[mmaimcal] FYI: 2 Jun 2009 BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

[Al Wootten]

Folks,

Comments, contributions, clarifications please.

Clear skies,
Al


                 BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                            2 June - 16 June 2009

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
As reported recently, on 30 April, the first two ALMA antennas were 
pointed at an astronomical source, Mars, and 'static' fringes were 
observed--software did not control or follow the changes in the fringes 
as the source followed its diurnal path. Updated ALMA software (v6.1) 
has now been installed. On 12 June 'dynamic' fringes were obtained, for 
which computations are continually updated to drive the electronics and 
track the changes in the fringes as the source treks on its daily route 
across the sky. In this case, the spectral lines from the silicon monoxide 
(SiO) maser in the heart of the Orion Molecular Cloud were observed at 
86 GHz by a team that included Jeff Kern, Robert Lucas and Lewis Knee. 
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A House Appropriations Subcommittee has reported to the floor on
the FY 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Bill, HR2847.  The 
report follows the President's budget recommendation for ALMA ($42.76M).  
If enacted, this would be the tenth year of ALMA construction funding at 
the requested level.  The bill was approved 18 Jun by the House 259-157.
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On 15 June the Herschel satellite cryostat cover was opened at 10:54 UTC.
With that, satellite begins its mission as Observatory.  See
http://herschel.esac.esa.int/SneakPreview.shtml
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A STAR Award was presented to Rodrigo Britoin in recognition of his work
in the execution of the tasks associated with the ALMA Backend IPT work 
package called the "Temporary Central LO Test Stand (tCLOTS)."  The
equipment has been handed over to AIV at the OSF, and as evidenced above,
has played an integral part in obtaining first fringes there.  
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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.  Jupiter rises past midnight; the waning moon passes it 13/14 June.  
By Friday, it approaches Venus and Mars in the early morning.  Summer
solistice (winter in the South of course) begins at 1:46am on 21 June, a
night of revelry and fun for millennia.

SCO (Santiago Central Office):  MIPT face-to-face meeting (May 26 - 27 at JAO).
Services are being relocated pending construction of the Santiago Central
Offices.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude):  To date, 105 foundation have
received structural concrete; 140 lean concrete.  The 22 foundations 
for ACA antennas have Provisional acceptance.

OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Beam map measurements at 3mm
(Band 3) of planets and quasars were made with DV01.  Pointing models
at 3mm (B3) and 1.3mm (B6) were made with DV01, for which focus curves were 
also established.  For PM03, Az jumps seen in OPT data were investigated.
The newly accepted Vertex antenna No 2 (aka DV02 or AIV3 or 9002) was 
accepted and moved to TF pad no 4.  Antenna #3 Finishing acceptance tests 
prior to start of formal pointing tests scheduled to begin 27 April.  
Acceptance should occur in June for this antenna.  Vertex No 10 is 
scheduled to arrive in port in early May.  Until that occurs, there are 
three accepted antennas, seven Vertex antennas under construction, three 
Melco antennas and one AEM antenna awaiting erection, in addition to 
portions of others.  The newly furbished meeting hall in the OSF Technical 
Facility  (TF) was used for a special safety and security meeting.  The steel 
pedestal support for the European antenna arrived the week ending 20 April.  
Amplitude Calibration Devices No 5 passed provisional acceptance In-House 
(PAI).  A support team from ESO will travel in early May to the OSF to 
assist with the Provisional Acceptance Site (PAS) and installation of 
these units.   

NTC:   Assembly of the third quadrant of the correlator continued.  The
Central LO is nearing its date for shipment to Chile for installation at
the AOS.

NAASC: Registration continues for the Sept 21-24 Workshop, fourth
in a series on transformational science with ALMA.  Do it at
http://www.nrao.edu/meetings/galaxies09/
The Operations Software Review in Santiago occurs this biweek.

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 1-2      Ops software requirements review, Santiago
     Jun 8-12     mm and submm Astronomy at High Angular Resolution, ASIAA
     Jun 11-12    Front End Service Vehicle PDR, Taichung, Taiwan
     Jun 17       Correlator Quadrant 2 Provisional Acceptance In-house 
(PAI)
     Jun 22-25    Band 4 and 8 FE CDR & PAI    Tokyo
     Jun          ALMA Board Telecon
     Sep 2-3      CSV Review, Santiago
     Sep 21-25    Assembly, Gas Content and Star Formation History of 
Galaxies
     Sep 28-30    IRAM 30th
     Oct 4        Spectral Line workshop, Koln
     Nov 11-12    ALMA Board face-to-face meeting, Santiago
     Nov 16-      Annual ALMA External Review, Santiago
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************

*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
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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
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Past issues are available at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html