BIWEEKY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO 7 September - 21 September 2009 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT************************* ALMA Prepares for the Move to the AOS at 5000m Please see: http://www.nrao.edu/news/newsletters/enews/enews_2_9/enews_2_9.shtml#alma At the 2900m elevation Operations Support Facility (OSF), interferometry continued between the two most recently accepted antennas, while the first was readied for transport to the 5000m Array Operations Center (AOS) in mid-September. The first production Optical Pointing Telescope arrived and passed its acceptance tests. The second quadrant of the 64-antenna correlator arrived and was installed at the AOS Technical Building. With the installation of this quadrant, the 64 antenna correlator can process data from 32 antennas. A correlator to handle data from the 16 element Atacama Compact Array (ACA) was installed some time ago. Installation of electrical and fiber connections to the antenna pads is underway, in synchrony with the construction of the antenna access road network. The stations in the ACA area are complete except for connections; those are under way now. The first antenna will be transported in mid-September to station 106 which is adjacent to the Technical Building. Here, the first high altitude tests of the antenna, the receiver, and the complete ALMA production system will begin. Several antennas will be stationed at the AOS and will be doing interferometric tests of the system by year’s end. A Review, chaired by R. Wilson (CfA), was held at the OSF on 2-3 September, covering the Commissioning and Science Verification plans for the array. Attendees were able to monitor interferometric tests between two antennas as well as total power tests of another antenna. In addition, participants were able to visit the site erection facilities of the antenna contractors, where more than a dozen other antennas are in various stages of construction and final testing. Figures at the link given above include: Figure 1 In this panoramic time lapse view the AOS TB is in the distance at the right below Cerro Chajnantor; the ACA antenna stations lie in the foreground Figure 2 Attendees at the review of the commissioning plans for ALMA visited the AOS on 1 September. In the Technical Building they inspected the second quadrant of the correlator, then undergoing provisional acceptance on-site. In this photo, l-r: L. Testi, P. Schilke, R. Rao, R. Wilson (back), R. Hills, M. Wright, A. Wootten, M. Wright, A. Saez. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ 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 ************************* Sep 21-25 Assembly, Gas Content & Star Formation History of Galaxies Sep 28-30 IRAM 30th Oct 4 Spectral Line workshop, Koln Nov 11-12 ALMA Board face-to-face meeting, Santiago Nov 16- Annual ALMA External Review, Santiago ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ************************* *****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*************************** The deadline for submission of observing proposals on IRAM telescopes, both the interferometer and the 30m, is 17 September 2009, 17:00 CEST (UT + 2 hours). The scheduling period extends from 1 Dec 2009 - 31 May 2010. Proposals should be submitted through our web-based submission facility by following the links from our new website http://www.iram-institute.org to Science users and then Proposals. This page also gives links to the proposal templates and to detailed information on time estimates, special observing modes, technical information and references for both the IRAM interferometer and the IRAM 30m telescope. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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