BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 16 June 2008 - 30 June 2008 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* The ALMA transporter has received provisional acceptance subsequent to the review meeting held 20 June. Several antenna transports are expected in the next months as antennas are accepted by ALMA. An preliminary acceptance review was held for Melco antenna No 1. --------------------------------------------------------------------- At its meeting in Provence, the ALMA Board accepted the development, production, and implementation of Band 10 (350 microns) as an ALMA-J deliverable. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Austria will join ESO on 1 July, becoming its 14th member state and thus a new participant in ALMA. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) is visible in the evening sky from the Southern Hemisphere. South of Sirius, the comet passes south of the Sun in mid-June, when it should reach 5th magnitude as it passes about a quarter AU from Earth and 0.85 AU from the Sun. Watch for it to reappear to the eye in early July. Mars and Saturn are evening objects, Mars passing close to Saturn early in the month. Jupiter remains bright in Sagittarius; Venus is very low in Aries. On 4 July, Earth will be at its furthest from the Sun in the decade, owing to the near-coincidence of aphelion with New Moon (3 July). SCO (Santiago Central Office) : A team chaired by W. Wild visited the EU Front End Integration Centers, in part to aid in development of a commissioning plan for these centers. Management team meetings were held in conjunction with the ALMA Board meeting in Provence. AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Most nights have had less than 1mm PWV; some nights early in the period had much less. Earthworks for the road and trenching for a Station No. 93 near the AOS Technical Building (TB) continues, with completion expected during July. This station has now received structural concrete. Another five foundations near the TB are also being prepared; foundation No. 101 also received structural concrete during this fortnight. Utilities installation is expected during August. Grading of the Central Cluster area has reached 95% completion. Provisional acceptance of the Transporter Hangar is imminently expected. Weather instruments are ready for deployment at the AOS. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): The review for provisional acceptance of the OSF Technical Buildings (TB) has been completed. A site visit with interested bidders on the power supply contract was held 10-11.June. Repair of VxRSI antenna No 1 will begin 1 July. VxRSI antenna No 2 will be moved from the transporter building in early July to an antenna station near that occupied by No 1. Ant No 3 photogrammetry complete. Ant No 4 HVAC commissioning performed. Ant No 5 pedestal is on its foundation with Backup Structure assembly in progress. Melco Antenna No 1 acceptance review began; Melco No 2 pointing tests continue. Installation of computers in the OSF TB which will control the first antennas located at the AOS is being planned. Road maintenance will be handed over to Operations on 01 July. AOC: A critical design review was held on 2008-06-17 for the Total Power Digitizer & Monitor Control Assembly Test Set and a Rev B Development Board. The Master Laser and Laser Synthesizer CDR Review was held at Teraxion in Quebec City June 16-18. CASA tutorials were held at the Synthesis Imaging School with about 50 participants. Preparations for the mid-July software review continue. ATF: One operator rather than two is currently at the ATF as activity winds down. 140 students from the Synthesis Imaging School visited. An emphasis continues on total power functionality tests, to lead to testing of production antennas in Chile. Beam cuts of Saturn have been made; raster scans were also produced. Development of procedures for CASA reduction of data continues. NTC (NRAO Technology Center): Testing continues on Front End No 2. Assembly of holography receiver #2 is 70% complete. The 64-antenna correlator Test Readiness Review was held June 13, and PAI testing was completed. HIA: Provisional Acceptance In-House (PAI) for Band 3 (3mm) cartridges SN07 and SN08 was completed; they are ready to be shipped. DSB mixers using chips from a new wafer were built, and the 3 units tested showed excellent noise temperature. Somewhere in Spain: Assembly of the first European production antenna continues with the cabin mounted on the yoke and installation of motors and other parts continuing. ESO: Pavel Yagoubov began work 16 June as Front End System Engineer, taking over duties (system budgets and block diagram) previously performed by Luitjens Popken. NAASC: NAASC: Personnel participated in tests of the ALMA Observing Tool (OT). The NA ARC Manager traveled to the EU ARC to discuss User Portal and Archive support with ESO staff, and to attend the ESO workshop on 3D visualization. The NAASC also took part in the Synthesis Imaging School events in New Mexico, which included data reduction tutorials for ~50 participants using the CASA offline software. Improved spectroscopic data for acetic acid was added to the astronomical spectroscopy database - Splatalogue (www.splatalogue.net). The content and functionality of Splatalogue was also presented at the* 63rd International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy* - - June 16-20 in Columbus, OH. A Presentation can be found at: http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/molspect_conf_public/archive_2008/p382-ppt.tar.gz. Wootten attended ALMA 2008 meeting. 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 ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ************************* June 16-18 Master Laser, Laser Synthesizer CDR Quebec City June 16-17 EA-FEIC Review Taiwan June 16-17 ALMA 2008 Worksop Madrid June 19 63rd OSU Symposium Molecular Spectroscopy Ohio June 23-27 Band 9 Preproduction Review June 23-27 Band 9 Manufacturing Readiness Review July 2 1430UT ASAC Telecon Telecon July 16-18 Software Review No 6. July 17 ALMA Board Telecon July 16 ALMA Sci IPT Telecon Aug 11-12 EPO face-to-face Ch'ville Sep 2 1430UT ASAC Telecon Telecon Sep 9-11 ACA 7m antenna PPDR Itami Sep 12 ANASAC f2f Chvilley Sep 28-29 ASAC face-to-face Charlottesville Dec 9-11 ALMA Annual External Incremental Review OSF ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ************************* *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*************************** 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/ Program is now on line at the above site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A small workshop will be held at IRAM, Grenoble September 8 2008 on the topic of simulations of ALMA imaging. The goals are 1) To bring together the radio astronomy community with expertise in simulations of ALMA data to share experiences, ideas and code 2) To illustrate the power of ALMA in a small number of scientific fields through the presentation of simulations of ALMA science targets 3) To assess how simulations can be used to optimise the performance of ALMA once it is operational, by, for example, suggesting the optimal calibration strategies and observing modes The workshop web-page is: http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~bn204/almasim08/ *************************************************************************** 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