BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 6 November 2006 - 20 November 2006 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT**************************** The ALMA Board meets in Madrid this week. Important action items include approval of the 2007 Construction and Operations budgets. Spain's Director General for Technological Policy Maria Carmen Andrade Perdrix spoke: "Spain is finalizing joining of ESO, approved last Friday by the government, with the agreement submitted to Parliament, to be approved by the end of the year. Even before this it was clear to Spanish authorities that ALMA was an essential project and Spain has been involved since its beginning. International partnership like this essential to future astronomical observatories practicing big science. ALMA is a pioneer in forging international partnership in science. We have been impressed by the strong support as expressed in the conference next week, to be attended by over 300 astronomers." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The NAASC activities centered on submission of the operations proposal to the NSF. A number of internal and external reviews have been performed, and the proposal was submitted to the NSF on the deadline of October 31. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- More than 300 astronomers meet in Madrid for the second ALMA conference, Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics, to be held 13-17 Nov. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The report of the NSF Senior Review was released last week, with generally favorable words for ALMA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Sky: Transit of Mercury occurs for Western Hemisphere observers on 8 November. Santiago: Operations document submitted to ALMA Board. NRAO and Vertex representatives in Santiago to finalize contract for Site Erection Facility construction week of November 6th. AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Finish work on AOS Technical Building proceeding; HVAC equipment is on the site OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Currently there are approximately 194 persons working at the site of which approximately 80 use the ALMA and ContractorÕs lodging facilities. NTC: The first B3 (3mm) cartridge, serial number 2, has been shipped to the NA Front End Integration Center (FEIC). Mixer-preamps have been verified for the 8 pre-production B6 (1.3mm) cartridges. 7 of these 8 have been built, but the first few will require some re-work. NOVA has resolved all Action Items from the Band 9 Cartridge #1 Provisional Acceptance Inhouse meeting and is now preparing the cartridge for shipment to the NA FEIC. where it is expected by early December. A detailed budget and schedule have been prepared in support of a proposal to replacethe obsolete 2-antenna prototype correlator used at present in PSI with an 8-GHz bandwidth correlator which uses production cards, including Tuneable Filter Bank (TFB) cards. NAASC: Nutator contract award has received NSF approval. AOC: The TE (Timing Event) has shown to be stable, at least within a few cycles of 125 MHz, with the new LO Reference Receiver (LORR) design. A test of the prototype racks in Socorro shows that phase is stable between antenna 14 GHz 2nd LO synthesizer reference inputs for 300 seconds. The 2 GHz and 125 MHz references must be ultrastable to achieve this result. ALMA Common Software 6.0 release. Observing Tool 3.1 user test report finished: http://almasw.hq.eso.org/almasw/pub/Usertests/WebHome/UT3dot1_Report.pdf ATF: Debugging of holography system evolving toward testing of the holography system on the Vertex RSI prototype. The start of the move of the BEND racks to the AEC antenna is set for Nov 13, and the move of the proto-correlator and central LO will start the week of Nov 25. ESO: ESO Finance Committee meets this week. *************************************************************************** DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar Mon 6 Nov - Tue 7 Nov - 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 8 Nov All Day: ALMA Board peripheral meetings in Madrid Thu 9 Nov - Holiday, Spain ALMA Board meetings in Madrid Fri 10 Nov - Veteran's Day Holiday, US ALMA Board meetings in Madrid Sat 11 Nov Sun 12 Nov Mon 13 Nov All Day: ALMA Conference II in Madrid Tue 14 Nov 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon All Day: ALMA Conference II in Madrid Wed 15 Nov Dedication of Large Millimeter Telescope, See http://www.lmtgtm.org/images/sitepics11092006/lmt1.jpg All Day: ALMA Conference II in Madrid Thu 16 Nov All Day: ALMA Conference II in Madrid Fri 17 Nov All Day: ALMA Conference II in Madrid All Day: 50th anniversary of the occasion when Alan Waterman (Director of the NSF) and Lloyd Berkner (President of AUI) signed the NSF/AUI agreement establishing NRAO, with AUI as the managing agency; Berkner became Acting Director of the NRAO. Today, NRAO is 50. Sat 18 Nov Sun 19 Nov Mon 20 Nov ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS **************************** November 8-10 all day ALMA Board Meeting Madrid Nov 13 Move of PSI to ATF N. M. Nov 13-17 all day Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics Madrid Dec 6-7 all day ACA correlator CDR Japan Dec 7 CDR for antenna equip cabinets AOC Dec 14 all day LLC and LO Photonic Rx DR Cville Jan 16-17 '07 all day Transporter FDR Jan 29-30 '07 all day B9 Cartridge CDR Jan 30 all day AEM antenna PPDR ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************** *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************** Jansky Fellowship The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) announces the 2007 postdoctoral Jansky Fellowship program that provides outstanding opportunities for research in astronomy. The 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. DEADLINE 17 Nov 2006. Please see: http://www.nrao.edu/administration/directors_office/jansky-postdocs.shtml *************************************************************************** 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