[mmaimcal] FYI: 30 Jun 08 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Tue Jul 15 14:49:33 EDT 2008

Folks,

Contributions, corrections, criticisms?

Clear skies,
Al
                BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                        30 June 2008 - 14 July 2008

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* 
On 8 July, the ALMA transporter moved VertexRSI Antenna No 2 from the Site 
Erection Facility to an antenna station located outside the SEF adjacent 
to the station on which VertexRSI Antenna No 1 sits.  Congratulations to 
all involved in this impressive event.   See www.alma.cl
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Dr. Carol J. Lonsdale will replace Chris Carilli as NRAO Assistant Director 
for the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC), effective 
October 1, 2008. She will be located at the NAASC in Charlottesville. 
Chris Carilli has been appointed Chief Scientist of the NRAO.
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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:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html
Sky: Jupiter's newest red spot was disrupted during its encounter with 
the Great Red Spot and Oval BA.  The International Space Station makes a
favorable pass over the NAASC on 18 Jul	rising at 9:47 passing at 56
degree elevation over the SE horizon three minutes later and shining at
magnitude -2.4.  A good pass over Chajnantor occurs 15 Jul at an elevation
76 deg above the NW horizon at 6:54pm glowing at mag -2.3.  Cloudsat will
overfly Chajnantor at 84 deg elevation on 21 Jul at 2:02 am.
 Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) is visible in the dawn sky from the
Northern Hemisphere.  South of Sirius, the comet passes through Taurus 
at the border with Cetus shining at 6th magnitude.  Mars and Saturn 
are evening objects, Mars passing close to Saturn early in the month.  
Jupiter remains bright in Sagittarius; Venus is in Aries.  On 4 July, 
Earth will be at its furthest from the Sun in the decade, owing to the 
near-coincidence of aphelion with New Moon (3 July).

SCO (Santiago Central Office):  Two bids were received for construction 
of the new building, to be located in Vitacura adjacent to the ESO building.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude):  Weather report.  Four of the six 
antenna stations near the AOS Technical Building (TB) have now received 
concrete: Nos 93, 101, 106 and 98.  Utilities installation is expected 
during August.  Grading of the Central Cluster area is complete.  AOS TB 
acceptance preparation started.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude):  ALMA's Director accepted the
OSF Technical Facility in June 2008.  Planning for outfitting of the 
buildings has begun.  The construction of the foundation and the access 
road to the adjacent nolography tower No. 2 have been completed; the tower 
itself is due to arrive this fortnight.  The holography receiver is to be 
installed on VertexRSI No 1 on 7 July; repairs completed on 6 July.  Emerson 
went to the OSF to support Antenna IPT activities with the Vertex 
antennas for a 26 day period; he reports holography on VxNo1 to be going well.
Antenna No. 2 now stands on a station adjacent to No 1 undergoing acceptance 
testing.  No 3 begins acceptance soon; the HVAC system on No 4 has been 
commissioned; the Backup Structure has been lifted to No 5's pedestal and 
assembled.  Pedestal for No 6 is being readied for shipment from Houston.  
Melco No 2 pointing tests continue. 

TUC: Optical Pointing Telescope (OPT) CDR tentatively scheduled for August.

AOC: Preparations for the mid-July software review continue. 

ATF: de Gregorio, Nyman, Peck, Hunter and Andy Biggs (ESO ARC) provided 
support from science team.  Total power testing continues, with interferometry
problematic owing to weather and other problems.

NTC (NRAO Technology Center): PAI testing for Band 6 (1.3mm) cartridge 
No 6 complete.  Band 7 (.85mm) Cartridge No 6 was shipped to the European
Front End Integration Center (FEIC).  Band 9 (.45mm) Pre-production Review
(PPR) scheduled for 8 July).  Sixteen Band 9 frequency multipliers have been 
accepted and are being shipped. Three Band 8 frequency multipliers were 
shipped.  A measurement team coninues to evaluate Front End (FE) No 2 at 
the NA FEIC.  Construction of holography receiver #2 is 90% complete; 
shipment expected by end of August.  The 64-antenna correlator first 
quadrant PAI meeting was held June 30. The first quadrant was approved for 
shipping; disassembly has begun.  Use of the second quadrant for continued 
software development was approved.  Fabrication, assembly and testing of 
Tunable Filter Board (TFB) cards in the 4th Quadrant continued with good 
success.

NAASC:  Wootten attended Polarization 2008 meeting in NE Quebec.

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 *************************
   July 2     1430UT 	 ASAC Telecon 	                       Telecon  
   July 16-18            Software Review No 6.
   Aug 11-12             EPO face-to-face                      Ch'ville	
   Sep 2      1430UT 	 ASAC Telecon 	                       Telecon 
   Sep 8-10              Simulation Workshop                 Grenoble
   Sep 9-11              ACA 7m antenna PPDR                   Itami
   Sep 12                ANASAC f2f meeting                 Charlottesville
   Sep 25-27             NAASC Workshop                     Charlottesville
   Sep 28-29 	  	 ASAC face-to-face 	            Charlottesville
   Dec 9-11 	  	 ALMA Annual External Incremental Review OSF 	 
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
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/
Abstract submission is now closed.
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A small workshop will be held at IRAM, Grenoble September 8 2008 on
the topic of simulations of ALMA imaging.  The goals are 
1) To bring together the radio astronomy community with expertise in
   simulations of ALMA data to share experiences, ideas and code
2) To illustrate the power of ALMA in a small number of scientific
   fields through the presentation of simulations of ALMA science
   targets
3) To assess how simulations can be used to optimise the performance
   of ALMA once it is operational, by, for example, suggesting the
   optimal calibration strategies and observing modes
The workshop web-page is:
http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~bn204/almasim08/
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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