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Daily Reports (2026/10/20-27, NIKA2 run 81, Cryo run 93)

Observers on-site: Philippe André, Samuel Crowe, Jean-François Lestrade, Kaiyi Du

AoD: Miren + Molly

Operators: Sergio, Mario, Pedro

Important

Focus offsets shall be measured on Ar1
Pointing offsets shall be measured on Ar2

Pool-Account usage: Accounting of observing times

Book-keeping of important scans

We ask you to please keep track of focus sequences (as much as possible) and beam maps (always). Thanks.

Focus sequences

Please fill the Table with the Ar1,2,3 focus values as follows.

Beam maps (polar)

Asteroids and satellites for IP

This experiment is designed to identify suitable sources for IP calibration. The table summarises the observations of some candidates (asteroids and satellites), together with Uranus and Neptune, for comparison. Each scan is a calib_1scan.

October 20th, 2026, Tuesday

All observers arrive at the telescope.

16h20 - 19 LT, Kaiyi & Miren:

19 - 1 LT, Jean-François: Now opacity is around 0.35 and stable with p2p atmo fluctuations less than +/- 2 Jy/beam but 3 spikes on the taumeter during the session although sky looks fairly clear. Move to NIKA2 and project 093-26 and did 9 targets (cal_1scan). Then Observe secondary calibrator MWC349 (20261020s83) and a skydip (20261020s84). Then Miren switch to polarimetry with HWP for project 084-25: source G094.6028 with calibration scan on 3C454 before and after, we add a calibration scan on Uranus that is now above 40deg.

Focus did not change significantly during the session (1.04-1.13). Pointing offsets are large (15") but consistent thru the run.

October 21st, 2026, Wednesday

1 - 7 LT, Philippe: Opacity (tau225) fluctuating between ~0.4 and ~0.3. Observed 1 repetition on G094.6028 and 1 repetition on G100.38 for project 084-25. Did a calibration on Uranus (calib_1scan: 20261021s33) in polarized mode. Took 1 full repetition plus 2 of 3 scans of observe_G111a for 031-26 (stopped after 2 scans as elevation was getting quite low for polarimetry). Switched to TP (47Hz) at 6:45 LT. Did another calibration on Uranus (calib_1scan: 20261021s45) in total power (47Hz) and a skydip (20261021s46).

7 - 13 LT, Samuel: Opacity (tau225) started around 0.3 but steadily dropped throughout the morning to around 0.2. Started with project 082-26 observing NGC4449. Took 4 full repetitions of 2 scans each on NGC4449, then switched to observing IC0342 for project 083-26 because the opacity was so low. Finished one full repetition of 5 scans on IC0342. Project 083-26 is now completed. Took one scan of n2edf (half a repetition) for project 092-26, before cancelling the second scan of the repetition because the opacity went above 0.3 and began fluctuating. Switched back to project 082-26 to observe NGC4449 but it was too high so we cancelled. There is no other high priority option at 47 Hz TP (and this opacity) so we switched to 23 Hz TP to observe 093-26. We started data acquisition at 13:02 local time with lost kids, array 1/2/3 = 18, 9, 24.

13 - 19 LT, Kaiyi: opacity (tau225) started with ~0.35. Started with project 093-26. We switched from 23 Hz TP to 47Hz TP at 14:48 with lost kids, Ar1/2/3 = 18,9,26. We switched to project 082-26 and completed 4 repetitions (1hr) on NGC4449. Opacity became very good, tau=0.25~0.15, therefore we changed to project 092-26, and complete one repetition. We did calib_1scan on NGC7027 (20261021s158), MWC349 (20261021s159) & CRL2688 (20261021s160). Then we switched back to project 092-26 and run one new repetition.

19 - 1 LT, Jean-François: tau225 between 0.15 and 0.1 all along the run. Project 092-26 TP 47Hz : 5 repetitions completed. At some point resonances were somewhat spread out, so Miren retuned. Move to polar mode. One Cal_1scan on Neptune (20261021s194) for calibration IP. Then project 084-25 : 1 repetition on target G094.6028 with IP cal on quasar 4C454 before and after. On cal_1scan on Neptune for calibration IP (20261021s194).

October 22nd, 2026, Thursday

1 - 7 LT, Philippe: Very good (clear and stable) sky conditions, with opacity (tau225) ~0.15 throughout the shift. Observed B-FUN (015-17) polarimetry project: 2 repetitions of observe_b213_polar before transit, 1 repetition of observe_ngc2024n_polar near transit, and 2 repetitions of observe_b213_polar after transit. Did a calibration on Uranus (calib_1scan: 20261021s218) in polarized mode.

7 - 13 LT, Samuel: Clear and stable sky conditions continued from the night; opacity (tau225) ~0.15. Did a fifth repetition of observe_b213_polar and a calibration on Uranus (calib_1scan: 20261022s39) in polarized mode. Did a final calibration scan on Uranus (calib_1scan:20261022s45) in polarized mode before switching to project 043-26. Completed one full execution of observe_S284-3.pako (1 hour). We then switched to TP 47 Hz to take observations of NGC4449 for project 082-26.

