Daily Reports
Observers on-site: Tuan-Anh Duong, Quang Nguyen Luong, Federico de Luca, Antoine Zakardjian, Ste B., and Stergios Amarantidis (AoD).
Operators: Enrique (day) and Pedro (night)
Wish from Nicola Ponthieu in Grenoble: if we take any other polarimetry beammaps, please switch on the external calibrator too.
Nov 26th, Tuesday
15:30-21:00 (Stergios): The weather is still not good for NIKA so we start with EMIR observations. Starting with project 028-24 but we stopped at 16:08 UTC due to high instabilities and possible rain to come. The science source L694 seem to have no bright pointing sources around a ~40 deg radius, however checking at the SMA calibrator catalogue we get the source 1924+156 that is strong enough to be detected and its at ~5deg distance from our target. High wind and opacity continued until the end of the shift. [No observations]
21:00-03:00 (Stefano): I take over; the weather is still bad and windy (although within the 18 m/s limit). While waiting, enjoy a Summary of the past weeks. Evolution of this shift:
- At 22:30 UT we give it a try with EMIR, because tau225~0.7, but with no success. We stop again after 20 minutes.
- we try again at 23:50 UT (tau225~0.55), with the same result as earlier. Still very variable and windy (~14 m/s max).
- again at 1 a.m. UT. Finally success!!! The sky has stabilized and tau is good ~ 0.5-0.35 (except taumeter spikes). I start observing 017-24, three repetitions on B5_HSEdge (their only target).
Nov 27th, Wednesday
03:00-9:00 (Tuan-Anh & Quang): Weather isn't good for NIKA, tau255 drops to 2.6 but doesn't stay for long time. So, we switch to project 009-24 after several scans for project 017-24.
09:00-15:00 (Federico): Starting the shift with Nika! problems with DAQ, corrupted file generation. We restarted it twice, and finally works. Bad kids 32,5,34 (array 1,2,3 respectively), run 81. Doing pointing and focus on Mars, a calib_1scan (scan 20241127s94). Possible bug (???, never noticed before): subscan duration on Antenna data stream monitor continue to count seconds even after the end of the (sub-)scans. Good weather, tau~0.25 and decreasing, so launched 2 reps to finish target PSZ2G284 of project 091-24, even if the source would exceed the elevation requirement during the observation (i.e would go below 40deg, with avg tau_225 ~0.22) to avoid empty slots later. Condition become more unstable from the 3rd otf map of the 2nd repetition (p2p +-10 Jy/b, tau_225 goes from 0.21 to 0.30). Check quality of data! Moved to Proj 090-24. Problem in loading pointing script. We moved to nikas-24 for some test (~ at 12 local time). Operator had to reboot one of the system. Focus done 3h ago, repeated on source 1226+023. Homology problems during a skydip (scan s120), interrupted by operator, postponed, done poitning on 1418+546 and done 1.5 Reps on target PSZ2G107 (proj 090-24). In particular, done one full observation plus the missing rotations not done on 22/11/24, at 45 and 135. Tau_225 ~0.25 for all the observation and el >45deg. However, peak 2 peak variations during scientific scans are ~10-15 Jy/b, but good during previous (+-5 Jy/b) and subsequent (again, +-5 Jy/b) pointings. Moved to Nikas-24 account and done calibration session. Impossible to complete Skydip due to homology problem when the telescope moves above 50deg in elevation (tried 3 times, all ended with this error). Pointing and focus on NGC7027, then passed to Antoine.
15:00-21:00 (Antoine): Done @calib_1scan on NGC7027 (scan s146), MWC349 (s147), CRL2688 (s148). Good pointing and focus on 2251+158. Launched first repetition of source A2390 for project 089-24. Lost connection to NIKA crate 2 during scan 159 (3/6 scan of script) at 15h20 UTC. Operator had to reset connection. Tuning of the kids, bad kids 30 - 3 - 34. Followed by problem with imbfits not writing: had to kill and relaunched. Back to normal at 16h05 UTC. Otherwise very stable at;osphere and focus. Finished 1st repetition of A2390. Then pointing and focus good (FWHM 17 * 18.5). Launched second repetition of A2390. Sun set after 3/6 scan of repetition. Did focus + pointing. Excellent focus. Finished 2nd repetition at 18h48 UTC. Switching to polarimetry. Tuan-Anh Duong and Quang Nguyen Luong take over.
