Daily Report
Contents
NIKA2 tests in a technical time (T07) slot for (i) checking noise traces of array 2 and test the instrument behaviour on the sky. Observing in remote mode. Times referred to LT.
July 9th, Friday
17h00m - 21h00; Ángel: Opacity (tau[225 GHz]) above 0.7 at the beginning, going down to ~0.4 at the end of the shift. Unstable in general., with some spikes up to 0.95 during the shift. First pointing and focus on Mars (low altitude). Broad/distorted beams (>21" at 2mm) until ~19h. Decent focus corrections and beam widths efter that. Several pointing/bright sources of NIKA2 Pool catalogues observed in previous semesters under opacity conditions quite similar to the predicted ones for that date were chosen. Weather conditions were frankly poor at the beginning of the shift, with distorted beams size/geometry. After ~18:30 (LT) the circumstances were improving a bit, obtaining decent focus corrections and beam widths.
Please find in the attached file the 0-th iteration intensity maps of the PCCS2G208.07 and M82 fields observed in W2020 and S2019, respectively, and last week. The first source is a Planck compact source of the newIRAM_NIKA2_1mm catalogue prepared by Bilal long ago, addressed to densify the pointing (and possibly, flux calibration) source catalogue for the instrument user community. It’s an AGN classified as a blazar, with reported variability at least since 2016 (it can be noted in our frames too). The second one is a known nearby starburst galaxy. The rms estimation given in the top of the plot was obtained from the statistics on a pseudo-annular background polygon limited by 60% and 80% KIDs coverage isocontours in each case, for comparison purposes. For a given source, exposure time and map geometry is the same for each epoch. It seems clear that array 2 is in good shape (as with maps at 1.15 mm).
Just at the end of this observing shift, we obtained some timelines and noise traces for each array with the window open and after close it. I’ve included the screenshots corresponding to array 2 in the attached document.
Several technical time slots are scheduled next week. Depending on the progress of the planned works, it may be possible to do some additional tests. I’ll be at the telescope as AoD. So, if you have any suggestion, please let me know.