13 - 19 LT, Kaiyi: Good sky conditions (tau225~0.13). We did two repetitions of project 092-26. Switched from 47Hz TP to Pol at 15:50. We did one repetition on G24.78 of project 049-26.

19 - 1 LT, Jean-François: excellent sky tau=0.1-0.13 throughout the shift. NIKA-Pol. Continue project : 1 repetition 049-26 : G24.78 and 3C454 for IP calib. Did 1 primary calibrator Neptune Cal_1scn (20261022s153). Move to project 084-25 : 2 repetitions G094.6028 and 3C454 for IP calib.

October 23rd, 2026, Friday

1 - 7 LT, Philippe: Sky conditions quickly degrading at the beginning of the shift with tau225 increasing from ~0.15 to ~0.35 with large fluctuations around 0.3 in the middle of the shift. Partly cloudy to cloudy. Stability was good at the beginning (+/-2 Jy/beam @ 2mm) but got worse (+/-5 Jy to +/- 10 Jy/beam depending on the region of the sky) in the middle of the shift before improving again. Continued nevertheless with polarimetry. Observed 1 repetition of observe_ngc1333n_polar for B-FUN (015-17), 1 repetition on G100.38 for 084-25, 1 repetition observe_G111b for 031-26, and finally 1 repetition of observe_ngc2024n_polar for B-FUN. Did two calibrations on Uranus (primary calibrator): 20261022s189 and 20261023s26.

7 - 13 LT, Samuel: Sky conditions improved since the night but still a bit unstable. tau225 generally decreasing down to about 0.15 with sporadic jumps up to 0.25. Occasional jumps in the p2p noise as well. Finished the repetition on ngc2024n with a break before the third scan to recalibrate the KIDS. Completed a calibration on Uranus (20261023s54) and 1 more repetition of observe_ngc2024n_polar for B-FUN (project 015-17). Finished with a calibration on Uranus (20261023s63) before switching to TP 23 Hz to observe 1 repetition (1 hour) of s284-1 for project 043-26. Switched to TP 47Hz to observe NGC4449 for project 082-26. Finished one leftover scan from yesterday (because of tracking warnings) before completing 4 full repetitions (1 hour). Started 4 more repetitions on NGC4449.

13 - 19 LT, Kaiyi: Started with good sky condition (tau ~ 0.15), but tau225 rised up at ~15:00 but still below 0.4. We did half repetition of 092-26 (cancelled the second half repetition because it was out of tune). Switched from TP 47Hz to Pol at 15:30 and did one repetition on S08 of project 156-25. We did @calib_1scan on NGC7027 (20261023s141) and MWC349 (20261023s144).

19 - 1 LT, Jean-François: Back to excellent sky at start of run tau ~0.1. NIKA-Pol. Project 026-26 : target G34.43+0.24 with its companion pol calibrator 3C454 (2 repetitions). Project 156-25 : target S08 with its companion pol calibrator 3C454 (3 repetitions). Performed a skydip (20261023s192).

October 24th, 2026, Saturday

1 - 7 LT, Philippe: Excellent sky conditions: tau225 ~ 0.1-0.15, stability better than +/- 1 Jy/beam p2p @ 2mm. Observed B-FUN (015-17): 2 repetitions of observe_b213se_polar before transit of Taurus-B213 + 1 repetition of observe_ngc2024n_polar during Taurus transit + 2 repetitions of observe_b213se_polar after transit. Performed calibration (in polarimetry mode) on Uranus (calib_1scan 20261023s222) + 1 beammap1scan95sub_polar_hwp3hz_29min (20261024s15).

7 - 13 LT, Samuel: Continuing excellent sky conditions (tau225 ~ 0.15) from the night with good stability (around +-1 Jy/beam). Tau steadily rose to 0.2 throughout the morning. Observed 1 repetition of observe_b213se_polar with calib_1scans before (20261024s35), in the middle (20261024s40), and after (20261024s45). KIDS were moving slightly in and out of tune during the last repetition. Switched to project 043-26 to observe S284-1 for 1 repetition (1 hour) before switching to project 100-26 to observe target W0831 for 1 repetition (1 hour). Switched to project 093-26 to observe some filler galaxies.

13 - 19 LT, Kaiyi: Continued on 093-26 and observed few filler galaxies. Switch from TP 23Hz to TP 47Hz with lost kids Ar1/2/3= 18/7/26 at 13:47. We did the final 2 scans of project 092-26 N2EDF. Switched to Pol at 15:47 LT.

19 - 1 LT, Jean-François: Reasonable weather for NIKA2 from tau=0.2 at beginning to 0.4 at end, stable p2p < +/- 5 Jy at 1mm. Project 046-26 : CloudG with polar calibrator BL Lac (2 repetitions). When tau was about 0.4, first test with NIKA2-Pol on asteroid VESTA (~0.6Jy) that was cleanly detected, and was bracketed with Neptune observations. Tentative observation of JUNO but low in elevation (15deg). Tentative observation of TITAN located 50" from Saturn (1200 Jy at 1mm) : PIIC fails to reduce the map (possibly, high PSF wing saturates the map). Titan will be about 100" away from Saturn in 2 or 3 days.

