BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 3 December 2007 - 17 Dec 2007 Happy New Year, all! This is the last regular biweekly calendar for 2007; following shortly will be a special yearend edition summarizing the year and looking ahead to 2008. ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* The third VertexRSI pedestal arrived in Mejillones, the port for Antofagasta Chile 2007 December 8. The upper 'inverted umbrella' portion which supports the accurately machined surface is expected in port on 2007 Dec 23. This is the third antenna delivered to Chile by VertexRSI under contract with NRAO/AUI. It joins three antennas delivered by Mitsubishi Electric Company (Melco) of Japan; the fourth Melco antenna also arrived in port last week. At the close of 2007, seven ALMA telescopes have been delivered to Chile, about one tenth of the total. Assembly and testing of these telescopes continues at the Operations Support Facility. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The massive ALMA transporters left the Sheuerle factory and traveled to port at Heilbronn, Germany on 3 and 4 December. There, they were put on on top of a barge pushed by a tug. On 5 Dec they began their journey down the Neckar to the Rhine, then down the Rhine to Antwerp, Belgium. By Dec 11, they had arrived in Antwerp, where they are to be transferred to an overseas vessel for travel to Chile. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: The best time to view the 2007 Geminid meteor shower from North America is the night of December 13-14, with good prospects the following night as well. Mars now appears bigger through a telescope than it will again until 2016. The ringed planet is at its highest in the sky shortly before dawn in December. Comet Holmes remains high in a moonless sky. It continues fading, but it's big much bigger than the Sun now, the largest object in the Solar System! Look for it in Perseus west of Alpha Persei. AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): The ACA Correlator room is finished and prepared for installation in the Technical Building. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): There are 431 people working at the ALMA site. Concrete work on second outdoor foundation at Vertex/RSI Site Erection Facility (SEF) is complete. ATF: Reinstallation of an elevation motor segment on the AEC antenna was done on November 22th to 25th. Dynamic fringes with good residual fringe rates are now routinely achieved. Science IPT members have measured an improved baseline. NTC (NRAO Technology Center): Acceptance testing for the first ALMA Front End commenced following a cryostat swap. Assembly of the third NA Front End has begun, progress awaits cryostat delivery. The kick-off meeting for the EU Front End Integration Center (FEIC) was held on 22-23 Nov. at Rutherford Appleton Labs (RAL). At the NTC, Construction of all hardware for the new 2-antenna correlator was completed and integration of the 2nd quadrant restarted. NAASC: Support was provided for the CASA limited beta release. 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 Sun 2 Dec - Mon 3 Dec - 4:00PM: ATF telecon Tue 4 Dec - 10:30AM: JAO/IPT telecon Wed 5 Dec - 10:30AM: Sci IPT telecon Thu 6 Dec - Fri 7 Dec - Sat 8 Dec - Sun 9 Dec - 12:40pm New Moon Mon 10 Dec - Tue 11 Dec - 10:30AM: JAO/IPT telecon Wed 12 Dec - Thu 13 Dec - The Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow. Fri 14 Dec - Sat 15 Dec - Sun 16 Dec - Beethoven's Birthday Mon 17 Dec - 4:00PM: ATF telecon ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ************************* Dec 6 Front End Test Readiness Revies Cville NTC Dec 6 ALMA Board Telecon --- Dec 12 ESAC telecon Jan 10 NRAO Town Hall 12:45pm Austin Tx AAS Jan 15 ESAC face-to-face meeting Garching Jan 18 ANASAC telecon --- Jan 23-24 Nutator CDR ASIAA Feb 1-2 ASAC face-to-face Santiago ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ************************* *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*************************** The Cosmic Agitator - Magnetic Fields in the Galaxy 60 years of studies of the interstellar magnetic field 2008 March 26-29 Lexington. The magnetic field of the galaxy was discovered in observations made in 1948. Since that time, the galactic magnetic field has challenged (and often annoyed) observers and theorists alike. This meeting will celebrate sixty years of studies of the interstellar magnetic field, a field ALMA's transformational capabilities will revolutionize. See http://thunder.pa.uky.edu/magnetic/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tenure Track Astronomers REQ NO: CV3631 SUMMARY: The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) invites outstanding applicants for one or more tenure-track astronomer positions, especially in the areas of time-domain astronomy, solar system research, exo-planets, Epoch of Re-ionization, structure formation, Dark Energy and Dark Matter. Candidates will be selected on both the basis of excellence in research and on their ability to further the mission of the Observatory. URL below. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Assistant Scientist (CASA) REQ NO: CV3682 SUMMARY: The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) invites applications for an astronomer, software engineer, or physicist with experience in astronomical data processing to develop data reduction software for the Atacama Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA). The Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) package is written primarily in C++ under a Python wrapper (for more information on CASA, see http://casa.nrao.edu/). This is an NRAO Scientist position, with 25% of time available to pursue independent research. The position will be based in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, at the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jansky fellows (2008) REQ NO: CV3455 SUMMARY: The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) announces the 2008 postdoctoral Jansky Fellowship program that provides outstanding opportunities for research in astronomy. Jansky Fellows formulate and carry out investigations either independently or in collaboration with others within the wide framework of interests of the Observatory. Prior radio experience is not required and multi-wavelength projects leading to a synergy with NRAO instruments are encouraged. The NRAO also encourages applications from candidates with interest in radio astronomy instrumentation, computation, and theory. See URL below. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jobs for scientists interested in working on the commissioning of ALMA are available at both ESO and NRAO. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory invites applications for an ALMA Commissioning Scientist position. This position is assigned to the ALMA project with operational duties in Chile. The role of the ALMA Commissioning Scientist will be to assist the Project Scientist and the Deputy Project Scientist in planning and executing the scientific commissioning of ALMA. We invite applications for one or more Assistant Scientist positions in the NAASC. The primary responsibility of the successful candidates initially is to participate in ALMA Commissioning and Science Verification (CSV). http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml For ESO jobs please see: https://jobs.eso.org/ESOCP370/default.asp?PageNo=DEFAULT For ALMA jobs please see: http://www.alma.cl/jobops/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Applications are invited for Submillimeter Array (SMA) Postdoctoral Fellowships starting in fall 2008. These positions are aimed chiefly at research in submillimeter astronomy, and the successful candidates are expected to propose and participate in science observations with the SMA. See http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/opportunities/fellowships/sma/ Please direct questions to smapostdoc at cfa.harvard.edu. Online applications are due December 15, 2007. *************************************************************************** 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