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Daily Reports

Feb. 13th, Tuesday

10:30-15:00; Maintenance slot.

15:00-16:30; System check with EMIR (Joaquín); Jean's tests of the BluePill and Aleksej's tests of the wobbler system (both in remote).

16:30-21:00; Jianhang, Stefano, Antoine, Federico, Angel: tau_225GHz~0.5, wind speed about 2-4 m/s, not so stable atmosphere, but after pointing & focus trials, look quite good for EMIR backup programs. Some problems with beam switching (not-so-good behaviour of the chopper wheel; fixed provisionally by launching two pointings in a row per pointing try). We started with EMIR backup program 073-23, TMC2 and CB23 were successfully observed. At ~20h we switched to project 104-23. The first map set for target W3-IRS5 (2h) was started. InSegment tracking deviations below 1 arcsec. At 19:52 (UT) a continuous sequence of TCP/IP local socket closed/connected messages in the PCP started to appear. The queue was cancelled by Juan Luis. After the due error acknowledgment in the PCP, we launched a calibration. No more warning/error rolling messages in the PCP.

21:00-03:00; Jianhang: The observation of the first map set for target W3-IRS5 (project 104-23) was resumed by completing the scans removed from the queue before. Switched to project 152-23: line calibration on M82, REF position checked, and 5 repetitions on J0826. Mean tau_225GHz increasing up to ~0.6 with large spikes over most of the shift, very low wind speed. Light fog outside at the end of the shift.

Feb. 14th, Wednesday

03:00-09:00; Stefano: two more repetitions on J0826, then a pointing, then a repetition, which complete the project 152-23. tau>0.6 and unstable. No sources in other projects visible after the completed project 152-23 for a very long while. One more repetition on J0826 to compensate bad weather. Suspended observations and waited that weather improved (for 1.5h). Now, tau stabilized around 0.6, started 112-23 for lack of other observable sources. Done two sources (G59.78+0.07, G59.79+0.07), then pointing+focus+pointing after sunrise, then done one more sources (G59.79+0.63), only one repetition each.

09:00-15:00; Federico: one repetition completed for source G58.77+0.64, project 112-23. Changed project to 079-23 to complete the second half of the final observation of Clump_B, setup 2 (9 subscans). Completed (09 UTC). Changed configuration for NIKA2 session: initialization of the quick look pipeline terminals. Tentative pointing session on source 16041+399. First track stacked, reactivating tracking & homology. Second track was completed (10:06 UTC), testing imbFITS creation. Stopped all operations for wind, telescope moved to a safe position.

15:00-21:00; Antoine: Windy for all the afternoon. Operations restarted again at 18:15 (LT) with Nika2. Lost KIDs (a1, a2, a3: 27, 1, 31). Excellent pointing and focus on Uranus, very good atmospheric stability, tau ~ 0.3. Calib_1scan (scan 89). Then started observing source id307 of project 150-23 for half a repetition (40 minutes). Then went back to Uranus and finished with focus, launched a beam map (scan 105, sudden spike from taumeter records in the middle) and a skydip (scan 106).

21:00-03:00; Jianhang: Finished two half repetitions for source id307, project 150-23 of NIKA2 pool. Changed to project 106-23 later due to the increase of opacity (tau>0.4). For project 106-23, the opacity is still good enough in the beginning (tau<0.5), but became worse in the middle of the observation. Source WB89-705 observed (scans 20240214s134-139 and 20240215s1-6). After 1:00 (LT), changed to the EMIR backup programs (project 143-23, target region1).

Today, we have beautiful sunset

Feb. 15th, Thursday

03:00-09:00; Stefano: at the start tau>0.4 and variable. Jianhang started project 143-23 for lack of other observable sources. hi-frequency data are likely useless (but anything else observable). Observed 6 repetitions of region1, with pointing and focus before, in the middle, and end. Bad weather, observations suspended at UT=4:44 with tau=0.6-1 and variable. Observations restarted in test mode at UT=5:45 under variable conditions with test focus and pointing. Program 104-23 started at UT~6:17. Started obs of IRAS18566 (the largest elevation source, all raising now). Done 5.5 maps then suspended because of wind at UT=7:33.

