What's New at BIMA?

This document describes changes and developments in the last 6 months in the BIMA web pages and at the Hat Creek site. For older changes, see our What's Old page. You can also find out what's new with Miriad and Checker.

June 05, 2000

New Call for Proposals for Fall/Winter 2000 observing.

May 03, 2000

BIMA memo 80: Precision Radiometry and the APHID 22 GHz Water Line Monitor, A. I. Harris, May 3, 2000

Apr 24, 2000

BIMA web server IP address changed from 129.2.162.182 to 129.2.14.70

Feb 09, 2000

Bima usage statistics graph from statistics compiled by Helene Dickel.

July 09, 1999

JStatus version 3.0.0 is now released. If you already have the JAR file, simply download the new one. Otherwise follow the link above for further instructions.

June 30, 1999

BIMA memorandum #74 Measurements of a scale-model ortho-mode transducer by Douglas Bock

June 11, 1999

The deadline for the Call for Proposals has been extended to June 22. The original deadline was June 8 (okay I was a little slow to post it here).

May 25, 1999

A small script was written that takes antenna positions (from either the output of the common block at HatCreek, or the Fitted Antenna Positions tables) and create a visual impression, to scale, of the array configuration and 6.2m dishes.

April 28, 1999

Dave Mehringer of the U of Illinois has debuted DaRT (Data Retrieval Tool), a Java application used for retrieving archived telescope data. Currently, DaRT supports retrieval of data from the BIMA Data Archive, although it can be easily modified to support data retrieval from other archives. Although DaRT is a Java application, you do not need to install the Java Development Kit (JDK) on your system to run it. DaRT comes bundled with the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and uses this for interpreting the byte-code written by the Java compiler.

For information on installation and usage, visit the DaRT Home Page.

April 26, 1999

New Call for Proposals.

Tuesday June 8, 1999 (11:59 pm CST) is the deadline for BIMA proposals requesting use of the 10-element interferometer in B, C, and D arrays at 3 mm and 1 mm during FALL99.

Proposals requesting A array may be submitted beginning July 1, 1999 up until September 8, 1999 (11:59 pm CST). If your project requires A array along with one of the other configurations, you need to submit a request for B, C, or D by the first deadline and a request for A by the second deadline.

Polarization projects should indicate under Special Requirements which polarization plates they require (1/4 wave, 1/2 wave, or 1 mm). Check the appropriate box.

H array has been eliminated. The new C array (with improved uv coverage and shadowing) may suffice in many cases. If not, you must explicitly request and justify the need for additional configurations.

You may submit requests for up to 5 tracks per configuration. The referees will be instructed to take into consideration the amount of time you request, and to grade accordingly. Requests for more than 5 tracks per configuration must be submitted as Key proposals. The policy on Key proposals is being reevaluated. Check back here for an announcement of any changes.

Changes to the receiver optics have improved the 1mm aperture efficiencies to approximately 0.55.

March 09, 1999

Maureen Barnato, Susie Jorgensen, and Ting Liu have written a document giving the rules for using RAL Vehicles (i.e. the Jeeps). Save heartache later, read the rules now!

March 03, 1999

The standard antenna configuration files available on the user page. They were formerly only in the obscure location of the JRms page. These files can be used with uvgen, but read the comments in each file about what value of baseunit to use!

January 27, 1999

The page of Phase RMS plots (see What's New 01/04/1999) is now a searchable archive. You enter the date that you are interested in to see the plot for that day. The default is the most recent plot (same as hitting the "Today" button). These plots are generally a better gauge of the atmosphere than the rmspath uv-variable.

January 15, 1999

The catalog of 1 mm spectral lines for XCORF now includes lines between 200 and 220 GHz. The MIRIAD manager at each site should copy the new file to $MIRCAT. To run XCORF in 1 mm mode:
xcorf -1mm infile=$MIRCAT/lovas.1mm

January 13, 1999

You can now search the BIMA web pages using the University of Maryland Ultraseek search engine. A search form is located at the bottom of each BIMA web page. Only pages hosted by bima.astro.umd.edu are allowed to be indexed. However, I will be implementing META keywords on all pages so that off-site documents can be located quickly. The addition of META keywords will also help in searches of on-site documents. By default, the search index is updated about every two weeks. I have implemented separate search forms for the WIP, CHECKER, and Observe Command File on-line manuals. Using these forms, you can limit your search to those manuals.

January 08, 1999

JStatus has undergone a major upgrade. Most of the changes are "under the hood", so users may not notice them. The client/server code is now robust to abnormal disconnects of either the server or the client. If a server disconnect occurs, Jstatus detects it and lets you know in a message window (pops-up for application, on the browser page for applets). Also, I've implemented versioning. Application users will now be notified if their version is out of date (and whether it is a minor change or major change). They will be told if they need to download the new jar file. Applet users always get the most recent version.

January 04, 1999

Phase RMS plots, useful for gauging the atmospheric stability for A-array observations. The plots self-update every 20 minutes (i.e. your browser should automatically reload the new page). The page is maintained by Lee Mundy.

December 10, 1998

BIMA Memo #71: "A New Correlator Architecture Eases Wiring Problem" by W. L. Urry is now available.

December 8, 1998

The RMS noise calculator, JRms now uses the new C and B array configurations. These are the configurations BIMA Memo #69. For D and A array, the now standard configurations are used. See the JRms page for the actual station locations.

December 2, 1998

Dick Plambeck has written a how-to guide for rapid frequency switching between 1 mm and 3mm. The method is designed for using 3 mm phase calibrators as part of the 1 mm phase calibration process.

December 1, 1998

The latest Call for Proposals is out!

November 30, 1998

Links describing the most recently reported weather and road conditions in Redding and vicinity are now available on the directions to Hat Creek page.

November 23, 1998

I've implemented a new User Tools page, separate from the User Info page. It contains a list and brief descriptions of commonly-used tools (java applets, MIRIAD, WIP, etc). I've also put table of direct links to these programs on the front page of the web site. A new navigation button, "U Tools," appears at the bottom of each page. The former "User" button is now "U Info."

November 11, 1998

JRms is the latest version of the BIMA sensitivity calculation applet. The new features include: the latest receiver temperatures, more array configurations, accurate determination of beam sizes at all declinations, more frequency coverage, and error messages. Not to mention the snazzier layout. Soon to be added: 1 mm and 1 cm capability. The original applet was written by Mike Regan. Marc Pound has taken over maintenance of this code.

November 09, 1998

A table listing the 15 brightest phase calibrators. Also availables are plots and lists of historical data for these sources. All these data will be updated daily.

Documentation for "X" observer utilities suite (Xtango, Xfixwatch, Xscribe, Xplore), written by Ted Yu, is now available.

October 30, 1998