BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 7 April 2008 - 21 April 2008 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* A high resolution spectrum of the central region of the Orion Molecular Cloud was obtained at the ALMA Test Facility. Correlator mode 1 used all 32 subchannel filters provided 7679 filters after subchannel overlap. Alternate observations of source and calibrator were made in the manner eventually to be used in a typical schedule block. Data was bandpass, phase and amplitude calibrated in CASA. Sensitivity is about that published by Turner in his 1989 ApJSup survey of the 3mm spectrum of the Orion core. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html Sky: Late in the month, Mercury puts on a good show in the evening sky. On May 22, Mars will traverse the Beehive cluster. Before dawn on June 30, the crescent moon passes through the Pleiades, best seen from North America. Mars and Saturn are night objects, Jupiter is in Sagittarius and Venus in Aries. SCO: The ALMA Board met 2-5 April in Santiago. ALMA Scientific Advisory Committee Chair J. Cernicharo presented the report of that committee. The Board approved A. Blain to be the next Chair of the ASAC. Tender closing for the new central office building was extended until the end of April. AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Grading of the Central Cluster area has begun. Work on antenna foundations continues. AOS Technical Building control software is being adjusted and Operations personnel trained in its use. Work on the Transporter Hangar should be complete soon. OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): The training for the ALMA facility management and maintenance team was completed; planning for acceptance of the Technical Building continues. Provisional Acceptance of the extension of the ALMA Camp is scheduled for April 7, 2008. The exterior sidewalks are under construction, and exterior lights are being installed through separate contracts. Furniture awaits installation at the OSF; underground utilities are installed. Formal acceptance of Vertex (Vx)Antenna No1 has slowed owing to equipment failures. Optical Pointing Telescope (OPT) initial setup with Vertex; initial pointing model established. Vx Antenna No 2 servo system commissioning will commence soon. Antenna #4 arrived in Chile week of 24 March. Melco Antenna No 1 holography measurements were finished and the holography receiver and the minirack were successfully uninstalled by Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) crew. Melco No 3 continues antenna driving tests; Melco No 4 continues photogrammetry and panel adjustment. Tuning of the two transporter vehicles on the OSF-AOS road is taking place, they are routinely moving up and down with dummy antenna load. All parts of the first ALMA Front End have arrived and will undergo Provisional Acceptance on Site (PAS) at month's end. The 2-antenna correlator at the OSF has passed PAS. TUC: Optical Pointing Telescope Preliminary Design Review occurred. AOC: The first versions of the fully re-engineered production LLC module and the first-ever Subarray switch module were “mated” for the first time. The correct operation was verified for insertion loss, proper signal levels, and locking on a fringe. A BackEnd team has traveled to the OSF. CASA patch #1 distributed for external install testing. ATF: Software version 5.0.3 has been handed over to operations for interferometry. Quicklook phasecal demonstrated at ATF; not yet routine. The ATF will remain operational through June and until 1 September depending upon monthly review outcome. Automated skydips were implemented by Hunter and Kern to be conducted nightly. NTC (NRAO Technology Center): Testing of the second ALMA Front End continues. Visitors from the East Asian and European Front End Integration Center will visit. Holography system transmitter No 2 will be shipped to the OSF. Four Band 6 blank cartridge bodies were delivered from Rutherford Appleton Labs (RAL). All Tunable Filter Board (TFB) cards to complete the 3rd Quadrant of the Correlator have been functionally tested in Bordeaux. EU: A prototype solar filter was received by ESO for further evaluation by University of Bern. A critical design review meeting of the Water Vapor Radiometer (WVR) optics has been scheduled for 5 May 2008. At this review the system budgets, with special emphasis on the optics contribution, will be addressed. ASIAA: PAS testing of Band 7 (.85 mm) Cartridge #3 at the East Asian Front End Integration Center (EA FEIC) has been completed; testing of Band 9 (.65mm) Cartridge #3 will be completed this week. NAASC: Holdaway produced write-up of new plan for outer configurations: the three new arrangements have lower inner sidelobes and well spaced beam sizes, but some additional pads are needed. Reid will perform simulations, image fidelity analysis on these. 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 ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ************************* Mar 25 ALMA Session, ASJ meeting Japan Apr 2-4 ALMA Board Meeting Santiago Apr OPT PDR Tucson May 5 WVR review Gothenburg May 5-9 Molecular Universe meeting Bordeaux May 14 ALMA Board Telecon May 21 ASAC Telecon June 2-5 AAS Meeting St. Louis ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ************************* *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*************************** Proposals for observing time on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea for the semester 1st September 2008-31st Jan 2009 should be sent by 31st May 2008 to T. G. Phillips, Caltech 320-47, Pasadena, CA 91125. For further information please refer to the CSO web site at http://www.submm.caltech.edu/cso. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The deadline for proposals to use NRAO telescopes (GBT, VLA, VLBA) is 1700 EDT Monday, 2 June 2008. *************************************************************************** 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