[mmaimcal] FYI: 26 Jan 09 BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Alwyn Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Wed Feb 25 00:48:43 EST 2009
Folks
Contributions, comments or changes? Thanks to Pat and Todd for updates to
the last one.
Thanks!
Clear skies,
Al
BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
26 Jan - 9 Feb 2009
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
On 6 February 2009, the first Vertex production antenna was accepted by
the project, having passed its acceptance tests. The antenna, designed
and built by the Vertex division of General Dynamics Corp. under contract
with the Associated Universities, Inc., was moved by the transporter a
short time later to a foundation at the Operations Support Facility
(OSF) nearby for further testing. Pointing tests of the antenna began
immediately. It will be equipped with the Front End recently delivered
from the East Asian Front End Integration Center in Taiwan. ALMA officials
expect the pace of antenna acceptance to accelerate. “We have nine
(North American) antennas on site already,” said Adrian Russell, NRAO’s
ALMA Project Director, “and following handover of Number Three we plan
to get one through the test procedure each month. Additional North
American antennas will be arriving in Chile at a rate of one every two
months, and General Dynamics is on track to complete delivery of these
systems within days of the original schedule.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------
On January 22, 2009 scientists and engineers at the ALMA Operations
Support Facility (OSF) achieved astronomical validation of an ALMA
continuum system. The Moon was detected in three of the four bands
available in the Front End, tuned to 100 GHz, 240 GHz and 310 GHz.
The ALMA antenna accepted last month from Japan was used with the
receiver assembly from the Front End Integration Center assembled
at the NRAO Technology Center in Charlottesville, and a Back End
assembled at the Socorro, NM Array Operations Center. The
observations were controlled from the OSF Technical Facility supplied by ESO.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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: Comet Lulin has reached closest approach to the Sun and will grace
ESE evening skies as it approaches Earth on its way back to the chilly
outer
solar system. It is around 5th magnitude with a pronounced antitail
according to reports. Look for it between Saturn and Regulus. On
Tuesday, February 24th, Lulin is closest to Earth: 0.41 a.u. (61 million
km, or 38 million miles). Many molecules have been reported, including
HCN, HCO+, methanol and formaldehyde. Venus grows brilliant as the
evening star--through modest telescopes one can make out its thinning
crescent in the coming months. The Moon passes it closely on the 27th.
SCO (Santiago Central Office): Very productive CIPT/AIV/CSV/Ops meeting
was held in Santiago Jan 22-23. A CASA tutorial was held at ESO/Santiago
Jan 26-27. ALMA Science Advisory Committee members lunched with ALMA
staff at the Alsacia offices on 30 January. New science team members
Denis Barkats, Juan Cortes, Ruediger Kniessl, Mark Rawlings and Baltasar
Vila Vilaro arrived in Chile at the beginning of January
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): To date, 46 foundation have
received structural concrete. Earthwork for the excavation of the
ACA foundations has been completed.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): ALMA Science Advisory
Committee met face to face in the OSF TB 28-29 Jan. Upon acceptance
of the
first Vertex antenna, it was transported to the OSF Technical Facility
and placed upon foundation TF6. Vx #2 Completed installation of new
linear sensor devices and alignment/tuning of sensors is in process.
Vx6 photogrammetry complete. Vx7 pedestal and BUS have been mated;
panel installation in progress. The Vertex antenna #9
Pedestal and Backup Structure (BUS) arrived and are awaiting s free
antenna foundation to begin assembly. Shipping of elements of the
first AEM antenna from Antwerp is expected 2009 Feb 10. The upgrading
of the C pavilion in the ALMA Camp is ongoing, and completion is
expected by late January 2009.
NTC: Successful first operation of the LORTM as part of the NA FEIC
test and measurement system. Assembly of the third correlator
quadrant continued. All bins and motherboards have been installed.
Fan installation is now in progress.
AOC: Ahipping Antenna Articles (AA) AA3 and AA4 to OSF is anticipated
2009-01-29. The master laser, slave laser, and pCLO from the ATF
along with ATF test equipment will accompany this AA shipment.
NAASC: CASA patch 2.3.1 released. Approximately 200 new users have
registered and downloaded CASA since its public release in July 2008.
Generation of science-based white papers for the US decadal review
supporting the ALMA development plan continued.
GB: A. Wootten reported an update on the status of ALMA.
Elsewhere: The second production Band 9 (.35mm) Cartridge is ready
for acceptance.
A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php
***************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://safe.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
Jan 28-29 ASAC f2f OSF.
Feb 4-5 Band 7 Manufacturing Readiness Review, IRAM
Feb 9 Water Vapor Radiometer Test Readiness Review
Feb 12 Band 3 Manufacturing Readiness Review, HIA
Feb 19 EU FEIC PAI for engineering model Front End.
Mar 18 Band 4 (2mm) PAI NAOJ
Mar 24-27 ALMA and ELTs: A Deeper, Finer View of the Universe, ESO
Apr 15-16 NA FEIC Operational Readiness Review (Charlottesville)
Jun 8-12 mm and submm Astronomy at High Angular Resolution, ASIAA
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
CARMA Proposals Due
Observing time with CARMA is allocated in response to proposals judged
on scientific merit. The current Call for Proposals for general and
target of opportunity (TOO) time is for observations covering the
period July 1, 2009 - November 30, 2009. Proposals are due on
March 18.
Proposals requesting Director's discretionary time may be submitted
at any time. See: http://www.mmarray.org/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SMA Proposals Due
Following the direction of the SMA steering committee, the CfA SMA
Time Allocation Committee (TAC) solicits proposals for observations
in the 230, 345, 400, and 690 GHz bands for the period 2009 May 16 -
2009 Nov 15. The deadline for submitting proposals is 2009 March 5
(16:00 EST = 11:00 HST). In addition, large (legacy) proposals must
be preceded by a brief "Notice of Intent" by 2009 February 26,
16:00 EST. See http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/call.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Several ALMA positions are available at the JAO (Santigo).
Details for all positions may be viewed at:
http://www.alma.cl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Proposal deadlines for CARMA, SMA, NRAO.
***************************************************************************
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
More information about the mmaimcal
mailing list