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Daily Reports

Jan. 10th, Tuesday

15:15-21:00; Miguel, Angel: Technical time (T06-22) scheduled up to Wed. 04:00 (LT). Checking interference spikes in EMIR data after asking CETURSA IT team for switching off suspicious Wi-Fi systems of the lift booths close to the telescope. In principle, no interference spikes were detected after ad-hoc technical observations. Tau_225GHz is about 0.25 and stable. Switching to NIKA2 DAQ started at 16:50; bad KIDS: 61 (ar1), 9 (ar2), 71 (ar3). Noise traces (on-sky) of ar2, ar1 and ar3 are given below. A quick pointing session (11 sources at 70 < Az. < 381 deg and 27 < El. < 69 deg) for refining corrections was carried out from 20:20 to 21:50.

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21:00-03:00; Manuel, Angel: Opacity keeps stable (tau_225GHz < 0.25). Pointing session was finished. Resulting statistics: <pAz.> = -0.46 +/- 1.38 arcsec, <pEl.> = 6.25 +/- 0.64 arcsec. Continued with a calib_1scan on Uranus (20220110s245), a skydip (s246), and a calib_1scan on ALFORI (s249). Only the parameter P7 of the pointing model was corrected accordingly and checked before scan s257. Fairly stable after a brief opacity increase. Pointing and focus on Uranus. Beam map on Uranus (s258). Starting science observations: project 105-22; one rep. (35 min) on B213-C6; project 122-16 (GASTON), 2 reps. on B213E_N; project 192-16 (N2CLS) started: 1 rep. on COSMOS field.

Jan. 11th, Wednesday

03:00-09:00; Jean-François: clear sky, Tau_225 stable around 0.25, peak-to-peak fluctuations < 5Jy/b and rms=2-3Jy/b at 2mm all night. Project 192-16 on COSMOS for 3 hours (hit attenuation limit); 199-16 PSZ2G212 for 1.5 hours (i.e. 3rep) (hit attenuation limit); focus; 169-22 GJ526North 1 hour; focus; start 160-16 NGC4254 and pass over to Lara.

[AB: this morning Dave reported noticeable pressure oscillations (e.g. P101) apparently linked to the dilution circuit of the cryostat. T_MC has been below 175 mK until now. The problem has been tackled by Dave and Alessandro and was related to the heater in the instrument, after discarding that the pre-amplifiers act as 'heaters']

09:00-15:00; Lara: three runs done for NGC4254 until 10:00. Clear sky, tau almost stable around 0.25, peak to peak fluctuations < +/- 6 Jy/b, rms < 2 Jy/b. After this moved to MWC349 for pointing, focus, calib_1scan + another calib_1scan on NGC7027. Then I did a skydip. At 11 some checkings with NIKA2 and EMIR were done for possible wifi contaminations. 13:35: cryostat intervened by Dave John and Alessandro Monfardini. P5 stabilised and 2mm pre-amplifier restarted. DAQ restarted at 14:00: bad KIDs: 54 (ar1), 9 (ar2), 65 (ar3). At 14:15 observations start again with pointing and focus on 2251+158. Start 160-16 NGC7331 after pointing on 2234+282. First run with velocity = 60, then changed to 45 since the elevation was ~ 75. A large value of p2p and high elevation: change to 159-22.

15:00-21:00; Angel: Opacity about 0.25-0.30 at the beginning of the shift. Evidence of instabilities in pointing and focus scans. Only NGC1569 (159-22) and NGC7331 (160-16) after a while are suitable for observation at this time with current opacity levels. Unfortunately, pressure oscillations appeared again, but this time they are apparently related to PT #2. Dave, Martino, and Alessandro are working on this issue. Switching to EMIR backup programs at 17h (LT). NIKA2 window was closed and the cap was assured with Al tape by request. Continuing on backup project 125-22 (3 mm). NCS failure: VAC1 and VAC3 restarted; the first focus was canceled due to a problem with the AntennaMountDrive services. Resuming observations at 18:25 after the intervention of Joaquín and William. A total of 3 beta and 6 lambda maps (tile 3) on the G111 molecular cloud were obtained, and 3 beta maps (tile 4) were launched at the end of the shift.

