BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 16 July 2007 - 30 July 2007 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* The manufacture of three 12-m antennas for ACA in Japan has been completed. After disassembled and packed, these antennas were shipped to the port of Mejillones in Chile from Tamashima port in Okayama on May 27. On July 13 the antennas arrived at the port, went through customs clearance and were safely transported to the Operations Support Facility (OSF) at 2900m elevation in the ALMA construction site on July 22. The huge antenna mounts were loaded on large-sized trailers and traveled 400 km to the OSF over a period of about one week. Assembling and adjustment of three antennas will be completed in September 2007. There are now four 12m antennas at the OSF. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The House Appropriations Committee has sent to the floor H,R.3093 that would increase the FY 2008 budget for the National Science Foundation by 10.0 percent or $591.8 million to $6,509.0 million. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee has sent to the floor S.1745, an FY 2008 appropriations bill that would increase the National Science Foundation's budget by 10.8 percent (see Report 110-124 for details). In Report 110-240 the House Appropriations Committee report stated: "The Committee recommendation includes requested funding of $244,740,000 for the following continuing projects: $102,070,000 for Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)..." The Senate report also recommended provision of the requested funding. Upon passage by both legislative branches and signature by the President, this would provide the sixth year of ALMA construction funding. The Senate Report further "recommends the requested amount of $52,740,000 for the operations of the National Radio Astronomy Observatories. The operations, maintenance, and development of new instrumentation at the Very Large Array, the Very Long Baseline Array, and the Green Bank Telescope allow these world-class facilities to provide valuable research into the origins of the universe." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Photos of activity may be found at: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html Sky: Comet LINEAR (C/2006 VZ13) will fade gradually until perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on August 10th. The weak Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower should produce some meteors the week beginning 23 Jul. Venus and Saturn are low in the sky at sunset, ceding dominance of the late evening sky to Jupiter, south of which the Moon passes July 24-25. SCO (Santiago Central Office): Human resources managers meet in Santiago. Rainy cold and even snowy weather. AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Sky transparency has been excellent over the past week--often below 1mm PWV with several nights remaining below 0.5mm PWV. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): There are 463 people working at the ALMA site. Three mounts for the NAOJ 12m antennas have arrived at the OSF and have been erected. Other components of these antennas have been delivered. Work continues on the AEM antenna lay down facilities. Vertex and ALMA cabling is ongoing in the first antenna. Major components of the second antenna are expected to leave northern hemisphere ports in early August. PAS for the optical pointing telescope will be held 25-27 July. ATF: The first steps towards dynamic interferometry were taken with the successful use of the control software to set the delay of the digitizer clock. Preproduction backends were installed on the Vx antenna and the evaluation receiver re-installed. Preproduction backends will now go on the AEC antenna. AOC: The new 2-station correlator has arrived; installation at the ATF will begin early August. Dick Sramek will be departing Socorro on 01 Sept to train on sub-mm observing techniques before taking up duties in early 08 as a test scientist for AIV in Chile. Gene Duvall will assume responsibility for management of the P-SI engineering group on 01 Sept, coincident with Computing IPT taking over the scheduling of ATF activities. Fabio Marchet moved to NRAO AOC in Socorro, beginning his stay on 2007-07-17. NTC (NRAO Technology Center): The 2-antenna correlator was shipped to the ATF. Testing and integration of the 2 antenna correlator at ATF is foreseen for the first week of August. NAASC: The transformational science ALMA will enable in the field of protostellar and debris disks is detailed in presentations from the very successful NAASC conference, available online at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/disk07/. The ANASAC will meet at the NAASC on 17 August. A calendar of NAASC events may be found at: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php The workshop 'Transformational Science with ALMA: Through Disks to Stars and Planets' was held 22-24 June 2007 is under way: See http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/disk07/ for presentations. *************************************************************************** DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar Sun 15 Jul - Mon 16 Jul - Holiday Chile--Día de la Vírgen del Carmen Holiday Japan--Ocean Day (umi no hi) 3:30PM: PSI/ATF telecon Tue 17 Jul - 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 18 Jul - Holiday US 10:30AM: Science IPT telecon Thu 19 Jul - Fri 20 Jul - 4:00pm: Molecular Astrophysics Group, NAASC with presentations from Frank Lovas, John Yates and Paul Ruffle (GB). Sat 21 Jul - Sun 22 Jul - 2:29AM - first quarter moon Mon 23 Jul - Tue 24 Jul - 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 25 Jul - Thu 26 Jul - Fri 27 Jul - Sat 28 Jul - Sun 29 Jul - Mon 30 Jul - Full Moon ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ************************* Jul 26 ALMA Board Telecon Aug 1 ASAC telecon Aug 17 ANASAC f2f Cville Sep 3 ALMA/Eu Community Day ESO Sep 10-12 Ann. ALMA External Rev Santiago Sep 27-28 B3 CDR Cville Oct 1-2 B6 CDR Cville Oct 28-31 ALMA Board Meeting Santiago&San Pedro ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ************************* *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*************************** Proposals for observations using CARMA during the period 1 January to 30 June 2008 are due on 13 September 2007. Detailed information, including capabilities to be offered this semester, sensitivities, and proposal submission instructions, may be found at the CARMA website, http://www.mmarray.org. *************************************************************************** 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