Daily Reports
Angel, Maite, Philippe and Ste B. arrived at the telescope. Also Jean, Carlos, and many others are here.
Nov 19th, Tuesday
18:00 - 21:00; Maite & Angel: starting the pool after VLBI session. Weather is quite cloudy, so we start with EMIR.
- project 033-24: cal gives tau ~ 0.45, pwv ~ 10mm.
- move to project test to do pointing and focus. Pointing really bad, after some waiting the antenna is parked @18:30 due to cloudy and humid weather
- staring again @ 20:00. Moving to project 017-20. Good tau (< 0.4) and pvw (~2mm). Good pointing and focus. 4 repetitions.
21:00-03:00 Stefano + Maite, Jean. We take over, complete the EMIR scans started in the previous shift and we the switch to NIKA2 
Tonight's operations include:
- Uranus calib_1scan (20241119s152 and 153); MWC349, CR2688, NGC7027 calib_1scan (20241119s158, 159, 160); skydip (20241119s162); Uranus calib_1scan (20241119s164)
- 089-24 A520, Az scans (because tau is a bit variable), 2 repetitions
- the sky is becoming too good to continue with NIKA2: the priority tonight with this tau~0.25 is measuring the telescope efficiencies with EMIR. Therefore I postpone the clusters observations of 087-24 and fill the gap with Uranus once again (calib_1scan 20241120s9, 10, 11)
- the sky collaborates with NIKA2 and now is again above tau~0.3. We continue with NIKA2 science
- 087-24 id303 started one rep, that will continue in the next shift
Our nice white telescope in the moonshine:
Nov 20th, Wednesday
03:00-09:00 Philippe. Clear sky, tau ~0.3 at start decreasing to below 0.2. In the end, the telescope efficiencies could not be measured with EMIR since Uranus would need to be up during ~ 3 hr. So I continued with NIKA2 087-24 id303 and completed two repetitions of observe_id303. Project 087-24 is essentially done now. <AB>: ~95% of allocated time observed. Now on-hold in pools db. I then switched to NIKA2 Project 074-24 and observed 4 repeats of obs_n4449, i.e., ~ 1hr integration time on the galaxy NGC 4449. Calibrations: calib_scan on Mars, scans 20241120s34, and s35; skydip, scan 20241120s35.
09:00-15:00 Angel. Very good conditions; mild wind, tau_225GHz ~ 0.18 at the beginning. DAQ restarted, total power: 31/1040, 3/578, 34/1054. Summary:
- Taking over after last calibrations; pointing model changed successfully, in coordination with Telescope group (MC). Thanks Manuel! Pointing corrections are now consistent with (0,0). First valid scan with the new parameters: 20241120s57. Resuming science observations at 09:20 (LT).
- Switched to project 149-23. One rep. (~1h) on cluster MS1054. Quite stable atmosphere over this time slot.
- Changed to project 091-23. 2 reps. (52 min each) on PSZ2G143. Opacity increasing up to ~0.3-0.4 after the last scan onwards.
- Switching to nikas-24; MWC349, NGC7027, CRL2688, calib_1scan (20241120s105, 106, 107); skydip (20241120s108).
- Opacity keeps about 0.35-0.4, and OHB contractor (Aleksej) asked for the possibility (agreed with IR) to do an ACU software update related to the control of the Wobbler. The alternative was to stop the telescope tomorrow morning. Looking at the current atmosphere conditions and according to the forecast, it is preferable to do that right today. Telescope stopped at 14:25.
15:00-21:00 Maite. From 15:00 to 18:00 Telescope parked while doing remote wobbler tests. Restarting @18:00 with NIKA2. Opacity ~0.34 at 150 GHz.
- Observing project 091-24, after doing pointing and focus on 1641+399 on nikas-24. Doing pointing on nearby calibrator (1732+389), observing PSZ2G066 (1 rep.), pointing again on 1732+389
- Doing calibrations on MWC349, NGC7027, and CRL2688 until 20:00, when we have to handle the telescope for a VLBI project.
21:00-03:00 Stefano. VLBI session with Pablo T from 20:00 to 2:00 (local time). I take over at 2 a.m. with NIKA2 in total power and I perform the ritual calibrations on Uranus: calib_1scan (20241121s30) and beammap (99 subscans, 20241121s31).
Nov 21th, Thursday
03:00-09:00 Philippe. Clear sky, tau ~0.2-0.3. After the end of the beammap on Uranus, I did a skydip (20241121s32) and then switched to Project 089-24. I did 1 repetition of @observe_A0520, completing the observations of this source. Then I took 1 calib_1scan on Uranus (20241121s42) and switched to Project 091-24. I did 1 repetition of @observe_PSZ2G143, completing the observations of PSZ2G143. I then continued with Project 074-24, doing 5 repetitions of @ obs_n4449 (10 scans in total) and completing the observations of NGC 4449. After 1 calib_1scan on Mars (20241121s70), I continued with Project 149-23 and launched 1 repetition of @observe_MS1054 (2 rounds of 4 maps = 8 maps of MS1054).
09:00-15:00 Angel. Some good weather clouds, stable atmosphere. Opacity about 0.25 at the beginning. Summary:
- Taking over by continuing on project 149-23 (cluster MS1054).