GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting
AGENDA
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- FEMCO has received the shipment of 2" dia. nuts. 3600 pieces makes a big shipment!
- Harry and John are surveying the x-y locations of the anchor bolts. Bob is working up equations for transforming to drawing coordinate system. Sent these to Fred for review and improvements.
- Mechanics are performing shimming.
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- FEMCO has programmed the machining instructions for the latest spring plate drawing. This is the next job on their machine.
This reports covers up to Thursday, 7 PM. We supported 17 projects in 26 observing sessions, a much larger load than usual. Average setup time was 12 min. We also had 16.5 hrs of maintenance but 8hrs of this was unscheduled (see below). Lost time was 3.4 hrs, about 2.2% of the scheduled observing time. Only 7 operator shifts had lost-time problems. Lost time was due to:
- Astrid Data Base corruption : 2.0 hrs
- Astrid : 0.7 hrs in 4 instances, 2 NLT's
- Spectral Processor : 0.3 hrs
- Observing no-show : 0.2 hrs
- Data Capture : 0.1 hrs
There was a second observer who did not show up and the time was given to maintenance instead.
Last Week
=========
Observations for proposals
GBT06C-051, GBT06A-054, GBT05C-042,
GBT06A-046, GBT05B-011, GBT06B-024,
GBT06B-035, GBT05C-023, GBT06B-026,
GBT05C-046, GBT06B-027, GBT06C-004,
GBT06C-048, GBT06C-049, GBT06B-028,
GBT06B-019, GBT06A-071
Completed proposals
GBT06B-035, GBT05C-023,
GBT06B-026, GBT05C-046
Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
GBT06A-040 [ PB] Mark McKinnon
Spectroscopy of Bright, Northern Pulsars at 1.67
and 22.2 GHz
GBT06A-030 [F ] Don Campbell
Lunar surface studies via S-Band radar imagery
and interferometry
GBT06C-051 [ P ] Lincoln Greenhill
Monitoring 2 NGC4258-like Masers: Measurement of
Distances / Constraint of LCDM
GBT06B-042 [F ] Nissim Kanekar
The nature of damped Lyman-alpha systems, as
traced by their spin temperature.
GBT06B-054 [F ] Jeremy Darling
HI Absorption in a Radio-Loud Spiral Galaxy
GBT06B-032 [F ] Steve Begin
Timing of the Binary and Millisecond Pulsars in
M28
GBT06B-033 [ B] Jason Hessels
Completing a 350-MHz Survey of the Galactic Plane
for Pulsars and Transients
GBT06A-046 [F B] Glen Langston
A search for the Largest Interstellar Molecule,
HC_13N
GBT02A-054 [ B] Ingrid Stairs
High-resolution Studies of a Precessing Pulsar
GBT06B-003 [ B] Mark McKinnon
A Search for Pulsed Maser Emission in PSR-SNR
Associations at 1720 MHz
GBT05C-001 [F ] Bruce Campbell
Radar Mapping of the Moon at 70-cm Wavelength
Using Arecibo and the GBT
GBT06C-004 [ P ] Tony Remijan
A Search for o-Benzyne (o-C6H4) and Phenyl (C6H5)
toward CRL 618
GBT04B-014 [ P ] Paul Kondratko
Anchoring the Extragalactic Distance Scale
GBT06B-027 [ P ] Ted Bergin
Ammonia in Massive Pre-stellar Cores
GBT06C-049 [ B] Karen Masters
Mapping Matter in the Nearby Universe with 2MASS
GBT06B-019 [F B] Toney Minter
Obtaining A Complete Sample Of Pulsar OH
Absorption With The GBT
GBT06A-070 [F ] Fernando Camilo
A new radio transient
GBT06A-072 [F ] Vicky Kaspi
ToO GBT Observations of AXP 4U 0142+61
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup
Contact Information for 09/21/2006 - 10/05/2006
=======================================
Proposal PI Bands Email [NRAO contact]
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT06C-051 Lincoln Greenhill K greenhill@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-054 Paul Demorest L demorest@astron.berkeley.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-053 Martin Zwaan A mzwaan@eso.org [Toney Minter]
GBT06C-032 Peter Martin L pgmartin@cita.utoronto.ca [Jay Lockman]
GBT06C-021 Erik Rosolowsky K erosolow@cfa.harvard.edu [Ron Maddalena]
GBT05C-042 Scott Ransom S sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-044 Robert Ferdman L ferdman@phas.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
BU031 Jim Ulvestad S julvesta@nrao.edu []
GBT04C-031 Paul Kondratko K pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-068 Yancy Shirley K yshirley@as.arizona.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06A-014 Andrea Tarchi K atarchi@ira.cnr.it [Jim Braatz]
GBT06B-024 Jeff Mangum K jmangum@nrao.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06C-035 Jim Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-004 Bill Reach K reach@ipac.caltech.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06B-047 David Schiminovich LA ds@astro.columbia.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06B-015 Larry Morgan K lmorgan@nrao.edu [Larry Morgan]
