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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. Bad 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:

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. Bad 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 calib_1scan (scan 74) and Skydip (scan 75). After that, went to NGC7538 for another calib_1scan (scan 78). However, problem during pointing (see screenshot). Another problem during pointing at source 0355+508 (cannot process, se screenshot). Managed to have good pointing and focus and did one repetition of source WB89-529 for porject 106-23. Then at 19h30 operations stopped because of wind...

21:00-03:00; Jianhang: Started the beammap (scan 102) at 21:00 (LT) and the skydip (scan 103) right after the beammap. After the skydip, moved to 0716+714 and tried the focusing, failed with too high tracking deviation. 22:30 (LT) suspended the observation due to strong wind.