BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 23 April 2007 - 7 May 2007 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************** On April 20th, the pedestal assembly of the first ALMA VertexRSI production Antenna successfully left Antofagasta port, crossing the City escorted by the local Police on his way to OSF. On 2007 April 27 at 3:15 pm the crane hangers were removed and the first Vertex RSI antenna pedestal assembly thrust itself skyward, bolted to its foundation outside of the Vertex hangar at the OSF. The first Southern Hemisphere (proto)starlight has fallen upon an ALMA production antenna. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On 2007 April 26, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) took to the skies for its first test flight. The plane, a modified Boeing 747SP jetliner carrying a 2.5m telescope, successfully completed its first flight over central Texas. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The COROT satellite has produced its first discovery, a very hot exoplanet; provisional estimates indicate it has a very large radius. The exoplanet, which has been named COROT-exo-1b, orbits around a yellow dwarf star similar to our Sun in about 1.5 days. COROT detects planets by looking for transits, small dips in the apparent brightness of a star caused by a planet passing in front of it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Leonardo Testi arrives in Garching to assume the post of European ALMA Project Scientist during this biweek. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sergio Cabezón has joined AUI/NRAO in Santiago as EPO Officer, effective 2 May. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: Venus shines brightly as the evening star in the west this month. Arcturus is shining very high in the southeast--a late-type giant star, it will be among the brightest stars ALMA can see. Saturn rides high in the evening sky, and Jupiter and Mars highlight the morning sky. AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): For the most part of the fortnight, the weather was excellent, with a period of half a millimeter of precipitable waver vapor the first part of the first week of May. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): There are 458 people working at the ALMA site. The pedestal assembly of the Vertex RSI antenna arrived at the site and was erected at the OSF site on 27 April. ATF: Holography tests have resumed on the AEC antenna. Several usable images of the surface were obtained. Holography with acceptance tests are anticipated. Optical Pointing Telescope tests are also anticipated. NAASC: A meeting of the ANASAC was held. A calendar of NAASC events may be found at: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php A number of ALMA-related science discussions will occur during the next fortnight at the NAASC; see the listings below. 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/ for schedule. *************************************************************************** DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar Mon 23 Apr - 11:30am: Talk by A. Baryshev 'Band 9', Licancabur Room, SCO 3:30PM: PSI/ATF telecon Tue 24 Apr - 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 25 Apr - Thu 26 Apr - Chajnantor Working Group Meeting, OSF Fri 27 Apr - Chajnantor Working Group Meeting, OSF 2:00PM: ANASAC Telecon Sat 28 Apr - Sun 29 Apr - Mon 30 Apr - Tue 1 May - May Day holiday, Europe; Labor Day, Chile 6:09am Full Moon Wed 2 May - 1:00PM: NAASC Telecon Thu 3 May - 4:00 pm: Fri 4 May - Sat 5 May - Sun 6 May - Mon 7 May - ASAC face-to-face meeting, Tokyo ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS **************************** Apr 27 18:00 UT ANASAC Telecon May 2 16:00 UT NAASC telecon May 7-8 all day ASAC f2f meeting Tokyo May 14-16 all day FE optics CDR IRAM May 16 14:30 UT Science IPT telecon May 17 21:30 UT ALMA Board Telecon May 23 Software CDR5 Cville Jun 13-14 Nutator PDR Taipei Jun 27-28 ALMA Board Meeting Santiago Jun 29-30 AMAC f2f Meeting Santiago Sep 12-13 B6 CDR Cville ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************** *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************** *************************************************************************** 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 _______________________________________________ Allemploy mailing list Allemploy@listmgr.cv.nrao.edu http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/mailman/listinfo/allemploy