[mmaimcal] FYI: 20 Apr 09 BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Fri May 8 15:56:48 EDT 2009

Folks,

Contributions, corrections, comments?

Clear skies,
Al

                 BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                            20 Apr 2009 - 4 May

******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
The two ALMA antennas that have been outfitted and characterized by the
ALMA teams over the past months now have their surfaces set to much
better than the 25 micron specification when pointed at an elevation
of 50 degrees, known as the rigging angle.  Both antennas have had their
individual parameters—pointing and focus models for example—determined
through total power tests run by the AIV (Assembly, Integration and
Verification) team led by Joe McMullin, and by the science team led by
Alison Peck. As a measure of merit of these models, both antennas were
pointed at the holography tower early in April and ‘static fringes’
were observed from the beacon used for holography.  Doing this on an
astronomical source requires good focus and pointing. During April,
numerous observations of SiO maser stars have provided good radiometric
pointing models. On 2009 April 30 both antennas were pointed at an
astronomical source, Mars, and static fringes were observed. Present
at the event were Gene Duvall, Dick Sramek, Lewis Knee, Norman Saez
and Hector Alarcon with off-site support from Peter Napier and Darrel
Emerson.  The team will proceed with the next steps, culminating with
ALMA software controlling all aspects of the observation—in today’s
observation the geometric delay in the signal paths between the two
antennas was calculated independently, for example.  The next software
implementation will contain all of the functionality to do this and
other calculations automatically. When this occurs (in June), we refer
to the fringes as 'dynamic'; it is dynamic fringes that ALMA will
generate when it blazes a path toward transformational science.
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On 29 April 2009, the second production antenna designed and built by
the Vertex division of General Dynamics Corp. under contract with
Associated Universities, Inc. conditionally passed its acceptance
tests and was accepted by the project. An ALMA transporter moved
this antenna to foundation No. 4 at the nearby OSF and antenna
outfitting began immediately. This antenna will be equipped with
the Front End recently delivered from the European Front End
Integration Center at Rutherford Appleton Labs.
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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):  Schedule and configuration control boards
met.  Several Interface Control Documents (ICDs_ were approved.

AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude):  To date, 85 foundation have
received structural concrete.  The 22 foundations for ACA antennas have
been completed insofar as excavation and concrete procedures go.

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.

AOC: Stephane Gauffre and Silvio Rossi will visit Socorro the week of
2009-04-20 to work with (Digital Transmission System (DTS) and Antenna
Article (AA) PAI personnel.  CASA release 2.4 is in preparation.

NTC: NA-FEIC Operational Readiness Review (Apr 16 - 17, Charlottesville) was
chaired by Jacob Kooi.  Several items are being addressed.  The first of
two Laser Synthesizers shipped from Teraxion (destined for Charlottesville)
on Tuesday, 2009-04-14. The second followed on Wednesday, 2009-04-15.
The SoW for shipping Correlator Quadrant 2 is complete.  Assembly of the
third quadrant continued.  The ATF 2-antenna correlator is under test
by the Computing IPT.

TUS:  ALMA participated in an NSF large facilities meeting and a NEON
meeting and was featured at a U. Az. radio astronomy lunch.

NAASC: Preparations are concluding for the Sept 21-24 Workshop, fourth
in a series on transformational science with ALMA.  Registration should
begin 2009 May 4,

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 *************************
    Apr 20-22    20th Intl Symp. on Space THz Technology, Charlottesville
    May 6        Herschel launch
    May 26-29    Advancing Chemical Understanding thru Astronomical
Observations
    Jun 1-2      Ops software requirements review, Santiago
    Jun 8-12     mm and submm Astronomy at High Angular Resolution, ASIAA
    Sep 21-25    Assembly, Gas Content and Star Formation History of Galaxies
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************

*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
Several ALMA positions are available at the JAO (Santigo).

Details for all positions may be found through:
http://www.alma.cl
or
http://www.nrao.edu/admin/hr/careers-old.shtml
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This is a special ATNF call for proposals for the Australia Telescope
Compact Array (ATCA) for the 2009 JULS. This semester is for ATCA
proposals ***ONLY***. The CLOSING DATE for ATCA applications for 2009
JULS is 15 May 2009. Applications must arrive no later than midnight,
Australian Eastern Standard Time (equivalent to 14:00 UT).
All applications must be submitted using OPAL. See
http://opal.atnf.csiro.au.

The 2009 JULS will run for a 10-week period from 15 July until 30
September 2009. We expect that three CABB observing modes will be
available by September 2009, including a high resolution zoom mode
that is available for the first time. For the latest information it is
essential to read the CABB documentation on the ATNF web pages.
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/observers/apply/avail.html
ATCA proposals not completely scheduled in the 2009 APRS semester that
require further observing time should be resubmitted for consideration
in the 2009 JULS semester.
Please note that because of the need for local knowledge in using the
new CABB systems, remote observing is expected to be restricted.
A further announcement will be made in mid-May 2009 for the 2009 OCTS.
This will be a standard six-month semester and applications will be
invited for all ATNF facilities.
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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