[mmaimcal] FYI: 2 Dec 2008 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

[Alwyn Wootten]

Folks,

Comments, corrections or contributions?

Clear skies,
Al

                 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                        2 December 2008 - 16 December 2008

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
With the accelerated schedule of the NRAO eNews there hasn't been enough
time to continute the biweekly news at the same cadence as before. 
Therefore I will substitute text which appears with photos in the eNews
at the appropriate fortnights.  This is the December text as submitted.

ALMA Construction at the Operations Support Facility

Eight Vertex antennas and four Mitsubishi Electric Company (Melco) antennas
are now at the Operations Support Facility; major parts of the eighth Vertex
antenna arrived on Thanksgiving Day.  Tests continue on the antennas, with
the first acceptance of an antenna, a Mitsubishi antenna, expected within
days.   Acceptance of the first Vertex antenna should follow shortly
thereafter.  On November 20, Lore, one of the mammoth antenna transporters,
moved an assembled Vertex antenna from the Site Erection Facility building
to an antenna foundation above the Operations Support Facility to await
its tests.

Figure 1 Antenna transporter Lore moves Vertex antenna past the OSF Technical
Buildings to a site above it to await testing. See NRAO eNews.

Early in December, the Annual ALMA External Review will be held at which
an external panel will examine ALMA’s progress during the preceding year
and plans for the next year.  ALMA personnel have moved into offices in
the new OSF Technical Building complex, and its teleconferencing facilities
have been inaugurated.

Figure 2 NRAO astronomer Jeff Mangum approaches the OSF TB.

Figure 3 Work continues past sunset in the new OSF Technical Building, seen
here just before drawing of the night shades.

***************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
    Dec 9-11 	  	 ALMA Annual External Incremental Review OSF
    Dec 17-18            Acceptance procedures for Melco No 2
    Dec 17               ASAC telecon
    Dec 18               ALMA Board telecon
    Dec 20               ALMA Test Facility closes
    Jan 26-27            CASA Tutorial, Santiago
    Jan 28-29            ASAC f2f meeting, OSF
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
Several ALMA positions are available at NRAO.  Example:

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory invites applications for an
ALMA Postdoctoral Fellow position with the Commissioning team in Chile.
When completed in 2012, ALMA will be the most powerful (sub)millimeter
interferometer ever constructed, and will transform our understanding of
topics ranging from the formation of nearby protoplanetary disks to the
earliest epochs of galaxy formation. This position is assigned to the ALMA
project with operational duties in Chile. The position is funded by a grant
from the National Science Foundation through the ALMA Construction Project
and as an international staff position will exist during the construction
period through 2011. There may be possibilities to transfer to the
observatory science operations team during or after construction.

Details for all positions may be viewed at:
http://members.aas.org/JobReg/JobDetailPage.cfm?JobID=25062
or
http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml#CV4917_ALMA_POSTDOC
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The US National Radioscience Meeting (USNC/URSI) meets in Boulder
on 5-8 Jan 2009.  Among the Commission J topics is a session on
ALMA Technology, Science and Status.
See: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/USNC-URSI-J/ for abstracts of this
and other sessions.
***************************************************************************
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