GBT04B-014 Paul Kondratko KU pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06C-038 Jay Lockman L jlockman@nrao.edu [Jay Lockman]
GBT06C-049 Karen Masters L kmasters@cfa.harvard.edu [Larry Morgan]
GBT05C-037 Nissim Kanekar A nkanekar@nrao.edu [Glen Langston]
GBT06C-039 Jim Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06B-018 Michael Kramer L mkramer@jb.man.ac.uk [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-018 Ingrid Stairs L istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-071 Fernando Camilo L fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
Scheduled hours [backup]
========================
Category/Month-> September October November
Astronomy ~ 553 [258] 492 [576] 334 [111]
Maintenance ~ 55 [052] 77 [034] 44 [051]
Test & Comm ~ 113 [021] 128 178
Shutdown ~ 0 0 36
Un-assigned ~ 3 51 134
Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 43
Active checkout - 0
On Hold - 16
Schedule - 51
Completed - 537
Current backlog [hours prior to 06B*] = 988
[2001:2(1), 2003:19(1), 2004:107(7), 2005:537(22), 2006:323(17)]
Backlog excluding 139 hrs of monitoring projects after 06B = 849
Total time to discharge [hours] = 3492
Includes 424 hours of monitoring after trimester 06B
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 06B
The C-band was removed from service to make room for the planned Penn Array installation, and for cryogenics upgrade.
Q-band Receiver: Reassembly nears completion, and the system should be cooling back down this week. System tests will begin.
Ka Receiver: The receiver was cooled last week, and data taken with the CCB. The phase switching transients are improved, but are not as good as hoped, so some debugging is needed there. The radiometers' balance achieved will make the worst case isolation approximately -10dB. The receiver was warmed over the weekend to remove the waveguide input terminations, and to install the feedhorns.
Penn Array: The cryogenics are cold, and testing shows many live pixels. Exact count and performance are not yet determined. We seem to be on track for a ~Wednesday installation.
Digital Group Status 02-SEP-06 THRU 08-SEP-06
***Operations, Problem Summary***
Active Surface...
No work was done on the Active Surface this week.
Quadrant Detector...
While working with Ray Creager to test his QD Manager, we discovered that the QD data acquisition system (QD GDAQ) was sending incorrect checksums. The spare GDAQ was used to analyze this problem, the GDAQ firmware was modified, and testing with Ray's Manager yielded promising results. We plan to re-program the real QD GDAQ the week of 11-SEP-06 and conduct further tests using Ray's Manager.
Weather Stations...
- Replacement parts for the wind sensors were received and assembled on the bench. At this point, the plan is to test (and possibly install) these replacement parts the week of 11-SEP-06.
- Information was provided to Amy Shelton regarding software modifications required for the new wind direction sensor being installed at Weather 1.
***Development***
Caltech Continuum Backend (CCB)...
- CCB #1 is now connected to the Ka Band Receiver in the lab for follow-up receiver testing.
- Construction of CCB #3 is still underway with a newly revised completion date of 22-SEP-06.
Spectrometer LTA Re-design...
- Work continues on the LTA re-design project... A detailed project schedule should be ready by 29-SEP-06.
- Ray Escoffier is planning be in CV for a few days in the mid-October time frame for consultations regarding ALMA Correlators, so this seems like a good opportunity to have him participate in an informal design review for the proposed LTA upgrades. I'll try to set this up with him and coordinate with all other interested parties.
Lab Spectrometer...
No news to report...
ALMA (As reported by Jason Ray)...
- Correspondence with FreedomCAD? indicates that progress is being made on the new Bias Card PCB layout... Expected delivery date of final layout CAD files is 15-SEP-06.
- As requested, dowel pins were mailed to B. Jackson at SRON (Band 7 group).
***Plans***
- Continue Active Surface maintenance as required...
- Re-program QD GDAQ and test using Ray's Manager...
- Test (and possibly install) Weather Station wind sensor replacement parts...
- Continue construction of CCB #3...
- Continue work on LTA re-design and prepare project schedule...
- Continue ALMA support as needed...
Randy
This begins the fourth full week of 6 in the sixth development cycle of 2006 which can be viewed at PlanOfRecordC62006. We are scheduled to release on September 29.
We were very busy attending the GBT Future Instrumentation Workshop last week.
MelindaMello will be returning from the Virtual Observatory (VO) school next week.
Operational support was relatively light last week.
