SubMillimeter Array Project

Calendar History

              WEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY PROJECT

                           MAY 5 - 11, 2002

*******************************************************************************

Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the
preceding week to Candy Hoffman or Jim Moran via e-mail (choffman@cfa or
moran@cfa). The calendar will be iss
ued between late Friday and Monday
morning by e-mail to all SMA staff members and interested parties.

******************************** THIS WEEK ************************************

General Happenings:

Haystack    Antenna 1: Load mount on truck on MAY 6. Depart Westford on MAY 7.

                 Misc: Prepare shipment of Antenna 1 parts to Hawaii. Clean
                       out MIT warehouse.
Hawaii

            Antenna 6: Secure reflector to weldment. Install chopper.
                       Deploy to Pad 1 before MAY 15.

            Antenna 7: Purge cryostat again to try to improve
                       receiver stability.

            Antenna 1: install hub for Reflector 1 on template

            Antenna 2: Mount en route to Westford (arrived in Seattle on
                       APR 30); reflector on trailer on the summit.

                 Misc: Grouting preparation for Pad 12.

              Testing: Antennas 3,4,5, and 7 in the array.
.

TUE, MAY  7

16:00(HST)   Deadline for submission of revised proposals for construction
             of Hilo facility.

WED, MAY  8

12:00(HST)   Weekly scientific lunch talk, second floor library room, Hilo.

14:00(EST)   Weekly SAO/ASIAA Technical telecon.

16:00        Science Group Meeting, M340.

THU, MAY  9

14:00        SMA Group Leader Meeting, M340.

21:00(EST)   Weekly Testing telecon.

****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ******************************

MAY 15       SMA Group Leader Meeting, M340.

MAY 15       SMA Steering Committee Meeting, M240, 14:00.

MAY 16       Monthly Correlator Meeting, MIT/Haystack, 10:15.

JUN 12/17    Annual Star-Formation Workshop of the Center for Star-Formation
             Studies will be held at the Grand Formosa Tarako hotel in Taroko
             Gorge National Park. See Sienny Shang for more details or look
             at the conference website (http://sf2002.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw).

AUG 17/24    URSI General Assembly, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

AUG 22/28    SPIE Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation,
             Waikoloa, Hawaii.

NOV 3/8      Galactic Center Workshop 2002, Keauhou Beach Resort, Kailua-Kona,
             Hawaii. Co-sponsored by the SMA. See website for details
             (http://www.gemini.edu/science/gc_conf/)

******************************** MILESTONES *********************************

[latest changes(*): APR 28, 2002]

MAY  7, 2002*    Ship Mount 1 from Westford (arrive on Mauna Kea, JUN 17,
                 2002; move antenna to pad  AUG 30, 2002).

MAY 10, 2002     Antenna 6 finished, probably deployed to Pad 1. May be
                 delayed to MAY 15. Receivers may be installed outside.

JUL  8, 2002     Deploy Antenna 8 to pad. Move to assembly building on MAY 15,
                 2002, for completion. (Schedule depends on resolution of axes
                 intersection/orthogonality problem.)

AUG 30, 2002     Deploy Antenna 1 to pad.

SEP  7, 2002     Begin rebuild of Antenna 3 on Mauna Kea (Keep in service
                 until Antenna 1 is operational). Return to service,
                 MAR 7, 2003.

******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *******************************

Schedule of Antenna availability in Array (updated APR 14)

FEB 25 - JUN  1, 2002: 3 4 5 7
JUN  1 - JUL  8, 2002: 3 4 5 6 7
JUL  8 - SEP  7, 2002: 3 4 5 6 7 8 (IF/LO hardware for only 5 antennas)
SEP  7 - OCT  1, 2002: 1 4 5 6 7 8 (IF/LO hardware for only 5 antennas)
OCT  1 - FEB  6, 2003: 1 4 5 6 7 8
FEB  6 - APR  9, 2003: 1 3 4 5 6 7 8
APR  9 -             : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

TESTING.

FIRST DUAL FREQUENCY OPERATION! Antennas 4 and 5 were set up to
monitor the 682 and 232 GHz beacons simulataneously. The ratio of
the phase deviations was 2.9, as expected if the cause of the
phase wander is the atmosphere. During the best stretch of 20
minutes during rather poor sky conditions the peak-to-peak phase
excursions at 682 GHz were about 90 degrees (See Test Log Entry 3109).
The beacons were moved closer together on the Subaru catwalk to
improve the snr (See Test Log Entry 3102). The transverse offset in the
propagation paths (projected baseline) is about 20 meters (at Antenna 5)
and the longitudinal excess path is about 60 meters.

The hypothesis that the support of the antenna base ring influences the
azimuth pointing errors was tested by loosening the three jacking bolts
on Antenna 7. Only small differences were noted (less than 5 arcseconds)
(See Test Log Entry 3106).

Data for the Y-axis optimization of the choppers on Antenna 3, 4, and 5
at 345 GHz were compiled. The optimization curves are very close to those
obtained at 230 GHz (see Test Log Entry 3089).

The new weather station has been repaired and the weather parameters
can be seen at http://128.171.116.50/weather.sht from selected locations.
The weather station will probably be mounted in a temporary location
while approval is sought for the permanent site.