October 25th, 2026, Sunday

1 - 7 LT, Philippe: Fair weather but fluctuating opacity tau225 between ~0.3 and ~0.45. Observed 1 repetition of S08 for Project 156-25 with NIKA2-Pol (calibrated on Neptune). Then, experienced a jump in tau225 up to ~0.5. Took a skydip (20262510s1) in nikas-26 at about midnight (UTC) but the corresponding imbfits files were never written to disk, and the same problem affected all subsequent (pointing) scans. Miren tried to restart the NIKA2 acquisition (+ HWP), but this did not solve the problem. After losing about 1.5 hr, we decided to switch to EMIR. Observed EMIR E090 Project 025-26 (with tempColdLoad = 34.1 K); did 3x5=15 repetitions of the emirFrequSwitch sequence on MHS_in_B5.

SB: apparently all scans taken after midnight have no imbf.

7 - 13 LT, Samuel: Continued observations for project 025-26, another 5 repetitions on source MHS_in_B5. Then switched to EMIR E090 project 058-26 (with tempColdLoad = 33.3 K) for 1 repetition on source G189 115 363 and 3 repetitions on source G226 -60 -60 (around 1 hour). Took off-position measurements 20261025s86 and 20261025s88. Then switched to EMIR E090 project D01-26 (tempColdLoad = 40.0 K) for 2 repetitions of each of the 2 observing scripts, about 1 hour in total. Encountered high water vapor levels and low SNR in pointing observations so we cancelled our next observations. Decided to wait a bit for conditions to improve.

13 - 19 LT, Kaiyi: Continued with EMIR. Unstable sky conditions in the afternoon. Test to verify that NIKA2 imbfits are created as expected; it is working well. J. Tedros has identified and recreated the missing imbfits files from run93.

19 - 1 LT, Jean-François: Tau from 0.4 to 0.3. Atmo fluctuations p2p < +/- 7 Jy/beam at 1mm. NIKA2 Total power. Projects 093-26 3 PLANCK sources done. Project 098-26 CLJ153 (2 repetitions). Primary calibrator Neptune and secondary calibrator CLR618.

October 26th, 2026, Monday

1 - 5 LT, Philippe: Clear sky, tau225 fluctuating between ~0,2 and ~ 0.3, good stability (better than +/-2 Jy/beam p2p @ 2mm). Switched to polarimetry. Observed 2 repetitions of observe_b213se2_polar and 1 repetition of observe_ngc1333n_polar for B-FUN (015-17). Performed calibration Uranus (calib_1scan 20261026s4) in polar mode, as well as a test on Ceres (calib_1scan 20261026s27) which is a potential IP calibrator.

7 - 11 LT, Samuel: Conditions steadily improving since last evening, with tau225 oscillating around 0.2 and dropping as low as 0.12. Continued observations of @~/015-17/observe_b213se2_polar for one more repetition (roughly one hour). Did a @calib_1scan, 20261026s34, before the repetition, and one after, 20261026s40, as well as a skydip, 20261026s39, in nikas-26. Then we switched to TP 23 Hz to observe S284-4 for one repetition for project 043-26. An error came up during the last scan because a technician was remotely tampering with the software, so we are not sure if the last 15 minute scan produced a clean imb.fits file or not. Telescope painters were delayed so we completed one repetition (~1 hour) for project 100-26 on source W0831+0140. Switched to project 093-26 to complete @calib-1scans for 3 objects.

11 - 17 LT: Paint repair intervention. No observations.

17 - 21 LT, Kaiyi: Good sky conditions with tau225GHz < 0.3. Started with Pol with lost kid in Ar1/2/3=15/11/26. We did @calib_1scan on CRL2688 (20261026s92) and MWC349 (20261026s95). We did final half repetition on G094 and 1.5 repetition on G100 of project 084-25.

21 - 1 LT, Jean-François: Good sky conditions with tau225GHz < 0.3. NIKA-Pol. Finish up 084-25. Project 156-25 : target S08 (3 repetitions) with its companion IP calibrator 3C454 before and after. Nika2-Pol tests on Pallas and Titan.

October 27th, 2026, Tuesday

1 - 5 LT, Philippe: Clear sky with tau225 between ~0.3 and ~ 0.4, but more unstable conditions and wind getting stronger, leading to tracking deviations. Some scans (e.g., focus sequence 20261027s6-s10 on Neptune) could not be reduced by PIIC. Started with NIKA2-Pol and performed tests on Titan (calib_1scans 20261026s167 and 20261027s2). Took a polarized skydip (20261027s20). Tried to observe project 031-26 but focus was too unstable for polarimetry --> switch to TP (23Hz). Observed 1 repetition of observe_CLJ153 for 098-26 and 1 repetition of observe_W0831 for 100-26.

5 - 9 LT, Samuel: Observed 0.5 rep. on S284-4 (project 043-26). Switching to project 093-26: 27 sources observed. Skydip (20261027s49). Paint repair intervention starting at 9 LT.

DailyReportsNika2Pool201026 (last edited 2026-10-27 19:39:02 by NikaBolometer)