BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 9 Feb - 23 Feb 2009 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 NRAO eNews: http://www.nrao.edu/news/newsletters/ Sky: Venus grows brilliant as the evening star--through modest telescopes one can make out its thinning crescent in the coming months. SCO (Santiago Central Office): OSF interferometer scenario --- start with basically every antenna going through OSF interferometry, and shift to a dedicated antenna pair if we get confidence that every antenna+receiver works uniformly enough as an interferometer element AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Foundation construction continues. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): The AIV group started the installation of holography receiver #2 on the antenna on Feb 18. AIV1 antenna (Melco) underwent surface verification observations, analysis and panel setting (5 iterations); dish is down to 12.5 microns at the rigging angle of 50 degrees (lead by Darrell Emerson). Equipping of AIV2 (Vertex) progressed well; pointing tests were performed. NTC: PAI for the eighth B6 (1.3mm) cartridge delivery (SN10) was held. The ATF 2-antenna correlator is being packed for shipping to Charlottesville for support of the Computing IPT until July, when it will be shipped to the OSF for use by AIV. A skeleton 2-antenna correlator will be assembled in Santiago from spare and salvaged components; it will be used primarily for firmware development. NAASC: Calibration Group telecon heard of the new plans for development of calibration loads. A calendar of NAASC events may be found at: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/alma_calendar.shtml *************************************************************************** DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ************************* Mar 11-13 ALMA Board meeting Mar 18 Band 4 (2mm) PAI NAOJ Mar 18 Band 8 (.6mm) PAI NAOJ Mar 24-27 ALMA and ELTs: A Deeper, Finer View of the Universe, ESO Apr 15-16 NA FEIC Operational Readiness Review (Charlottesville) Apr 16 Herschel launch Apr 20-22 20th Intl Symp. on Space THz Technology, Charlottesville Jun 8-12 mm and submm Astronomy at High Angular Resolution, ASIAA ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ************************* *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*************************** Several ALMA positions are available at the JAO (Santigo). Details for all positions may be viewed at: http://www.alma.cl ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CARMA Proposals Due Observing time with CARMA is allocated in response to proposals judged on scientific merit. The current Call for Proposals for general and target of opportunity (TOO) time is for observations covering the period July 1, 2009 - November 30, 2009. Proposals are due on March 18. Proposals requesting Director's discretionary time may be submitted at any time. See: http://www.mmarray.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SMA Proposals Due Following the direction of the SMA steering committee, the CfA SMA Time Allocation Committee (TAC) solicits proposals for observations in the 230, 345, 400, and 690 GHz bands for the period 2009 May 16 - 2009 Nov 15. The deadline for submitting proposals is 2009 March 5 (16:00 EST = 11:00 HST). In addition, large (legacy) proposals must be preceded by a brief "No tice of Intent" by 2009 February 26, 16:00 EST. See http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/call.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Several ALMA positions are available at the JAO (Santigo). Details for all positions may be viewed at: http://www.alma.cl ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The deadline for submission of observing proposals on IRAM telescopes, both the interferometer and the 30m, is 12 March 2009, 17:00 CET (UT + 1 hour) The scheduling period extends from 1 June - 30 Nov 2009. Proposals should be submitted through our web-based submission facility. Instructions can be found on our web page at URL: http://www.iram.fr/GENERAL/submission/submission.html *************************************************************************** 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