09:00-15:00; Federico: Operation still suspended for wind. Snowing -in addition- since 15h (LT). A thunderbolt strike triggered low-voltage circuit alarms. No anemometer records after that. Possibly the bolt affected the power supply of the meteo station. It will be checked by technical staff when conditions improve.

15:00-21:00; Antoine: Condition is still not suitable for observation, till 21h (LT). Wind gusts. Snowing.

21:00-03:00; Jianhang: Operations still suspended for snow. Got an early bed at 1:00 (LT).

Feb. 16th, Friday

03:00-09:00; Stefano: Bad weather continues. Telescope parked.

09:00-15:00; Federico: 9:30h - 10h (LT) operation to restore the anemometer. Wind speed measurement restarted, but the direction indicator is still not working. At 10h, cleaned the cage of the taumeter from snow/ice. Restarted the taumeter measurement. In the meantime, telescope was rotated in from of the operation room to visually check the status of the ice on the telescope. 10:25 telescope rotated again and waiting for its relaxation after the anti-ice system. 11h: test on new wind direction instrument to replace the burn one. 12:40h: Wind direction monitor system operative again. 13h: Launched observation with EMIR, waiting for a better rellaxation of the telescope for Nika2. Starting project: 104-23, source IRAS23151. Observation script (last 1.6h) splitted in two to allow a new pointing/focus after 50min.

15:00-21:00; Antoine: Finished EMIR observation of project 104-23 IRAS23151. Switched to NIKA2 at ~16H00. DAQ restarted, lost KIDs (a1, a2, a3: 25, 3, 37). Very good pointing-focus-pointing. Did one repetition of PSZ2G083 of project 151-23 (40 mins). Then went to Uranus for pointing/focus + a calib_1scan (scan 74) and a skydip (scan 75). Very good tracking, max. wind speed < 5 m/s and without facing the telescope. The max. wind speed started to rise to ~8-9 m/s when went to NGC7538 for a pointing (scan 77) and another calib_1scan (scan 78; cannot be processed by PIIC-QL). See the plots below:

After that, a different target was tried. Moving to 0355+508 (track, scan 79). According to Grafana -> BluePill Forwarder, a problem appeared with telescope tracking. The pointing scan on 0335+508 (scan 80) cannot be processed. See the screenshot below:

Managed to have good pointing and focus after a while and did one repetition of source WB89-529 for project 106-23. Then at 19h30 operations were stopped because of wind.

21:00-03:00; Jianhang: Started a beam map (scan 102, option h: speed 39 arcsec/s) at 21:00 (LT) and the skydip (scan 103) right after the beam map. After the skydip, moved to 0716+714 and tried the focusing, but failed with too high tracking deviations. At 22:30 (LT) suspended the operation due to strong wind. Operation resumed at 00:15 (LT). Wind speed stays below 8 km/s, tau_225 < 0.2, it is fantastic observing condition! Thanks to the stable weather condition, I managed to execute non-stop two whole repetitions (160 min) of project 150-23 on target id307. The weather condition and tracking were super stable during the whole observation.

The sunset at IRAM30m is always amazing!

Feb. 17th, Saturday

03:00-09:00; Stefano: continuing on project 150-23 for half repetition, then pointing (and then pointing again because the previous one didn't show up for a long time). then moved to 153-23. pointing, focus (at UT=3:46, previous one was at about UT=23) and pointing on 1226+023, 2 repetitions on AR2623, then a pointing on 1354+195, then 3 repetitions of AR2747, followed by pointing on 1308+326. General comment: the data reduction is slow, has a delay of a couple of exposures, which reduces the observation efficiency when doing pointing and focus (need to wait the reduction of the backlog, which includes 1-2 observations and the pointing/focus itself, before setting pointing or focus value and run next target).

