Daily Reports (2026/01/13-20, NIKA2 run 78, Cryo run 90)
Observers on-site: Ste B, Cheng Yu, Rubén Fedriani, Paul Law, Andrea Bracco
Astronomer on Duty: Ioannis Myserlis
Pool Manager: Angel Bongiovanni
Operators: Joaquín Santiago (day) and Gloria Liñan (night)
Organization of shifts:
03:00-09:00 UT: Stefano Berta
09:00:15:00 UT: Cheng Yu and Rubén Fedriani
15:00-21:00 UT: Paul Law
21:00-03:00 UT: Andrea Bracco
Important
Focus offsets shall be measured on Ar1
Pointing offsets shall be measured on Ar2
Pool-Account usage: Accounting of observing times
Calibration observations like pointing, focus, and calib_1scan (the latter in case of NIKA2-Pol only, aimed at characterizing the instrumental polarization) which are conducted before and during project observations are part of the project time. Note that all proposals include such overheads in the time and sensitivity estimates. This holds for total power and polarimetry observations.
Other calibration observations which are important for all projects like beam maps, skydips, or calib_1scan for absolute flux calibration may be accounted under the pool account (nikaX-YY, where X = s,w and YY = year ; nikaw-25 in this case).
- When conditions are unstable and it is unclear whether project observations make sense at all, calibrations may be accounted to the pool account.
Focus and Beam maps accounting
Please fill the Table with the Ar1,2,3 focus values as follows. At best, make one table per day.
Focus sequences (NOTE: Ar2 is very noisy and this might influence the A2 focus value)
Scans nr.
Target
Ar2
Ar1
Ar3
Pol?
Notes
20260115s2-6
3C273
0.30
uhm
out
no
started at 1.0 mm; Ar1 only marginally covered by the focus range -> re-do
7-11
3C273
out
1.31
1.54
no
started at 1.4 mm;
Similarly, if any beam maps (total power or polarimetry) are taken:
Beam maps
Scan Nr
Target
Focus
TP (99 subscans) or Pol (95 subscans)
Notes
Tuesday, 13th January 2026
9:30-14:30 UT: Maintenance time
14:30-00:00 UT: Stopped due to high wind, fog and snow. In the afternoon we had a training session on NIKA2 observations with on-site observers.
Wednesday, 14th January 2026
00:00-9:00 UT: Still stopped. Snowing in the morning.
09:00-13:00 UT still stopped for wind and thick clouds
12:30-14:15 UT: Sky clears up a bit so we start with EMIR backup observations of project 150-25 at ~13:00 UT. This is the only project available for observations right now, even if it <15 deg away from the Sun, keeping in mind that E150 is not working. Anyway, after 1 hr the weather is getting bad again (pwv >= 10mm) and we park the telescope once more.
14:15-20:00 UT: Telescope stopped. Bad weather.
20:00-04:00 UT: Telescope parked. No night operator until tomorrow due to personal reasons.
Thursday, 15th January 2026
03:45-09:00 UT Stefano:
@03:45 we start the NIKA2 total power observations; lost KIDs: 20/7/24; tau(225)=0.27; Stability: peak to peak sky variation along the timelines < +/- 0.5 Jy/beam on pointing scans @2mm.
- 197-25 ... reps of CL3
09:00-15:00 UT Ruben and Cheng (+ Stefano and Ioannis):
- ...
15:00-21:00 UT Paul:
- ...
21:00-03:00 UT Andrea:
- ...