- We looked into some problems with temperature sensor gbtts3 2001; we believe this was an intermitent problem with the sensor itself and/or the terminal server.
- We also debugged problems with Dish reported by Tony Remijan. The problems were caused by Casa library development and initially went undetected due to a lack of complete Dish unit tests. We created a workaround via Glish scripts.
- Astrid was reported as unresponsive. We restarted MySQL? database to remedy.
- We responded to a report that online SDFITS was not producing data. We found that the Spectrometer Manager was not in Scan Coordinator - it was off.
Modification Requests:
- MRs ready for release:
- MRs ready for sponsor testing:
- MRs under development:
- MRs under CCC review:
- MRs waiting for sponsor approval:
- MRs being written:
- Integration of the Zpectrometer into SDFITS (ModificationRequest4C406)
- Currently working with Kevin Rauch and Andrew Baker to sort out the requirements and understand the Zpectrometer SDFITS file.
- Integration of the Zpectrometer into GBTIDL (ModificationRequest5C606)
- Currently working with Kevin Rauch and Andrew Baker to sort out the requirements and understand the Zpectrometer SDFITS file.
- GBTIDL Autoflagger (ModificationRequest2C506)
- Zpectrometer config tool changes (ModificationRequest1C606)
- Discussions with University of Maryland personel, have indicated that it is too early in the project to characterize observations with instrument at the level required by the configuration tool. This MR is on hold.
- Ka config tool changes (ModificationRequest4C606)
- Modify SDFITS to correctly show Spectrometer cross-polarization data (ModificationRequest2C606?)
- Other tasks
- Reservation System
- We need to update the Project Charter and generate MRs. Writing up use case scenarios and gathering more details on PeopleSoft interface requirements. On hold until Zpectrometer SDFITS/GBTIDL effort is stable.
- Dynamic Scheduling
- 8/29 meeting came up with productive ideas about scheduling via conditions (weather, LST, telescope configuration).
- Provide a servo version with adjustable rate feedfoward for testing.
- Installed and available for test. As part of this activity, we sent JohnFord instructions on its use.
MIT/LL 43m Project -- Glen
- Every month : Pointing -- 1 night/month except in November, A/B weather, dynamically scheduled.
- Week of Sep 4 : C-Band off telescope Done
- Week of Sep 11: Penn Array on telescope in Cband slot
- Sept 11 - Oct 27 : Penn Array commissioning -- 1 night/week, A-weather, dynamically scheduled. 8 nights max.
- Sept : Ka, Q-band, Zepctrometer lab tests
- Week of Oct 2 - week of Oct 12 : Penn Array backup daytime engineering time : 4 day-times max.
- Week of Oct. 9 : Ka-band placed on telescope
- Oct 16 - Nov 13: Ka-band spectral-line commissioning -- 1 night/week, A-weather, dynamically scheduled. 3 nights max.
- Oct 16 - Nov 13: CCB quick checkout (2-3 hours), time permitting.
- Week of Oct. 23 (earlier if it's practical and if the astronomy schedule has no conflicts): Ku-band down, X-band moved to where Ku was, Zpectrometer on telescope where X was
- Week of Oct. 30 : Q-band on telescope
- Oct 31 : Fixed maintenence day for Zpectrometer checkout
- Week of Nov. 6 : Penn Array down, C-band up in its place.
- Nov 6 - Dec 14 : Q-band commissioning -- 1 night/week, A-weather, dynamically scheduled. 3 nights max.
- Nov 13 - Dec 1 : Ka-band CCB continuum commissioning and Ka-band Zpectrometer testing -- Sharing four dynamically scheduled, daytime/evening sessions (~noon to ~midnight) for A/B weather. Zpectrometer will have up to ~ 25 hrs, CCB the remaining ~ 15 hrs.
- After Dec. 1 : Ka-band observations can commence, preference given to low-risk continuum projects.
- Week of Dec. 4 : Zpectrometer down, Ku-band up where Zpec was.
- Dec. 11 - Dec. 21 : PTCS OOF Tests -- A-weather, dynamically scheduled, 2 nights max.
- After Dec. 15 : Q-band observations can commence.
Receiver Installation Schedules
- C band, Remove: week of Sep 4 Done , Install: week of November 7
- Penn Array, Install: week of Sep 11, Remove: week of Oct 31
- Ka Install : week of Oct 9
- Zpectrometer Install: week of Oct 23; Remove: Week of Dec 4
- Ku Remove: week of Oct 23; Install: week of Dec 4
- X band moved to Ku slot: week of Oct 23
- Qband, Install: week of Oct 30
-- RichardPrestage - 16 Aug 2006
Revision r1.10 - 14 Sep 2006 - 19:56 GMT - AmyShelton
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