[mmaimcal] FYI: 10 Mar - 24 Mar 2008 Biweekly Calendar of the ALMA Project at NRAO

Mon Apr 14 12:07:18 EDT 2008

Folks,

Contributions, comments, criticisms?

Thanks,
Al
                 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                          10 Mar - 24 Mar 2008

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* 
Five years ago this month, the ALMA project reached the milestone of 
provisional acceptance of ALMA Vertex prototype antenna.  The antenna had 
been delivered in May 2002 on a contract signed Feb 2000.  The antenna 
remains at the ALMA Test Facility in everyday use.  It remains one of the 
world's most accurate antennas.  
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
***************************************************************************
General Happenings
Sky: A Total Eclipse of the Moon will occur 

SCO:  New Staff: Nick Whyborn (Lead Engineer), Pere Planesas (Test 
scientist) arrived to join the AIV team.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude):  Preliminary antenna foundation 
work continues.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Vertex Antenna No 2 Metrology 
subsystem testing, witnessed by P. Napier and N. Emerson began the week of 
March 3rd. and is going well.   Antenna #2 panel installation is 100% 
complete. Miscellaneous items will be closed out by week of 24 March at 
which time servo system commissioning will begin.  Antenna #3: BUS and 
pedestal have been mated and panel installation has started.  The 2-antenna
 correlator at the OSF has passed initial tests.  1st ACA antenna (MELCO 
manuf. no.2): reflector panel adjustment and holography measurements have 
begun with help of AIV colleagues. The surface accuracy of the first ACA 
12-m antenna already achieved less than 13 micron rms.The antenna tracking 
tests are also conducted for the antenna acceptance.  2nd ACA antenna (MELCO 
manuf. no.3): An SIS receiver (2mm) has been installed and used for 
First-Light observations of the ACA 12-m antenna. 

AOC: BE Antenna Article (AA) #1 Provisional Acceptance In-house was held in 
Socorro 2008-02-26/27.

ATF: Good progress on TelCal/QuickLook implementation.  ATF viability review 
held on 4mar08.  ATF is viable through 1 June. Project requested that a 
proposal be written for an extension of about 3 months.

TUC: Optical Pointing Telescope PDR is scheduled for 1 April at Contractor's 
facility in Tucson.

NTC (NRAO Technology Center):  Bill Shillue presented a paper at OFC2008 
'Fiber Distribution of the Local Oscillator for the Atacama Large Millimeter 
Array.' The paper and slides are on edm.alma.cl at 
http://tinyurl.com/yns4t2 (password protected).  
Assembly of the 4th and last sublot of TFB cards in the 3rd Quadrant of the 
correlator is in rapid progress.

ASIAA: Band 7 (.87mm) cartridge #3 and Band 9 (.45 mm) cartridge #3 have 
safely arrived at the EA FEIC.

NAASC: The ANASAC held a telecon meeting 14 March.  Among the items 
discussed were the definition of an ALMA development plan and how best to 
prepare the NA community for the use of ALMA.
A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
   Mar 14         ANASAC Telecon                               --
   Mar 26-9       The Cosmic Agitator-B Fields in the Galaxy  U. Ky
   Mar 26   13UTA LMA Production Review Workshop              Netmeeting
   Apr 1          Optical Pointing Telescope PDR              Tucson
   Apr 1-3        ALMA Board Meeting                          Chile
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
The Allen Telescope Array is accepting proposals from the general user
community for the second half of 2008.  Proposals are due April 18, 2008 
at 5pm PDT.
A full set of instrument parameters and proposal forms is available at
http://ral.berkeley.edu/ata/Proposal/Proposals.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The CARMA SUMMER SCHOOL at the CARMA site in the Inyo mountains this year 
June 22 - 28. Students will stay at the observatory for lectures, practical
demonstrations, and observing projects.  The lectures cover the basic
theory of interferometer observations, data reduction and imaging.
- the application deadline is April 25
You can read a TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:
http://cedarflat.mmarray.org/observing/doc/instrument_desc.html
and there is a tool to calculate the RMS noise:
http://cedarflat.mmarray.org/observing/tools/rms.html
PLEASE REPLY WITH YOUR APPLICATION BY 25 APRIL:
mwright at astron.berkeley.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Eleventh Synthesis Imaging Workshop will take place from June 10 
through June 17 of 2008 in Socorro, NM. The school will comprise a week 
of lectures on aperture synthesis theory and techniques at a level 
appropriate for graduate students in astrophysics. Basic lectures on 
synthesis imaging, and advanced lectures on more specialized techniques, 
will be included. Practical tutorials demonstrating data collection, 
calibration and imaging of both VLA and VLBA data will be given. There 
will be a nominal registration fee, which will cover the cost of the 
meeting and a copy of ASP Vol. 180, "Synthesis Imaging in Radio Astronomy 
II", from the 1998 summer school.  Please visit:
http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/events/synthesis/2008/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Registration is now open for "Transformational Science with ALMA:
The Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars, Within and Beyond the Galaxy"
A workshop to be held at the North American ALMA Science Center
National Radio Astronomy Observatory Charlottesville, Virginia 
September 25-27 2008  Please see:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/php/meetings/massive08/
***************************************************************************
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