Astronomy Facilities Unit 
and ALMA Program Manager.  He served on the ALMA Board for five years 
and for a year was Chair of the ALMA Board.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On 1 September, Tim de Zeeuw became the new ESO Director General, 
succeeding Catherine Cesarsky.  He also becomes a member of the ALMA 
Board.  In an interview, Dr. de Zeeuw commented on ALMA:  "I see three 
main goals for ESO in the coming years. The first one is to get the best 
possible science out of the Very Large Telescope, the interferometer and 
the survey telescopes, all of them on Paranal. The second is to build 
ALMA, the new observatory at 5 000 metres in the high Andes. Together 
with our North American and East Asian partners, we need to deliver this 
on budget and on time, and prepare the European astronomers for leading 
the science."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronald N. Bracewell, 86, an astronomer and engineer who made many 
contributions to radio astronomy and to medical imaging died of a heart 
attack on Aug. 12 at his home in Stanford, Calif.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ralph Alpher also died Sunday, Aug. 12, in Austin, Texas at age 86.  The 
National Medal of Science had been awarded him in a White House ceremony 
on July 27.  The citation reads in part:  “... for the prediction that 
universe expansion leaves behind background radiation, and for providing 
the model for the Big Bang theory.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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:   A total eclipse of the Moon occurs before and/or during
dawn 2007 Aug 28.

SCO (Santiago Central Office):  Preparations for ALMA Annual External
Review.  ALMA Board meets in SCO in late October, AMAC in early 
November, and an ALMA Production Review will be held the second week of 
November.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude):   Excellent sky transparency
closed out the period with PWV well below 1mm PWV.  Award of a contract 
to build the Transporter Hangar at the AOS was approved by the NSF 
August 13.  Work has begun leading to expected conclusion by the end of 
2007.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude):  There were 477 people 
working on the ALMA site.  Work continues on the Vertex antenna at the 
Vertex laydown area and on the three Melco antennas at their laydown 
area.  The AEM laydown area is being prepared.  Work on the OSF 
Technical Facility building continues.

ATF:  Interviews are being held for 2 additional operators.  The
plan is to have the new operators come to the ATF for training later 
this year and stay until the ATF closes down on 2008 June 1.  Current 
operators at the ATF will move back to Chile to support OSF operations 
in 2007 Dec. Beginning 2007 Sep 1, ATF operations management will shift 
from the Prototype System Integration (PSI) team to the Computing IPT. 
  The goal is to move the ATF toward being run more like an observatory 
with regularly scheduled observations rather than an integration test bed.

NTC (NRAO Technology Center):   Acceptance testing of the sixth B3 (3mm) 
cartridge has begun. At present, noise temperature and image rejection 
measurements for the first ALMA Front End are in progress.  Assembly and 
testing of the second ALMA holography transmitter, receiver, and 
positioner are in progress.

NAASC: The ANASAC met at the NAASC on 17 August.  The meeting went well,
with responses to charges communicated to NRAO Director.  They are
available at: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/admin.shtml  A period of
CASA testing commences 20 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.
***************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
   Sun  12 Aug -
   Mon  13 Aug - 3:30PM: PSI/ATF telecon
   Tue  14 Aug -
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
   Wed  15 Aug -
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: Sci IPT Telecon
   Thu  16 Aug -
   Fri  17 Aug -
ANASAC and ASAC/NA meeting, Charlottesville
   Sat  18 Aug -
   Sun  19 Aug -
   Mon  20 Aug -
   Tue  21 Aug -
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
   Wed  22 Aug -
   Thu  23 Aug -
   Fri  24 Aug -
   Sat  25 Aug -
   Sun  26 Aug -
   Mon  27 Aug -
   Tues 28 Aug -
6:35 a.m.--Full Moon.  Eclipse.
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
   Aug 17                      ANASAC f2f             Cville
   Aug 26-30                   Naramata Summer School Naramata, BC, Canada
   Sep 3                       ALMA/Eu Community Day  ESO
   Sep 5                       ASAC Telecon
   Sep 10-12                   Ann. ALMA External Rev Santiago
   Sep 13                      ALMA Board Telecon
   Sep 27-28                   B3 CDR                 Victoria
   Oct 1-2                     B6 CDR                 Cville
   Oct 28-31                   ALMA Board Meeting     Santiago&San Pedro
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
*****************************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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Potential ALMA users will be interested in the upcoming "Astrophysics in
the Next Decade: JWST and Concurrent Facilities" meeting to be held in
Tucson, AZ, 2007 September 24-27. The goals of this meeting are to
engage the community in the exciting science that JWST, ALMA, EVLA,
VLT/Gemini+2ndGen Instruments, and other exciting new facilities will
enable in the 2010-2020 period.
See http://www.stsci.edu/institute/conference/jwst2007
***************************************************************************
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