[mmaimcal] 30 Jun - 14 Jul BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Tue Aug 4 15:39:08 EDT 2009

Folks,

Comments, corrections or contributions?

Thx,
Clear skies,
Al

                 BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                           30 June 2009 - 14 July 2009

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
The majority of the parts for sixteen antennas are now at the OSF.  The
Early Science array is projected to consist of sixteen antennas; most
likely it will consist of an array of the antennas now present.  During
a period of exceptionally good weather (~.75mm PWV) on 3/4th July the
first band 9 (450 micron) observations were made, first detecting the
Moon and then making a scan of Jupiter.  This was followed by the first
successful interferometric observations at band 6.  The dry weather also
provided an opportunity to test the water vapour radiometers under
conditions resembling those expected at the AOS.
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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: Venus and Mars rise before dawn; Saturn rules the night from Leo's
belly.

SCO (Santiago Central Office): Excavation reached the 35% of completion
mark on 10 July.  The Contractor is preparing to start the first concrete
work.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude):  Ethernet cable was installed
in Room 127 of the AOS Technical Bldg on 2009-07-01. When the switch in
is installed testing will proceed.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): As mentioned above, with the
arrival of the Backup Structure (BUS) and pedestal for the eleventh Vertex
antenna, there are major structures for more than sixteen antennas on the
site.  At the AEM antenna area, preparation is on going for making
foundations for removable shelters to be installed around pads during the
assembly of the antennas.  The first two BUS halves for the AEM antenna
have been glued together.  Integration of its legs, apex and subreflector
mechanism has been completed. Lightning protection installation was
completed on BUS. Work on panels and adjusters to be started this week.
The yoke arms were also installed.  Holography testing on Melco No 2 using
Tower 2 continued.  R6.1 software including the single baseline
interferometry software, is in regular use at the OSF.  Offices
for astronomers at the OSF are fully furnished and assigned, and furniture
is being deployed in the OSF Control Room with a view to using this for
AIVC testing soon.

AOC: Antenna Articles (AA) AA6, AA7, and AA8 modules were shipped and
are expected at the OSF july 9.

NTC:  Preparations continued for the July NSF review, absorbing most of
the energy of the group leaders at the NTC. Shipping of quadrant 2 of the
correlator is scheduled for July 31; arrival at the AOS is scheduled for
Aug 18.  Construction of Quadrant 4 has begun.

A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/alma_calendar.shtml
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
    Jun 17       Correlator Quadrant 2 Provisional Acceptance In-house (PAI)
    Jun 22-25    Band 4 and 8 FE CDR & PAI    Tokyo
    Jul          Review     Charlottesville
    Sep 21-25    Assembly, Gas Content and Star Formation History of Galaxies
    Nov 11-12    ALMA Board face-to-face meeting, Santiago
    Nov 16-      Annual ALMA External Review, Santiago
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************

*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
The deadline for submission of observing proposals on IRAM telescopes,
both the interferometer and the 30m, is 17 September 2009, 17:00 CEST
(UT + 2 hours).  The scheduling period extends from 1 Dec 2009 - 31 May
2010. Proposals should be submitted through our web-based submission
facility by following the links from our new website
http://www.iram-institute.org
to Science users and then Proposals.
This page also gives links to the proposal templates and to detailed
information on time estimates, special observing modes, technical
information and references for both the IRAM interferometer and the
IRAM 30m telescope.
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* Nobeyama 45-m telescope call for proposals *
Deadlines:
 General program (1st): 2009-09-01 (Tue) 6:00UT
   scheduled during Jan to Mar 2010
 General program (2nd): 2009-12-10 (Thu) 6:00UT
   scheduled during Mar to May 2010
 Short program        : 2009-12-22 (Tue) 6:00UT
   scheduled during Mar to Apr 2010
Details will soon be posted at:
 http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/~nro45mrt/prop/index-e.html
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Todd Hunter reports that Scott Paine will temporarily move the terahertz
FTS from Sairecabur to Cerro Toco to participate in the second phase
 of the Radiative Heating in Underexplored Bands Campaign (RHUBC-II).
which takes place on Cerro Toco, a mountain rising from the Chajnantor
Plateau in Chile. From August to October 2009, nearly a dozen
instruments will operate continuously to obtain measurements—such
as temperature, pressure, humidity, and incoming and outgoing
energy—for characterizing the atmospheric state. In addition, a
combination of several spectrometers—highly sophisticated optical
instruments used to measure the properties of light over a specific
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—will obtain measurements
from the infrared region of the spectrum.  See:
http://acrf-campaign.arm.gov/rhubcII/
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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