The telescope resuming observations at sunset:

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21:00-03:00; Damien: Opacity was quite unstable for the whole shift, but pwv was ok (2~6mm). 10 reps (12min each) on L1544 for project 104-22; 23h50 switched to project 120-22, 8 reps (14min each) on L1495A-NS with setup 2. Started last 2 reps on L1495A-NS then let Jean-François take over.

Jan. 12th, Thursday

03:00-09:00; Jean-François: EMIR obs for whole run because of NIKA2 cryo pb : Observe project EMIR 162-22 (source NSA036285) - Start project EMIR 124-22

09:00-15:00; Lara: Good opacity (~0.23). Observing project 124-22 with EMIR because of some checkings on NIKA2 cryostat had to be done (scans #95 - #106). 10:30 switch to NIKA2. DAQ restarted at 10:40 (LT); bad KIDS: 49 (ar1), 6 (ar2), 65 (ar3). Noise traces are given below. Pointing and focus on K3-50A. Pointing on MWC349 (FWHM ~ 17 arcsec) + calib_1scan on MWC349 and NGC7027 (p2p = 2 Jy/b and p2p = 4 Jy/b respectively, at 2mm). Skydip launched at 11:20. At 11:35 good opacity (0.2) and stable weather conditions, clear sky. Moving to 1418+546, do pointing and focus on 1633+382. 12:10 start with project 199-16 on source PSZ2-G086.9 (tau 1.7-1.8 and target elevation about 50).

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15:00-21:00; Stefano. I take over from Lara around 14 local time. Completed the llast repetition on PSZ2-G086.9 (199-16), continued with pointing, focus, two reps on PSZ2-G046.1, then starts the difficult part of the day. It's hard to focus at El. 35-40 deg. Need a higher elevation. Finally! Then moved to 171-22 and performed 4 reps on PSZ2G085. Usual pointing and focus checks regularly performed. After this, calib_1scan on CRL618 (scan 20230112s202). Then switched to 122-16: 2 reps on B213-N. IMEGIN (160-16) follows: NGC337, 5 repetitions (added 2 reps to compensate for older reps taken under sub-optimal conditions), Source NGC337 is completed!

Life signs on the moon:

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21:00-03:00; Damien: Good opacity (~0.22). Completed 10 reps (9-10 min each) on NGC1569 (Project 159-22). 23h : pointing, focus, calib_1scan (scan 20230112s265) and beammap (scan 266) on Uranus. 23h30 : switched to project 199-16, 5 reps (22 min each) on PSZ1G226; focus then let Jean-Francois take over.

Jan. 13th, Friday

03:00-09:00; Jean-François: Clear sky, A2 beam 18"x18", opacity stable 0.20-0.25, smooth run. Project 192-16 : COSMOS (2 hours). Project 199-16 : 3 repeats on PSZ2G212 to finish it (1.5 hours). Project 160-16 on NGC4254 (1hour) (still 1 hour to go). Project 169-22 : 1 repeat on GJ526North (1hr) (15 min. overboard).

09:00-15:00; Lara: Clear sky, opacity 0.19, beam 17x18 (2mm). Project 199-16 on PSZ2G087 (started at 09:45, scan #86-#106). Stop at 11:40 for testing heater cables of the NIKA2 cryostat (Dave and Santiago). DAQ restarted at 13:00 (LT); bad KIDS: 48 (ar1), 6 (ar2), 67 (ar3). Skydip until 13:17. Focus on 2251+158 and calib1scan on NGC7027 and CRL2688. 13:36 moved to project 160-16 (NGC7331). Stop at 15:14.

15:00-21:00; Stefano: start with 171-22 and 7 repetitions on ACT0022. Follows 160-16 with ... repetitions on NGC 7331 (... minutes in total)

It's Friday, gotta love the 30m:

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Jan. 14th, Saturday

Jan. 15th, Sunday

Jan. 16th, Monday

Jan. 17th, Tuesday