BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 29 January 2007 - 12 Feb 2007 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************** Richard Hills and Alison Peck appointed Joint ALMA Office Project Scientist and Deputy Project Scientist We are happy to announce the appointments of the remaining Key Staff of the Joint ALMA Office (JAO): Prof. Richard Hills as the ALMA Project Scientist, and Dr. Alison Peck as the Deputy Project Scientist. Richard Hills is Professor of Radio Astronomy, and a member of the Astrophysics Group, in the Physics Department of Cambridge University, UK. His work is well known to all who are in the field of millimeter and sub-millimeter-wave astronomy. Among the many topics that he has worked on with great distinction, Prof. Hills is especially well known as an expert in radio astronomical instrumentation, telescopes and interferometry. Dr. Alison Peck is a staff member of the Sub-Millimeter Array (SMA) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA. Dr. Peck is responsible for all science and observer scheduling at the SMA telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, HI. As such, her responsibilities range from designing and implementing a system of dynamic scheduling, optimizing data taking and reduction procedures to outreach activities. We look forward to their leadership in, among other matters, the science commissioning and science verification of ALMA. Fred K. Y. Lo (NRAO) Catherine Cesarsky (ESO) Shoken Miyama (NAOJ) Massimo Tarenghi (JAO) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The President has sent the FY2008 Budget to Congress. Details on the National Science Foundation request may be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2008/ The National Science Foundation proposes a fiscal year (FY) 2008 investment of $6.43 billion to advance the frontiers of research and education in science and engineering. The NSF FY 2008 Budget Request includes an increase of $408.79 million (6.8 percent) over the FY 2007 Budget Request. At this level, NSF will build on recent advances and support promising initiatives to strengthen the Nation's capacity for discovery and innovation. The Mathematical and Physical Sciences request seeks $1,253M, an 8.9% increase over the FY2007 request. Within this division, Astronomical Sciences receives a request which is up 8.3% over the FY2007 request. The Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) request is up 3.9 % over the FY2007 request. NRAO is supported at the level of $52.74 million, an increase of $2.0 million over the FY 2007 Request. The total includes $8.2 million for ALMA early operations. Within the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction line, ALMA is increased by $16.38 million in FY 2007. Funding requested in FY 2008 from the MREFC account for ALMA reflects the new baseline configuration and cost as approved by the National Science Board.Figures for FY 2008 and beyond also reflect the new baseline. Gemini Observatory and ALMA operations and instrumentation are AST's highest priority in facility stewardship. Early operations funding for ALMA increases to $8.2 million within the base budget of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). See pp 10-13 of http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2008/pdf/30_fy2008.pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Photos of ALMA Construction activity may be found at: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html *************************************************************************** General Happenings Sky: C/2006 P1 (McNaught) provided a spectacular show over the ALMA Operations Support Facility for visiting members of the Operations Plan review committee. Some ESO staff photos may be viewed at: http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2007/mcnaught/Site/Photos.html Venus and Mercury appear closest together in evening twilight this weekend (about 6° apart). Santiago: Planning continues for the Operations Plan reviews culminating in Washington the week of 26 Feb, and for a meeting of the JAO and IPT leads, to occur in Chile 9-12 March. y AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): About one-half mm of waer vapor was measured on the site by APEX on several early February nights. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Currently there are 368 persons working on the site of which 191 use the ALMA and ContractorÕs lodging facilities, 167 live in the VVMO Camp facilities, and 10 live out of Camps. ATF: A workshop on Prototype System Integration was held at the AOC and at the ATF. Fringes from LO2 through the correlator were demonstrated. Lock of the LO1 signal has been achieved on both antennas. Since then, lock has been achieved on LO1 for both antennas. The next steps are: 1) tower beacon interferometry, and 2) astronomical interferometry. AOC: ALMA Simulation Software testing and development is occurring. NTC (NRAO Technology Center, Charlottesville): The first cartridges for Bands 3 (3mm), 6 (1mm), 7 (.85mm), and 9 (.65mm) are installed in the cryostat and the Warm Cartridge Assembly (WCA)s are now attached; any two may be operated simultaneously. ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC) tests of LO driver interference with Band 3 were completed. The Preliminary Acceptance InHouse (PAI) review for the second Band 3 cartridge was held on 18 Jan 2007. Testing on the third cartridge is complete and the report is being written. The PAI report for the second B6 cartridge is nearly done. Cartridge #4, third one to be delivered by IRAM, is ready for acceptance. The PAI review meeting will be held on 30 Jan 2007. PAI review for the second Band 9 cold cartridge is scheduled for 05-February-2007, followed by the Critical Design Review 6-7 Feb, 2007. Performance was verified for prototype X6 frequency multipliers for Band 8 (0.6mm). Construction of an upgrated two-station prototype correlator, including Tunable Filter Banks (TFBs) to be deployed at the ATF has begun. NAASC: A calendar of NAASC events may be found at: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php Reid and Brogan are participating in ALMA Simulation Software testing and development. A number of ALMA-related science discussions will occur during the next fortnight: 7 February 7pm Charlottesville Astronomical Society Al Wootten 'ALMA' 8 February 4pm NRAO Colloquium Thomas Greve (Caltech) "Understanding the Gastrophysics of Massive Galaxies: Lessons Learned From High-z and Low-z" 9 February 4pm Star Formation Discussion Group TBA 12 February 4pm UVa Colloquium "The Role of Environment in Depleting the ISM of Spiral Galaxies" 15 February 4pm NRAO Colloquium Brenda Matthews (NRC/HIA) "Debris Disks Around Low Mass Stars: Frequency, Grain Growth and the Search for Planets" 16 February 4pm Molecular Astrophysics Discussion Group "Constraining the Dust Condensation Sequence of AGB stars in the LMC" Jarron Leisenring, and "Characteristics of Ices Around Low-Mass Protostars" Gail Zasowski 16 February 4pm Radford U. Physics Colloquium Al Wootten "ALMA" 22 February 4pm NRAO Colloquium Antonio Hales, NRAO "Probing the Environments of Planet Formation" 23 February 4pm Star Formation Discussion Group TBA 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/ *************************************************************************** DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar Mon 29 Jan - Tue 30 Jan - AEM antenna PPDR 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 31 Jan - AEM antenna PPDR Thu 1 Feb - AEM antenna PPDR 8:00am - ALMA EPO telecon Fri 2 Feb 1AM - Full Moon Sat 3 Feb - Sun 4 Feb - Mon 5 Feb - Danish delegation visits OSF Tue 6 Feb - B9 cartridge CDR 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 7 Feb - B9 cartridge CDR 9:30 AM: ASAC Telecon Thu 8 Feb - Fri 9 Feb - B Matthews visiting NAASC until 16 Feb Sat 10 Feb - Saturn is at opposition tonight. 4:51am - Last-quarter Moon Sun 11 Feb - Mon 12 Feb - ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS **************************** Jan 30-1 Feb all day AEM antenna PPDR Mestre Feb 6-7 B9 cartridge CDR Groningen Feb 7 ASAC Telecon Feb 15 ALMA Board Telecon Telecon Feb 27-8 all day ALMA Ops Plan Review NSF Mar 1 all day ALMA/NAASC Plan Review NSF Mar 9-12 all day IPT F2F MEETING Chile ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************** *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************** SMA CALL FOR PROPOSALS Deadline: 1 March 2007 The Submillimeter Array (SMA), the radio interferometer on Mauna Kea built by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, makes available a fraction of the observing time to principal investigators from the astronomical community (worldwide). The proposal deadline is 1 March 2007 for the observing semester 1 May 2007 through 31 October 2007. More information, technical details, and instructions and tools for proposal preparation and submission can be found starting in February at http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/, the SMA Observer Center web site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Herschel Key Program Announcement of Opportunity NHSC Website: http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Herschel/nhsc.shtml ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Observing Proposals for Arizona Radio Observatory Telescopes (internal Call Only) Deadline for Observing Proposals is Feb 16, 2007. See http://aro.as.arizona.edu *************************************************************************** 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