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Daily Reports (2025/11/11-18, NIKA2 run 76, Cryo run 88)

Observers on-site: Maite, Mairi, Victor and Hamza safe at the telescope.

Operators: Pedro (daytime) and Sergio (night). Angel around.

Times below in LT (UT+1h), unless otherwise is specified.

Preparatory notes

Please, remember to use the focus value of Ar1 (roughly Ar2 + 0.65 mm, but use directly the focus Ar1 monitor if possible).

Please fill the Table with the Ar1,2,3 focus values as follows. At best, make one table per day.

• Focus sequences
  Scan nr	Target	Ar2	Ar1	Ar3	Polarized?	Notes

Similarly, if any beam maps are taken:

• Beam maps (99 sub-scans)
  Scan Nr	Target	Focus	Notes

November 11th, 2025, Tuesday

• Focus sequences
  Scan nr	Target	Ar2	Ar1	Ar3	Polarized?	Notes
  138-142	MWC349	--	0.87	1.1	Yes	Custom script. Marginal fitting for ar2.
  150-154	3C454	0.05	0.8	1.0	Yes	Custom script.
  174-178	Neptune	0.52	1.32	1.57	Yes	Custom script.

Maite (15:30-19:00): NIKA2 cryo in good shape after cool-down. HWP checked with Dave. Starting system-check with NIKA2 (Blue-Pill checking asked by Jean). Clear skies, mild wind. Opacity tau_225GHz ~ 0.2 and rising. BluePill tests (new version) was OK. Rolling back to the previous version. We have some problems with homology. Pointing corrections far from the expected values. Fixed by Pedro. DAQ restarted with bad KIDs (ar1, 2, 3): 15, 7, 37 NIKA2-Pol. Quite stable. Starting with @calib_1scan on MW349, NGC7027, CRL2688 (scans 20251111s144-146). Doing pointing+focus on 3C454. Starting project 046-25: calib1_scan on 3C454, pointing on 1741-038, starting observations of target G24.78. Doing Pointing + calib1_scan on Neptune

Mairi (19:00-24:00): Still on NIKA2-Pol. Starting with focusing on Neptune. Calib_1scan on Neptune (scan 179). Switching to project 084-25. One rep. on S87IRS1. Some wind alarms time to time. Wind gusts of 17-20 m/s in the last minutes (21:55, scan 185 in progress). After the final scan, finished with calib_1 scan on Neptune (scan 190). High wind alarms again and the forecasts announce higher peaks. About stability, we had peak to peak variations of ~ +/-10 Jy/beam (2 mm) in the last scans. Telescope parked at 21:30.

November 12th, 2025, Wednesday

Hamza (00:00-06:00): High winds. Telescope parked.

Victor (06:00-12:00): High wind speed at the first part of the shift, despite opacity is about 0.3-0.4. NIKA2 switched to total power. Observations for project 082-25 were intended when the wind speed dropped enough (~09:30). DAQ restarted with bad KIDs (ar1, 2, 3): 11, 5, 48. A series of corrupted pointing scans due to high tracking deviations. Telescope was parked again at 10:15.

Maite (12:00-13:30): Opacity ~0.35. Starting with NIKA2 Total Power. DAQ restarted with bad KIDs (ar1, 2, 3): 15, 5, 33. Trying pointing on 3C273. Too windy. Trying again pointing + focus. Pointing worked but not focus. Corrupted files > 20% records with too high tracking dev. Trying with a source at a different azimuth SMA_0958+655. too windy. Corrupted 31% of records with too high tracking deviations. Impossible to do pointing. Too windy. Parking antenna at 13:30.

Mairi (18:00-24:00): Too windy. Telescope safe.

November 13th, 2025, Thursday

• High wind speed (30+ m/s peaks). Thick clouds coming from SW darken the morning lights. Telescope parked.

• Strong winds; hail after ~18h.

No observations

November 14th, 2025, Friday

• Snowing since early morning. High wind speed (as we can see/hear: the anemometers are frozen). Telescope's deicing system is active since 07:30; switched off at 10:15.

• Strong winds continue, hail (23:30).

No observations

November 15th, 2025, Saturday

• Strong winds and hail continued until mid-morning. Sky cleared for a while at ~10h (LT), but wind gusts persist. Dense fog, hail, and windy weather again after ~14h.
• Rain and fog since ~15h. It's still raining at 23:00. Several lightning alarms.

