BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 15 January 2007 - 29 January 2007 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************** The ESO Council has just appointed Tim de Zeeuw, 50, as the next Director General of ESO, effective as of 1 September 2007, when the current Director General, Catherine Cesarsky, will complete her mandate. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Leonardo Testi will join ESO as European ALMA Project Scientist starting from May 1st. We welcome him to the ALMA Science Team. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Henri Boffin, Deputy Head of the ESO Public Affairs Department, has put revised ESO images of ALMA on the ESO ftp server. They should replace the older versions. If used, please include the copyright ESO/ALMA. The images are available at ftp://ftp.eso.org/pub/general/hboffin/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Juan Carlos Inostroza will be taking over ALMA EDM administation and maintenance, in Santiago, from Kevin Long, who will be leaving the Santiago office at the end of January. Welcome Juan Carlos! Special thanks to Kevin Long for the work he has done for ALMA in Santiago. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html See also the JAO ALMA Calendar overview at: http://www.alma.cl/alma_project *************************************************************************** General Happenings Sky: C/2006 P1 (McNaught) has finished its spectacular show for those of us with only optical eyes in the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere is now getting the best cometary show of the past thirty years. In the Southern Hemisphere, it appears at around 2 mag in late January, then it keeps observable while fading gradually while ALMA is built. Radio telescopes have a better chance for observation--IRAM detected HCN on 15.6 and 16.5 January, measuring an outgassing rate greater than Hale-Bopp at its perihelion (estimate: 3E28 molec./s). A S. hemisphere finding chart: http://media.skytonight.com/images/McNaught_S_Hemis.jpg It should present a great appearance from any of the ALMA sites. Santiago: Preparations are being made to obtain architectural drawings for a permanent ALMA building on the ESO site. AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Power, froom a temporary generator, will be connected to the building during the coming fortnight. Alitplanic winter weather continues, with snow. At best, 4-6 millimeters of precipitable water vapor this past week at APEX. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Work continues toward completion of the building. Concrete piers now jut above the ground. The VertexRSI Site Erection Facility erection continues at this 3000m OSF site. Production antennas will be assembled here beginning in the second quarter of 2007. Aerial view of elements of the OSF site are available at the ALMA image gallery (link under NAASC below). ATF: Holography on the VertexRSI prototype antenna is finished. VertexRSI personnel will be at the antenna during the week. Work/planning continues on optical pointing system preparation/planning with Science IPT. The BEND antenna racks and Eval-FEs are installed in both the AEC and VA antennas; the Central LO racks and the two-station prototype correlator are installed in the VLA control building. All hardware modules were powered up and achieved basic functionality. Basic computer monitor control to all modules was achieved. Limited system connectivity was achieved. A coherent 9.7 GHz test signal was injected into the IF Processors of both the Vertex and Alcatel antennas. This coherent signal was generated by unused, but phase locked, LO2 modules. The parallel signal path went through the IF Processor, the Digitizer, the Data Transmission System and on to the Correlator. A cross-correlation spectrum was displayed at the output of the correlator. This test of the BEND and Correlator equipment, did not include the photonic reference nor the Eval-FEs. Next steps are: 1) tower beacon interferometry, and 2) astronomical interferometry. TUC: Emerson has been supporting work at the ATF. Holdaway continues to toil on the largest array configuration design. AOC: A Prototype System Integration review will be held 24-25 Jan. NTC (NRAO Technology Center, Charlottesville): All four ALMA-B first cartridges (Bands 3, 6, 7, and 9) were installed in cryostat #2 and successfully cooled; any two cartridges may be operated simultaneously. Electromagnetic Compatibility tests began. The Band 3 (3mm) Critical Design Review (CDR) is tentatively scheduled for late March. The Band 6 (1mm) CDR is tentatively scheduled for June. The Band 9 (.45 mm) CFT will occur in early Feb. The second B3 cartridge to be delivered (serial #1) is ready for Provisional Acceptance InHouse (PAI), to be held this week. The second B6 cartridge to be delivered has completed acceptance testing. The second B7 cartridge was received at the NA Front End Integration Center (FEIC). A second preproduction TFB card was delivered to CV. Delay model testing began using two TFB cards. NAASC: A number of ALMA-related science discussions will occur during the next fortnight: 18 Jan NRAO 4pm Simon Radford, Caltech "The Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope" 19 Jan NRAO 4pm Astrophysical Molecules Discussion Group meeting "Thioformaldehyde in the ISM" 22 Jan U.Va.4pm Dr. Alan P. Boss, CIW, "Giant Planet Formation: Theory vs. Observations" 25 Jan NRAO 4pm Doug Johnstone, NRC/HIA, "Understanding How Star Formation Proceeds in the Perseus and Ophiuchus Molecular Clouds" New artist renditions of the array are available at: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html Registration for the workshop 'Transformational Science with ALMA: Through Disks to Stars and Planets' to be held 22-24 June 2007 is under way: See http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/disk07/ A Nutator SRR will be held 22-23 Jan. SMA: The remaining tests with the prototype Water Vapor Radiometers (WVRs) on the SMA have been completed and the radiometers will be returning soon to Europe. *************************************************************************** DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar Mon 15 Jan - Martin Luther King Day USA R. E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-M. L. King Day (Virginia) Tue 16 Jan - ESO ALMA Retreat, Tranpsorter FDR 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon 1:00 PM- ALMA Board/NA Telecaucus Wed 17 Jan - ESO ALMA Retreat, Tranpsorter FDR 9:30am - Science IPT telecon Thu 18 Jan - ESO ALMA Retreat 8:00am - ALMA EPO telecon 9:30am - ALMA Board Telecon 11:01 EST: New Moon Fri 19 Jan Sat 20 Jan - Sun 21 Jan - ESO Visiting Committee at OSF Mon 22 Jan - Nutator SRR - NSF Review committee meets, SCO Tue 23 Jan - Nutator SRR - NSF Review committee meets, OSF & AOS 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 24 Jan - PSI Review, Socorro Thu 25 Jan - PSI Review, Socorro Fri 26 Jan 2:00 PM: ANASAC Telecon Sat 27 Jan Sun 28 Jan Mon 29 Jan ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS **************************** Jan 10 ASAC Telecon Jan 16-17 '07 all day Transporter FDR Jan 16-18 '07 all day ESO ALMA Retreat Jan 18 '07 ALMA Board telecon Jan 24-25 all day PSI Review Socorro Jan 26 1900UT ANASAC Telecon Jan 30-1 Feb all day AEM antenna PPDR Mestre Feb 6-7 B9 cartridge CDR Groningen Feb 15 ALMA Board Telecon Telecon Feb 27-8 all day ALMA Ops Plan Review NSF Mar 1 all day ALMA/NAASC Plan Review NSF Mar 9-12 all day IPT F2F MEETING Chile ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************** *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************** SMA CALL FOR PROPOSALS Deadline: 1 March 2007 The Submillimeter Array (SMA), the radio interferometer on Mauna Kea built by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, makes available a fraction of the observing time to principal investigators from the astronomical community (worldwide). The proposal deadline is 1 March 2007 for the observing semester 1 May 2007 through 31 October 2007. More information, technical details, and instructions and tools for proposal preparation and submission can be found starting in February at http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/, the SMA Observer Center web site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NRAO CALL for PROPOSALS Deadline: 1 Feb 2007 See: http://www.nrao.edu/astrores/ *************************************************************************** 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