09:00-15:00; Federico: Pointing and focus on 1308+326, source WB89-040. 8:45-8:55h One of the five focus scan failed. Tried again with the same source. Second attempt was worst, 4/5 scan of the focus failed for wind! 9:20h Moved to another source: 1807+698. Again, 4/5 scan failed. Telescope stopped at 09:30 (LT). Anemometer at the meteo station was not giving consisting result with the manual anemometer at the telescope (at least in the regime with a wind direction from SSE-SSW, a factor ~2 is observed between the two measurements). Due to high wind speed, the telescope was moved to a safe position waiting for better condition (9:30h).

15:00-21:00; Antonie: Started observing at 16h45 UTC, wind ok. Finished observing source WB89-529 for project 106-23, excellent conditions. Switched to project 150-23, but wind increased again. Couldn't get pointing, too much tracking deviation. Operations stopped because of wind at 18h50 UTC.

21:00-03:00; Jianhang: Operation started at 21:30 (LT), the wind speed is much lower (<6m/s) and stable. Did a first pointing and focus with 0316+413, and then changed to Uranus for calib_lscan. At 22:05 (LT), switch to project 150-23, started with the pointing again with 0716+714 and finished one repetition (80min) on source id307. At 00:47 (LT), re-pointing again with 0716+714. The beam shape is still quite good (17.19x18.31), so started another repetition without re-focusing. At 01:30 (LT), the wind speed up and triggered the alarm, we waited another four minutes to finish the on-going scan (scan 2) and then suspended the operation and the rest of scans in the queue. For this repetition, only 3/8 scans were finished and likely the last scan was highly affected by the wind. Checked after telescope stop: as much as 7% of records with high tracking deviations on the most recent id307 scans, according to PIIC-QL.

What a clear and sunny day! If there is no wind...

Feb. 18th, Sunday

03:00-09:00; Stefano: wind continues, no observations.

09:00-15:00; Federico: 8:40h: telescope still parked for wind. Operation restarted at 14:45h (LT). First pointing and focus on Uranus. The telescope was stopped (stow position) all the morning in front of the sun, we will attempt a second focus on another source. Kids lost: 26/3/36. Then pointing on source 2037+511, near a secondary calibrator and possible targets for observations. First calib_1scan on NGC7027, a second one on MWC349. Done a second focus on 20378+511, still not so good. Moved to another source for a new attempt: 2200+420.

15:00-21:00; Antonie/Federico: Started observation of WB89-040, project 106. 2/3 Nrounds completed. then moved to 2037+511 for pointing & focus. Focus was not so good likely because of the residual beam distortion linked to the telescope warm-up during the parked time. Curiously, the ambient temperature suddenly rose around 17h (LT). Switched to nikaw-23 account for further refinements on source 0716+714 and then on 0355+508 at a higher elevation, as long as the telescope was relaxing a bit more and a reasonable beam shape was recovered. After that, started observation of WB89-572, project 106-23. Done half of a repetition (PA = 0 and 30 deg). Moved to Uranus for a focus after the sunset. Good focus and FWHM values; done a beam map (scan 82) on Uranus.

21:00-03:00; Jianhang: Started the skydip (scan 83) right after the beam map and then got the pointing and focusing with Uranus before moving to the science projects. At 21:10 (LT), started project 150-23 with a pointing on 0836+710, then completed two repetitions on source id321 with great weather conditions. The pointing and focus were stable during the scans. At 02:24 (LT), change to project 153-23, started with the pointing and focus with 1226+023, then followed by two repetitions on AR2623.

Then, here comes our daily pictures of the sunset and telescope. Today, we did not have a picture of the telescope, but we have a movie!

Feb. 19th, Monday

03:00-09:00; Stefano: continuing with 1 repetition on AR2623, pointing on 1226+023, two more repetitions on AR2623. Pointing and focus on 1226+023 (focus has not changed; also tau is constant since 24h!). Moved to project 150-23, pointing on 1044+719, and got 1.5 repetitions on id386 and pointing again on 1044+719. Switched to project 106-23, observation of WB889-40 finished (1 remaining round).

09:00-15:00; Federico: