[mmaimcal] 16 Dec 2008 BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

[Al Wootten]

Folks,

Contributions, comments, or corrections?

Happy New Year,
Al

                  BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                       16 December 2008 - 13 January 2009

******************************** THIS BIFORTNIGHT**********************
The year closed with a major milestone for ALMA, the handover of the 
first of its state-of-the-art production antennas.  The first antenna 
was built by Mitsubishi Electric Company for the National Astronomical 
Observatory of  Japan; three similar antennas and eight Vertex antennas 
are in various stages of testing expected to lead to acceptance in the 
near future; elements of the AEM antenna are arriving in Chile also. 
"We have the front-end electronics and back-end electronics inside that 
antenna and now we can start the push to the high site, to get three 
antennas joined together interferometrically and start the process 
of science commissioning," said Adrian Russell, the North American 
ALMA Project Director at NRAO.  For the complete press release, 
please see:
http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2008/alma/firstantenna.shtml
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Antenna acceptance is only one of many achievements of ALMA in 2008.
The ALMA Test Facility (ATF) in New Mexico continued to demonstrate the 
operation of the ALMA system now poised for science commissioning 
in Chile.  With its mission complete, the ATF closed down on 20 
December.  The first quadrant of the mighty ALMA correlator is operating 
at 16570 feet in the Array Operations Site (AOS) Technical Building.  The 
AOS site has been extensively reworked as roads are emblazoned to 
antenna locations, where dozens of foundations have received concrete.  
Hundreds of workers, contractors and ALMA employees, concentrate on 
everything from heavy construction to the tuning and testing
of cutting edge electronics.  Antenna production lines continue steady 
shipments to Chile; there are now twelve antennas on site with more 
arriving.    Both massive transporters traverse the site and have 
moved several antennas as new ones arrive.  The first receiver and 
backend packages have been installed in the accepted antenna and have 
passed their initial tests.  A second receiver is being tested.   During 
the year, the post construction operational phases of ALMA have been 
built up; ALMA operations has taken over the day-to-day running of 
completed ALMA facilities and ALMA Resource Centers operate around the
world.  2009 promises to be a very productive year.
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Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
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General Happenings
Photos of activity may be found at NRAO eNews:
http://www.nrao.edu/news/newsletters/

Sky: Jupiter is low in the West, Venus shining brightly above it.  At 
the end of the period, Mercury rises higher in the sunset.  After 
midnight, Saturn appears in the East.

SCO (Santiago Central Office):  The first ALMA production antenna was 
accepted on 19 December.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude):  The Patch Panel for the ALMA
Fiber Optic Network was completed.  APEX reports that the higher levels of
precipitable water associated with the Altiplanic Winter have appeared.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude):  Acceptance for Melco antenna
No 2 occurred for 19 December.  That will be followed in Feb 2009 by 
acceptance for Vertex No 1. The AEM work area construction has progressed, 
including the erection of a building; some antenna parts have arrived.
Elements of the second Front End, an engineering model, were delivered
from the East Asian Front End Integration Center (EA FEIC) and are 
undergoing tests.  The OSF Technical Facility Building is becoming a 
nerve center of the site though many tests are still run from the 
temporary AIV building.

ATF: The ATF shut down on 20 December after a productive lifetime.

A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
     Dec 17-18            Acceptance procedures for Melco No. 2 antenna
     Dec 18               ALMA Board Telecon	
     Jan 5-8              AAS Meeting, Long Beach, Ca and
                          NA Radio Science Meeting, Boulder, Co
******************************* 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
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There will be an NRAO Town Hall meeting at the 213th AAS meeting in
Long Beach, Ca on the evening of 7th January.  Please visit us at the
NRAO booth.
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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.
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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