Testing priorities:

Fix cyrostat in Antenna 7. The receiver output is very unstable, which
precludes any total power tests.

Collect more 1-point data. Complete full chopper XYZ optimization
at 230 GHz before Jupiter becomes unavailable.

HAWAII CONSTRUCTION

Antenna 6. Leadscrew installed and tested. Mount balanced and levelled;
reflector lifted into place and aligned. Bench alignment of chopper
started.

Antenna 8. The alignment crosshairs and tool for removal of the elevation
bearings are under construction in Taiwan. The new bearing seals have been
delivered from Cambridge.

Misc. Chipping on Pad 12 is 75 percent complete.

WESTFORD

Shipping preparations for Mount 1 were completed on MAY 2; the mount was
placed on the shipping skid, skrink-wrapped and covered with a tarp.
Departure scheduled for MAY 7.

***************************** VISITORS TO/FROM TAIWAN ************************

MAY 15 - MAY 24     Philippe Raffin, Hilo/MK, Antenna 8 alignment
MAY 15 - JUN 15+    Bill Liu, Hilo/MK, Antenna 8
MAY 17 - MAY 31     Naomi Hirano, Hilo/MK, testing
JUN 22 - JUN 30     Jaime Liou, Hilo/MK, Antenna 8

********************************** VISITORS **********************************

MAY  1 - MAY 31     Catherine Raffin (Ray Blundell)

********************************* DEPARTURES *********************************

JUN  1(tbc)         Josh Goldston (to graduate school at UC Berkeley)

********************************** ARRIVALS and RELOCATIONS *******************

MAY  4              Anthony Camacho, Microwave Technician, Hilo (from Guam)
OCT  1 (tbc)        Tyler Bourke, Hilo, Postdoctoral Fellow (PhD, U. of New
                       South Wales, Australia, 1999. Currently a PD at CfA
                       with Phil Myers)
OCT  1 (tbc)        David Fong, Hilo, Postdoctoral Fellow (PhD, U.Ill, 2002)
OCT  1 (tbc)        Shigehisa Takakuwa, Hilo, Postdoctoral Fellow (PhD,
                       U. Tokyo, 1999, currently ASIAA PD)

***************************** INTERNAL TRANSITIONS ****************************

JUN  1 (tbc)        Ming Tang Chen, move to Hilo

**************************POSITIONS OPEN **************************************

*******************POSITIONS / CANDIDATE EVALUATION / OFFERS MADE ************

Astrophysicists (Array operators), Test program, Hilo (GS, JP 22-47)

******************* EXPECTED OPENINGS ****************************************

Astrophysicist, Test program, Hilo

**************************** SHIPPING HIGHLIGHTS *****************************

Mount 1 is expected to leave Westford on MAY 7. The Seattle barge departure
is MAY 25. Our dependable driver, Dusty, cancelled his Carribean cruise yet
again to be able to take our job! The spreader needed to offload the
mount in Seattle is also expected to leave Westford on MAY 7 via Yellow-
freight.

Mount 2 left the summit on MAR 28 and arrived in Seattle on APR 30. The
truck that delivers Mount 1 to Seattle will return to Westford with Mount 2.

*************************** OTHER NEWS ****************************************


**********USEFUL WEB ADDRESSES (and the persons responsible for them)**********

SMA Website (Mailhot)
     http://sma-www.harvard.edu

Test Central (Katz) (access restricted to SMA staff)

Hilo branch library of the CfA (Melissa Hilbert)
     http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/library/hilo

Lava flow report at Volcanoes National Park
     http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea

********************RECENT SMA TECHNICAL MEMOS*****************************

145 Testing of Nytex Tubes from Antenna 1     Nystrom          04/05/02
    after Three Years of Service

146 SMA Antenna Transporter Drive System      Nystrom          04/19/02
    System Test, Evaluation and Analysis

******************************OTHER OTHER NEWS *******************************

********************** MISCELLANEOUS ANNOUNCEMENTS **************************

An updated organization chart for the SMA project (as of MAR 15, 2002) can
be found on the SMA website. The project currently has a staff 69 with 65.9
FTEs, plus a few more part-time CE employees. The Project schedule is also
kept on the SMA website. The current version is APR 19, 2002.

******************************************************************************
Distribution: SMA staff, Steering Committee, T. Myers, Capone, Conway, Brennan,
Aguilar, Dias, Adler, Palleschi, Pantilla, Preston, Lawley, Sozanski, Mullen,
Hodges, Canfield, Goodman, Reynolds, Murray, Chance, Kirshner, Marsden, Sadler,
Avrett, Rybicki, Grindlay, Smith, Tananbaum, Rathle, Rosenthal, Gould, Beltran,
Mcgary, Sollins, Kenui, Typhoon Lee, Lo, Raffin, Liu, Chin, Chen, Tsai, Wu,
Martin, Ji Yang, Salah, Rogers, Whitney, Bosma, Bayman, Antebi, Welch, Hills,
Ishiguro, Napier, Payne, Phillips, Woody, Carlstrom, Jewell, Friberg, Piccoli,
McLaren, Hiroyasu, Kaifu, Mountain, Fahlman, Tokunaga, Wainscoat, West,
Chris Wilson, Cunningham, Thompson, Yun