MMA Imaging and Calibration Group
Minutes for meeting Tuesday, 28 May 2002 at 4:00pm EDT.
Date: 28 May 2002
Time: 4:00 pm EDT
pm EDT (2:00 pm Socorro, 1:00 pm Tucson)
Phone: (434)296-7082 (CV SoundStation Premier Conference phone 3rd floor).
Past minutes, etc on MMA
Imaging and Calibration Division Page
Agenda
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News. -Wootten
News from my point of view. Report for February-March for ALMA/US Science IPT has been submitted.
The ACC has reached agreements with the following individuals for
the interim positions that will make up the new Joint ALMA office:
ALMA Director Paul Vanden Bout
ALMA Project Manager Massimo Tarenghi
ALMA Project Scientist Stéphane Guilloteau
These appointments are effective 1 June 2002 and will continue until a
search for permanent staff is completed in approximately six months.
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Y+ Configuration - Butler, Holdaway, Otarola
Progress; discussion of coordinates to send the negotiators.
By Thursday we need:
Define the area on the Chajnantor site we need as "exclusive use".
When there are doubts, for example whether to choose the Y+
configuration or the Chascon Ring, provide coordinates that include both
(or all) alternatives. Ignore the boundaries of the science preserve,
it's all BN land. Be generous in the assessment. We don't need to know
where the antenna foundations are to be, only the boundaries that
encompass in a continuous way all the land on which we *may* place
foundations. This is needed as soon as possible. Stephane and Al.
Conway suggested:
The masks from Holdaway and Otarola
http://almaedm.tuc.nrao.edu/forums/alma/dispatch.cgi/ipt20sitedocshare/folderFrame/100004/0/def/1fd7
can be used as the
basis for the discussion of the area of non-exclusive use
both in and outside of the science preserve as our
fallback permission. (they can also give an estimate
of the numbers of antenna pads likely to be
built in each area).
1) First ask for exclusive use of 6x6km
+ non-exclusive use
in the whole science preserve, +
non-exclusive access
to land to West outside the science preserve
in the areas indicated by Marks GIF
masks.
2) If the above is not acceptable
restrict the requested land to
regions of Marks mask within science
preserve + region of Marks mask outside
of preserve, maybe if pushed
just in regions along OSF acess road.
3) If neither of above are accepetable
to Chilean authorities then we have to try to
supply detailed pad positions for the
extended configurations.
---end Conway suggestions---
I think that if we AND the Holdaway/Otarola masks
discussed above with the masks for the Chascon ring
we have a reasonable maximum for non-exclusive access. The relaxed
criteria Holdaway and Otarola applied to their masks, however, have not
been applied to Chascon ring regions, where the mask was more restrictive.
However, since the masked region for the Chascon ring has been visited by
various parties at various times, I think it is a reasonable maximum.
Exclusive access to include the 6x6km central portion. All that remains is
to turn the masks into some reasonable geometry and I think we have
what is needed.
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Meetings Past and Future - Wootten
Report from ACC telecon??
Sitescape is ready for your trial. Check it out!
ASAC Agenda for 5 June.
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Calibration--Butler, Mangum
The AAS is meeting in Albuquerque in June. Some plans for the new ALMA
backdrop are at stuff.
Issues: Calibration Group Set Up
From last week, on the photonic calibration::
3)Comments? Discussion?
3)3-1) How stable?
3)3-2) Over how long?
Recent Memos:
2) evaluate the dual load system on the Vertex antenna and the semi-transparent vane on the A/C/E antenna (or both on both). In my view neither of
these systems is ready for production. Both have been tried in the past and abandoned for reasons we think a little engineering could solve. But we need
some commitment from the FE group, already overstressed by the need for a receiver(s)... Because of the interaction between front ends, antenna and
the calibration system I think we need at least one receiver at the ATF ready to test when evaluation finishes on 1 Jan 2004. (I think it should be a
prototype band in an RAL dewar with Carter's system but...) Some major questions remain--for instance do we need two loads for the semi-transparent
system? Can we measure coupling of the dual load system well enough? Enumerating these is an action item in itself.
See Memo 372, also JGM is working on revision of his memo.
New Memo 422
(for review).
New Memo 423
(for review).
Other
Lucas' list of simulation requirements to be discussed in
Granada
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Star Wars -- Others?
Any other reviews of the movie?
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Upcoming Meetings - Wootten
May 2 ASAC agenda.
MAY 6-9 Astrophysics
of Life Space Telescope Science Institute Wootten attending
May 24 ESO Committee of Council
June 2 - 6 AAS Meeting Albuquerque
JUN 18-21 Scientific
Frontiers in Research on Extrasolar Planets at Carnegie Institution
See ALMA abstract. Program now online with two ALMA posters:
Session: Ground-based Planet Search Instruments: ALMA
Jean-Francois Lestrade, Observatoire de Paris/LERMA
"Astrometry at millimeter wavelengths with ALMA to search for extrasolar planets or to determine their orbits"
Henry Alwyn Wootten, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
"Extrasolar Planet Research with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array"
JUN 24 AMAC Meeting Munich
AUG 17/24 URSI General Assembly,
Maastricht, the Netherlands Butler attending
AUG 22/28 SPIE Symposium on Astronomical
Telescopes and Instrumentation, Waikoloa, Hawaii. Brown, Wootten attending
SEP 9-13 Winds, Bubbles
and Explosions
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Travel
Oh, always
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