[mmaimcal] 14 July BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Thu Aug 6 16:59:29 EDT 2009

Folks,

Comments, contributions or corrections?  Mostly the text is from
the July eNews...

Clear skies,
Al
                BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                          14 July 2009 - 28 July 2009

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
Early ALMA Interferometry Continues

Please see:
http://www.nrao.edu/news/newsletters/enews/enews_2_7/enews_2_7.shtml#alma

Interferometry at the Operations Support Facility (OSF) with the first 
two antennas on their 69.7m baseline continued under the guidance of 
Joint ALMA Office (JAO) personnel after the first dynamic fringes were 
obtained. Fringes were demonstrated at 1.3mm during the period as 
instrumental and software tests continued.

A second single baseline correlator, previously used at the Antenna 
Test Facility on the NRAO VLA site in New Mexico, was updated and 
delivered to the OSF from the NRAO Central Development Laboratory as 
preparations there were made to ship the second quadrant of the 64 
antenna correlator.

The first of the water vapor radiometers delivered by ESO was deployed 
for atmospheric water vapor measurements through a window in one of 
the buildings. Measurement of 0.75 mm of precipitable water vapor on 
4 July over the 2900m elevation site suggested observations could be 
made for the first time in the deep submillimeter Band 9 (0.45 mm). 
A beam profile of Jupiter was made with both of the first two antennas.

Some astronomical validation tests have now been achieved at the OSF 
with all four bands installed in the dewar. Total power tests of the 
third, most recently accepted antenna continued and a third front end 
dewar was installed for radiometric tests. As this is the first austral 
winter available for antenna testing, advantage was taken of the cooler 
night temperatures to investigate surface performance of antennas 
still in the contractor camps; the next of the twelve antennas in 
those camps at the site are scheduled to be accepted during August.

Preparations for operations at the 5000m Array Operations Site (AOS) 
continue. At the NRAO CDL in Charlottesville the first element of the 
critical Central Local Oscillator (LO) system passed its tests and was 
shipped to the AOS for installation. Providing reference signals to 
sixteen antennas, this system is key to multi-antenna interferometry. 
With 86 foundations now past provisional acceptance at the AOS the 
critical electrical and fiber optic cable connections from those pads 
to the AOS Technical Building (TB) have begun. Station 106, near that 
building, will receive its first antenna for tests soon and is the 
first to have been connected to the TB.

In Santiago, the JAO has been spread over several buildings, and a 
lease will soon expire on one. Accordingly, the effort to provide a 
permanent home adjacent to the ESO offices in nearby Vitacura has 
proceeded, led by ESO. Preparatory work--the resiting of eleven 
mature trees elsewhere on the property--has been completed. 
Early in July, excavation work began for the Santiago Central Office 
building to house the JAO. The building will include almost 7000 
square meters of space on two floors, with underground parking for 130 
vehicles. This additional parking allows some surface parking to be 
restored to green space. Construction is expected to last several years.
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The Thirty Meter Telescope Project has selected Mauna Kea as the site
for this gargantuan optical telescope.  Superior weather and political
support over a competing Chilean site, 3064m elevation Cerro Armazones,
(40 km E of Paranal) were cited as important elements in the choice.
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Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
***************************************************************************
General Happenings
Photos of activity may be found at NRAO eNews:
http://www.nrao.edu/news/newsletters/

Sky: Venus is rising with Orion while Mars and Aldebaran precede it in
the morning sky.  Jupiter is near opposition, in Capricorn and in fact
occulting the 6th magnitude star 45 Cap on Aug 3 as seen from Europe 
or North America.  From South America or Europe a faint penumbral
eclipse of the moon may be perceived around a midtime 0f 0:39 August 6th 
UT. 

A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/alma_calendar.shtml
***************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
     Jul 15-17    NSF ALMA North America Schedule Review   CH'ville
     Jul 21-23    Expanded Management IPT meeting,         Garching
     Jul 30       ALMA Board Telecon
     Aug 9-11     SciOpsIPT f2f meeting                    Green Bank
     Sep 2-3      CSV Review,                              Santiago
     Sep 14-15    Science at Q Band                        Manchester
     Sep 21-25 Assembly, Gas Content & Star Formation History of Galaxies
     Sep 25-26    ANASAC Face-to-face Meeting              Charlottesville
     Sep 28-30    IRAM 30th                                Grenoble
     Sep 29-30    Science Operations Implementation Review Santiago
     Oct 5-7      Spectral Line workshop,                  Koln
     Oct 13-14    ASAC face-to-face meeting,               Garching
     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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* 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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***************************************************************************
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