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GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting

14 April 2006

AGENDA

Az Track, Antennae Report -- Bob

Observing News -- Ron

We supported 15 projects in 21 observing sessions. Average setup time was 12 minutes. The telescope was also scheduled for 19 hrs of maintenance and 2.5 hrs of software tests.

Lost time was 6.2 hrs or about 4% of the time scheduled for observing. There were only 7 incidents this week with two incidents taking up almost all of the lost time.

Scheduling Status -- Carl 

Last Week
=========

Observations for proposals
   GBT06A-054, GBT06A-065, GBT06A-022, 
   GBT06A-056, GBT05C-042, GBT06A-046, 
   GBT06A-003, GBT05C-023, GBT06A-059, 
   GBT06A-027, GBT06A-049, GBT06A-006, 
   GBT06A-028, GBT06A-018, GBT06A-009, 
   GBT06A-050

Completed proposals
   GBT06A-059, GBT06A-028

Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
  GBT06A-032 [ P ] Jim Braatz
       A Search for the First SiO Megamaser              
  GBT06A-065 [ P ] Rachel Friesen
       Probing the initial conditions of star formation  
       in Ophiuchus                                      
  GBT06A-054 [F  ] Paul Demorest
       Long-term Precision Timing of Millisecond Pulsars 
  GBT06A-022 [ P ] Jim Braatz
       Water Vapor Megamasers in an X-Ray Selected       
       Sample of AGNs                                    
  GBT06A-011 [  B] Mike Blanton
       HI Content and Dynamics of Dwarf Disk Galaxies    
  GBT06A-056 [ P ] Paul Kondratko
       Are there Unrecognized NGC4258-like Systems Among 
       Known Water Masers in AGN?                        
  GBT05C-042 [  B] Scott Ransom
       Timing the Binary and Millisecond Pulsars in      
       NGC6440 and NGC6441                               
  GBT05C-065 [ P ] Jim Braatz
       Measuring the Extragalactic Distance Scale: A     
       Target of Opportunity                             
  GBT06A-046 [FPB] Glen Langston
       A search for the Largest Interstellar Molecule,   
       HC_13N                                            
  GBT05C-022 [ P ] Jim Braatz
       The Accretion Disks and Supermassive Black Holes  
       in NGC 2273 and NGC 4051                          
  GBT06A-047 [ P ] Miguel Angel Requena-Torres
       Complex Molecules in the Galactic Center          
       molecular clouds                                  
  GBT04C-043 [ P ] Scott Ransom
       Timing the Eccentric Millisecond Pulsar Binary in 
       Globular Cluster NGC 1851                         
  GBT06A-003 [  B] Chris Clemens
       Observational Tests for Non-radial Oscillations   
       in Radio Pulsars                                  
  GBT06A-014 [ P ] Andrea Tarchi
       H2O vs Continuum in the Megamaser 3C403:          
       Reverberation Mapping of the Nucleus              
  GBT05C-033 [F  ] Marko Krco
       Structure and Formation of the Filamentary Cloud  
       L204                                              
  GBT06A-027 [  B] Karen Masters
       Mapping Matter in the Nearby Universe with 2MASS  
  GBT05C-046 [  B] Ingrid Stairs
       Timing of a Relativistic Binary and other Pulsars 
       from the Arecibo PALFA Survey                     
  GBT06A-039 [  B] Fernando Camilo
       Deep Searches of Three Pulsar Wind Nebulae        
  GBT06A-006 [ P ] Wouter Vlemmings
       The magnetic field in the circumnuclear disk of   
       NGC 3079                                          
  GBT04A-038 [ P ] Brian Mason
       GBT Observations of Radio Sources in CBI          
       Intrinsic Anisotropy Fields                       
  GBT05C-019 [  B] Tim Robishaw
       The Galactic Arachnid in the Ursa Major Loop      
  GBT06A-050 [ P ] Steve Begin
       Timing of the Binary and Millisecond Pulsars in   
       M28, NGC6624 and NGC6522                          
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup

Contact Information for 04/27/2006 - 05/11/2006
=======================================
Proposal   PI                 Bands Email [NRAO contact]    
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT06A-063 Martin Zwaan       L     mzwaan@eso.org [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06A-030 Don Campbell       S     campbell@astro.cornell.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06A-054 Paul Demorest      8     demorest@astron.berkeley.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-032 Jim Braatz         Q     jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-065 Rachel Friesen     K     rfriesen@uvastro.phys.uvic.ca [Toney Minter]
GBT05B-042 Michael Kramer     L8    mkramer@jb.man.ac.uk [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-022 Jim Braatz         K     jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT05C-042 Scott Ransom       S     sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05B-032 Steve Thorsett     L     thorsett@ucolick.org [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-056 Paul Kondratko     K     pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT05C-065 Jim Braatz         K     jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
BK127      Kirsten Knudsen    L     knudsen@mpia-hd.mpg.de []
GBT06A-046 Glen Langston      U     glangsto@nrao.edu [Glen Langston]
GBT06A-014 Andrea Tarchi      K     atarchi@ira.cnr.it [Jim Braatz]
GBT05B-034 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-047 Miguel Angel Reque U     requena@damir.iem.csic.es [Ron Maddalena]
GBT06A-003 Chris Clemens      L     clemens@physics.unc.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05C-023 Fernando Camilo    8     fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
BK114      Paul Kondratko     K     pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu []
GBT06A-026 Nissim Kanekar     6     nkanekar@nrao.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT05C-046 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-049 Tony Readhead      B     acr@astro.caltech.edu [Brian Mason]
GBT06A-038 Tom Troland        L     troland@pa.uky.edu [Jay Lockman]
GBT06A-027 Karen Masters      L     kmasters@cfa.harvard.edu [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06A-018 Joe McMullin       Q     jmcmulli@nrao.edu [Dana Balser]
BM241      Anupreeta More     X     anupreeta@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de []
GBT05C-019 Tim Robishaw       L     robishaw@astro.berkeley.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06A-061 Martin Zwaan       8     mzwaan@eso.org [Karen O'Neil]

Scheduled hours [backup]
========================
Category/Month-> April     May       June     
    Astronomy ~  568 [260] 522 [328] 135 [027]
  Maintenance ~   37 [051]  20 [068] 177      
  Test & Comm ~  110 [023] 152 [041]  22 [003]
  Un-assigned ~    6        51       388      

Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 0
  Active checkout - 0
          On Hold - 21
         Schedule - 56
        Completed - 474


Current backlog [hours prior to 06A*] = 989
   [2001:2(1), 2002:88(2), 2003:19(1), 2004:138(9), 2005:614(29), 2006:128(3)]
   Backlog excluding 111 hrs of monitoring projects after 06A = 878
Total time to discharge [hours] = 3616
   Includes 314 hours of monitoring after trimester 06A
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 06A

Microwave Electronics Status -- Roger

A momentary power glitch caused several interfaces to hang, requiring a trip to the telescope. Instabilities in the X-band receiver were isolated and corrected. The receiver is scheduled to go back up next week. One of the helium compressor loops is being purged and charged with high purity helium in preparation for the Penn Array arrival.

The Zpectrometer group met Monday for progress reports and clarifications. Mockup of the Zpectrometer rack was positioned on the GBT turret. Microassembly and shop tasks for the next few weeks were defined. Amplifier bodies are in shop que for fabrication.

Digital Electronics Status -- Rich

Digital Group Status 6-APR-06 THRU 14-APR-06

***Operations, Problem summary***

This week, there were no significant digital hardware problems.

***Development***

Cal-Tech Continuum Backend (CCB):

No progress except for preparations for a technical talk next week. The materials in this talk will be useful for the system documentation package.

By April 28th... We plan to have the 2nd CCB completely assembled and ready for final tests.

Lab Spectrometer

This week, we have continued to try to uncover the reason that spectra show up in two samplers with an input supplied to only one! By examining raw data files, it was found that all the required data are present and its order was documented for checking against the de-scrambling program.

The log files were also carefully examined to determine whether all required commands for initialization were being executed. One significant problem was found where the system software and firmware were expecting a given command to do two different things. The relevant firmware was updated to maintain compatibility with the GBT Spectrometer.

Both “ALMA” LTAs were installed and tested in the system.

Work has started on debugging a faulty sampler.

LTA Upgrade

Randy has continued to familiarize himself with the spectrometer in general and the LTAs in particular. His goal is to produce a design for an improved LTA.

***Miscellaneous***

ALMA

Jason Ray and Jack Nelson continue to spend time on ALMA bias modules and Rich on the ALMA correlator.

Weather

One of the weather stations was upgraded.

***Plans***

- Continue CCB construction... - Continue Lab Spectrometer commissioning - Continue ALMA support as needed...

Software Status -- Amy

This ends Week 2 of 6 in the third development cycle of 2006 which can be viewed at PlanOfRecordC32006.

The bulk of this week was spent meeting with sponsors and hashing out the requirements for each of our MRs scheduled for this cycle.

We attended a ZSpectrometer meeting on Monday, April 10. After which we gave a demo of our ZSpectrometer Manager (to date) to the UMd delegation. Everything (from a software point of view) seems to be on track and in good shape. One important item to come from the meeting is that UMd will be shipping us some WASP boards to use as a hardware mock-up. This will allow us to test the Manager with some hardware before the Zpectrometer shows up in Green Bank without tying up the actual machine in UMd with remote testing.

GBTIDL work is about done for version 2.0, which will provide flagging capabilities. We are about to freeze the code for the release. Our main task at this point is making sure that the documentation is complete and updated. We plan to release on a maintanence day near April 28.

Summary of Cycle 3 MRs:

Operational support for this week included:

Pulsar Related -- Scott

MIT/LL 43m Project -- Glen

The primary activities this week were

Any other Business

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