BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 21 April 2008 - 5 May 2008 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* Prof. Phil Solomon, a pioneer of millimeter wave astronomy, died 30 April. ALMA has lost one of its champions, and our community a great scientist. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Imaging observations of the Sun were conducted on Melco antenna No 2 at the OSF using a 2mm SIS receiver, using the On-The-Fly method. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof L. Ziurys showed spectra of CO J=7-6 toward several evolved stars made with a 650 GHz receiver based on an ALMA B9 single channel mixer deployed at the Arizona Radio Observatory at a presentation in Charlottesville. This mixer is also the basis of the CHAMP receivers operating at APEX on Chajnantor. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html *************************************************************************** General Happenings Sky: Late in the month, Mercury puts on a good show in the evening sky. On May 22, Mars will traverse the Beehive cluster. Before dawn on June 30, the crescent moon passes through the Pleiades, best seen from North America. Mars and Saturn are nighttime objects, Jupiter is in Sagittarius and Venus in Aries. SCO: A MIPT face-to-face meeting is planned (May 7-9 in Charlottesville). Chajnantor Working Group meeting this biweek (Apr 24-25). Tetsuo Hasegawa moved to Santiago as interim Project manager (begins 1 May). AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Grading of the Central Cluster area should be completed in May. Operations and Safety personnel completed training on the use of the fire detection and extinguishing system in the Technical Building. The period began with an extended stretch of very low water vapor on the site (many hours with PWV<0.5mm on 21-22 April). OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Three additional test procedures for the acceptance of Vx Antenna No1 were completed. Installation of the Holography receiver has been postponed until repairs to the damaged quadripod structure are completed. Vx Antenna No 2 completed servo system commissioning 18 April. After photogrammetry and installation of transporter brackets antenna may be moved to second outdoor foundation. Vx Ant 3 panels installation complete. Vx Ant No 4 is on its foundation; panel installation has commenced. Vx Ant No 5 parts await shipping to Chile from Texas and Antwerp. Tests leading to provisional acceptance of transporters continue. The last of the eleven first Front End (FE) crates arrived in Santiago April 13; at OSF Apr 18. Reassembly and Provisional Acceptance on-Site (PAS) testing is scheduled for May 5-16 at the OSF. Back End employees have been working to unpack and setup Antenna Article #1 (AA1) and the Antenna Article Test Stand (AAT). PAS of AA1 and AAT is scheduled to begin Monday 2008-04-21. AOC: University of Bordeaux has confirmed that four new Digitizer Assemblies can be shipped by May. Pipeline face to face meeting, and user test #5 report completed. ATF: Quick look displays achieved at the ATF. First characterization of the bandpass shape and repeatability using the evaluation FEs; numberous tunings tested. Science testing and analysis in CASA fairly routine. NTC (NRAO Technology Center): Nick Whyborn, OSF lead engineer, visited the NTC April 9 - 18 to discuss the status of the OSF instrumentation work. The East Asian Front End (FE) Integration Center (EA FEIC) managers, Nagayoshi Ohashi and Ted Huang, visited the NTC April 15 - 18. European FEIC personnel visit 15-24 April. At the NA FEIC, a nearly complete second ALMA front end is mounted on the tilt table in the environmental chamber. A third (SN#5) is partially assembled on the second tilt table; training of EA and EU personnel on procedures using this unit will occur. Computing IPT reports success with monitor/control of FE in Charlottesville. EU: AEM Antenna #1 manufacturing: assembly and integration of steel structure continuing. Acceptance of the first antenna now expected April 09 or thereafter. Provisional Acceptance of the first prototype robotic arm for the amplitude calibration device was passed on 10 April. Further integration of this Robotic Arm is progressing. NAOJ: Assembly of the #1 Band 4 (2mm) Cartridge has been started. ASIAA: PAS testing of Band 7 (.85 mm) Cartridge #3 and Band 9 (.65mm) Cartride #3 completed at the East Asian Front End Integration Center y (EA FEIC). NAASC: Updates continue to the Splatalogue database. New fits were added to several molecular species and their isotopomers. Also, transitions of methyl mercaptan (CH3SH) and new data from methylamine (CH3NH2) were added up to 600 GHz and 500 GHz respectively. See www.splatalogue.net for more information and to search the database. 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 ************************* Apr 22-23 B5 (2mm) PDR Gothenburg May 5 WVR review Gothenburg May 5-6 ESO FC meeting Garching May 5-9 Molecular Universe meeting Bordeaux May 16 ALMA Board Telecon May 21 ASAC Telecon May 23 2pm ANASAC Telecon May 28-29 1st LO and WCA Manufacturing Readiness Review Charlottesville June 2-5 AAS Meeting St. Louis ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ************************* ELVA Memo #124: Wide-band Sensitivity of K- and Q-bands for the EVLA and VLA Authors: B. Hesman (NRAO) and R. Perley (NRAO) Date: 05/14/2008 Abstract: A comparison of the sensitivity of the VLA to EVLA antennas across K- and Q-band has been measured. The results show that both VLA and EVLA antennas at K-band are surpassing the project requirements, whereas the sensitivity at Q-band is below the project requirements and the cause is likely due to the optical alignment of the subreflector and the antenna efficiency. The optical alignment is currently being corrected and the efficiency can be improved by holography. View a pdf and ps version of EVLA Memo #124 at: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/evla/memolist.shtml *****************************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/ Abstract submission is now closed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Proposals for observing time on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea for the semester 1st September -31st Jan 2009 should be sent by 31st May 2008 to T. G. Phillips, Caltech 320-47, Pasadena, CA 91125. For further information please refer to the CSO web site at http://www.submm.caltech.edu/cso. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The deadline for proposals to use NRAO telescopes (GBT, VLA, VLBA) is 1700 EDT Monday, 2 June 2008. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ *************************************************************************** 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