21:00-03:00 (Tuan-Anh + Quang + Stefano). Today a very crowded shift. The 015-17 team takes over, taking advantage of the wonderful sky (tau~0.2, very stable) for a loooong night of NIKA2-Pol. Stefano assists. Operations of this first half of the night:
- NIKA2-Pol is active around 19 UT
- prepataion on Uranus, including calib_1scan
- 015-17 two repetitions of NGC1333
- calibrations on Uranus (incl. beammap, 95 subscans, 20241127s217). we checked t22 but we did not find the beammap scripts that split it in two chunks. We did not find the instruction to activate the external calibrator, either. Therefore we took a standard 99-subscans beammap. Sorry.
- 015-17 two repetitions of OMC2
- always Uranus for instrumental polarization monitoring after each repetition
- 015-17 three repetitions of NGC 2024
Nov 28th, Thursday
03:00-08:20 (Quang + Tuan-Anh [+ Stefano until 4 a.m.]) continuing the NIKA-Pol night:
- 015-17 completing the third repetitions of NGC2024 started earlier
- 015-17 two repetitions of NGC 2264
- in the last part of the night, the monitoring the instrumental polarization was performed on Mars.
08:20-15:00 (Federico): Started at 8:20 Nika2 observations in total power. Bad Kids 30/3/35 (Ar1/2/3), run 81. Pointing and focus on Mars, then calib 1 (s59) and observation of Proj. 149-23, target MS1054. Done 1.5 Repetitions. After that, test on skydip script to see if the homology problem persist. It does, and appears when the telescope has to cover a larger track (above 45-50deg in el). Resumed scientific observations with project 090-24, target PSZ2G107. 1 Rep done (8th rep on this source, and sent another observation. However, a strange behavior in the ql appear during scan 20241128s97 for the Array 2 detector map, (we have a cut near the top right corner of the figure), and a spike in the light curve (see attached figure). A similar spike appear also in the previous repetition, during the same scan orientation (s93). Moreover, the weather is much more unstable now (p2p >10 Jy/b!). Check if rep 9th scans can be useful. Continued observation of PSZ2G107. Done the last two missing repetitions, source completed.
15:00-21:00 (Antoine): Started at ~14h20 UTC. Poiting + focus on 1633+382. calib_1scan on CRL2688, MWC349, NGC7027. Then moved to project 089-24, quick pointing on 2136+141 and launched 3rd repetition of A2390. After 5 minutes, alarm stuck scan 125. Science scans 125 and 126 are not usable. Quick fix by operator and relaunched 3rd repetition repetition, only lost 10 minutes. Finished 3rd repetition. Pointing and focus ok. Launched and finished repetition 4. Now sun has set and telescope has relaxed. Excellent focus and atmospheric stability, although tau ~0.28 - 0.3. Switching to project 091-24 and source PSZ2G113, launched 6/11 repetition. Finished 6/11 repetition. Launched 7/11 repetition.
21:00-03:00 (Stefano): I take over at 21:00 LT. Night evolution:
- The taumeter tau(225) is 0.34 at 21:00 LT. I let the last scan of PSZ2G113 (091-24) end. The PIIC monitor shows a very stable atmosphere, very low noise in the FOV plot and tau(LOS0=0.264). The SZ signature of the cluster can be seen in the single scans. Hence I decide to keep observing this source, after a pointing/focus check.
- 091-24 three repetitions of PSZ2G113
- 011-24 four maps of Orion-B
Black line: current tau predictions. Red line: Berta et al. (2003)
Nov 29th, Friday
03:00-09:00 (Quang & Tuan-Anh): Tau is pretty stable around 0.35-0.4. continue make orionb-1, orionb-2, orionb-3, orionb-5 tau peaks to 1 but peak to peak is +- 2Jy/beam
Nov 30th, Saturday
Dec 1st, Sunday
Dec 2nd, Monday