BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 24 Mar 2008 - 7 April 2008 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* The ALMA Board is pleased to announce that Dr. Tetsuo Hasegawa will take up the position of Interim ALMA Project Manager at the Joint ALMA Office in Santiago effective 1 May 2008. Dr. Hasegawa is a world expert in millimeter astronomy, with excellent scientific and instrumental credentials. He has been the Project Director and Project Manager for the Japanese contribution to ALMA and has substantial experience in coordinating large international projects. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Radio signals from the moon were deteced on Melco antenna No. 2 with the installed 2mm SIS receiver. Mapping observations of the moon was also conducted in the On-The-Fly method. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Stern resigned 16 Mar as NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. During the year he served, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2007. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html Sky: Mars gleams high in the southwestern evening sky, while Saturn looms in the southeast. Jupiter is in the southeastern morning sky until dawn drowns his light. SCO: A second production workshop was held via telecon. AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Ongoing monitoring of the membrane covering the antenna Cassegrain hole at the AOS; holding up well.2. Mission to AOS to check equipment compatibility was successfully completed; a report is being prepared. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): All components of Vertex Antenna #4 All components will have arrived in Chile this week. Transporter assembled and running. Dummy mounted and filled with sand. The 2-antenna correlator at the OSF has been installed and it passed initial tests, including producing spectra from an analog noise source. AOC: Digital Transmission Ssytem (DTS) shipped to Chile 4 Formatter (DTX) modules and 1 Digitizer Clock (DGCK) module, to be integrated into the first Antenna Article from BE. ATF: Software releases ACS 7.0.1 and ALMA 5.0.3 are being debugged at the ATF. The first ATF spectral line observations of Orion with gain cal 0530+134 was reduced end-to-end in CASA by George Moellenbrock. NTC (NRAO Technology Center): Front End SN01 was disassembled for shipment to the OSF. This will constitute the first ALMA receiver package to arrive in Chile. Integration work on the second quadrant continues, with 100% of the signal cables installed. Canada: Teraxion announced that Spring has arrived in Quebec City, signalled by piles of snow. EU: CFRP Cabin for AEM antenna No 1 has suffered damage to two backup structure (BUS) interface flanges during transport and needs repair at manufacturer in France. Manufacture and assembly of steel structures continue. NAASC: Internal meeting 2 April. ALMA enews was distributed. 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://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar 23 March Easter Sunday (Fri 21 Mar Spring Holiday in US). ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ************************* Mar 26-9 The Cosmic Agitator-B Fields in the Galaxy U. Ky Mar 26 13UT ALMA Production Review Workshop Netmeeting Apr 1 Optical Pointing Telescope PDR Tucson Apr 1-3 ALMA Board Meeting Chile ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ************************* Memo # 576 has been approved and posted. Title: RF Burnout Power of SIS Mixers Author: A.R. Kerr Abstract: The RF burnout power of Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb SIS mixers is estimated from measured DC burnout data. It is assumed that an SIS junction suffers permanent damage when it reaches a critical temperature which is the same for all junctions of that material type. The junction temperature depends on the power (RF or DC) dissipated in the junction and the thermal resistance between the junction and thermal ground. The burnout powers of some SIS receivers currently in use at millimeter-wave observatories are estimated. View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #576. http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma576/memo576.pdf *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*************************** The Allen Telescope Array is accepting proposals from the general user community for the second half of 2008. Proposals are due April 18, 2008 at 5pm PDT. A full set of instrument parameters and proposal forms is available at http://ral.berkeley.edu/ata/Proposal/Proposals.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The CARMA SUMMER SCHOOL at the CARMA site in the Inyo mountains this year June 22 - 28. Students will stay at the observatory for lectures, practical demonstrations, and observing projects. The lectures cover the basic theory of interferometer observations, data reduction and imaging. - the application deadline is April 25 You can read a TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: http://cedarflat.mmarray.org/observing/doc/instrument_desc.html and there is a tool to calculate the RMS noise: http://cedarflat.mmarray.org/observing/tools/rms.html PLEASE REPLY WITH YOUR APPLICATION BY 25 APRIL: mwright@astron.berkeley.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Eleventh Synthesis Imaging Workshop will take place from June 10 through June 17 of 2008 in Socorro, NM. The school will comprise a week of lectures on aperture synthesis theory and techniques at a level appropriate for graduate students in astrophysics. Basic lectures on synthesis imaging, and advanced lectures on more specialized techniques, will be included. Practical tutorials demonstrating data collection, calibration and imaging of both VLA and VLBA data will be given. There will be a nominal registration fee, which will cover the cost of the meeting and a copy of ASP Vol. 180, "Synthesis Imaging in Radio Astronomy II", from the 1998 summer school. Please visit: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/events/synthesis/2008/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Registration is now open for "Transformational Science with ALMA: The Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars, Within and Beyond the Galaxy" A workshop to be held at the North American ALMA Science Center National Radio Astronomy Observatory Charlottesville, Virginia September 25-27 2008 Please see: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/php/meetings/massive08/ *************************************************************************** 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