No observations

November 16th, 2025, Sunday

08:00: Rain stopped early this morning. The wind is still blowing (14 m/s on average) with strong gusts, but it's starting to die down. Telescope looks clear of ice thanks to the rain. Nicely clear skies. Opacity about 0.2, but the forecast is not so hopeful.

• Focus sequences
  Scan nr	Target	Ar2	Ar1	Ar3	Polarized?	Notes
  6-10	1226+023	~1.0	--	--	No	Custom script. Start at 1mm. Bad fitting for ar1 and ar3
  11-15	1226+023	~1.0	1.7	1.95	No	Custom script. Start at 1.8mm.
  28-32	1226+023	~0.87	1.45	1.60	No	Custom script. Start at 1.7mm. Marginal fitting for array 2

Victor (09:00-12:00): First observation for 3 days ! Clear sky, low wind, tau~0.25 at the start. Had some homology issue at the start. DAQ started in total power. Bad KIDs Ar(1,2,3): 11/7/17. Project 082-25 on source PSZ2G229

• First scan : tau~0.25, pointing on b 1156+295, p2p~5 Jy/beam and no need to refocus
• Second scan : tau~0.3 and rising, pointing on b 1156+295, p2p~5 Jy/beam, refocus on 1226+023
• Third scan : tau~0.35 and rising, pointing on b 1156+295, might need to kill remaining scans because of clouds. Kill it during 55% of first subsccan because of huge clouds

Maite (13:00-18:00): Switching to EMIR, backup projects. Willing to tackle targets of project 036-25. Setting project test. Bad pointings (pwv in the l.o.s. ~30 mm). Lot of fog, R.H. 100%. Telescope parked at 13:20.

• Wind speed up to 15 m/s. Foggy. No observations after 13:20

November 17th, 2025, Monday

05:00: Frozen mix after ~02h, then light snow. Dense fog. Wind speed < 5 m/s.

08:00: Snowfall stopped. Mild wind. Telescope inspected: deicing switched on; cloudy after ~09h.

11:30: Deicing off. Telescope inside the cloud.

19:00: Snowfall/frozen mix and dense fog since ~16h. Taumeter data between ~17:00 and 19:40 is not confident (Zabbix alarm included). Waiting for the snowfall to stop (~midnight?) to check the taumeter box & data creation, as well as the condition of the telescope.

No observations

November 18th, 2025, Tuesday

04:00: Deicing switched off after snowfall (03:00). Sky clear. Tau_22GHz ~0.4 and going down. DAQ startet in total power for checking beams, etc. Bad KIDs (ar1, 2, 3): 14, 7, 37.

• Focus sequences
  Scan nr	Target	Ar2	Ar1	Ar3	Polarized?	Notes
  14 -18	Uranus	0.9	1.55	1.8	No	Custom script. Start at 1mm.6 good fitting for ar1 and ar3 not so good for arr2
  21 -25	Uranus	0.8	1.6	1.9	yes	Custom script. Start at 1mm.6 good fitting for ar1 and ar3 not so good for arr2
  36 -40	1156+295	0.64	1.25	1.45	No	Custom script. Start at 1mm.6 good fitting for ar1 and ar3 not so good for arr2
  47-52	1156+295	0.38	1.1	1.32	No	Custom script. Start at 1.1mm. Good fitting for ar1 and ar3, marginal for arr2

Angel - Hamza :

• Beams checked: ok. Calib_1scan on Uranus (scan 20251118s20)
• Switching to polarisation, BAD KIDS 22 for arr1, 6 for arr2, 39 for arr3
• Project 046-25 : Tau_22GHz ~0.32 - focus stable. Calib_1scan on Uranus (scan s20) for the polarisation leakage. One round on S255IR.
• Switching to total power, polarisation sources are not available or they are at low elevation. BAD KIDS 15 arr1 4 arr2 31 arr3.
• Project 082-25 AFTER FOCUSING ON 1156+295. One round on PSZ2G229.

Victor(08:00) : Still project 082-25 on PSZ2G229 . Tau~0.2, low wind speed, clear sky. Pointing and focus on 1156+295. p2p~2Jy/beam (ar2)

• Second round :