Turno #1 as an ESO/ALMA Fellow

In January (2016) I returned to ALMA for my first "turno" (shift) as an ESO/ALMA fellow.  For the next three years, I will spend about 8 days every month at ALMA as part of my "duties" for the fellowship, but to me "duties" does not capture the experience.  Duty implies more obligation rather than opportunity. Opportunity to learn the intricacies of ALMA, opportunity to operate the world's largest astronomical project, opportunity to work with people from all over the world, opportunity to experience life in the "driest place on earth".  These duties, or rather opportunities, are an important reason why I chose this job.  

ALMA Operations Support Facility.
Click here for larger, zoomable panoramic image.

Posts in this blog from 2012 January -- March, plus a recap here, documented my experience as a visiting scholar (term that we made up because I was possibly the first US grad student to weasel her way into the project) during the "Early Science" phase of ALMA operations.  To explain concisely, in 2012 ALMA was already on the path to become the largest radio telescope array, with 16 antennas (each with 12-m diameter) and counting.  In 2013, ALMA was formally inaugurated with 50 functioning antennas (now with 12-m and 7-m diameter antennas).  In 2014 the phase known as "Commissioning and Science Verification" transformed into "Extension and Optimization of Capabilities", and full operations include 66 antennas.  

I wrote in a previous post (and was happy to revisit what I acknowledged 3 years ago): 

"ALMA has been integral in the development of my own career."

At the time I hoped, but did not know, that I would have the opportunity to return here for work after finishing my PhD.  In the meantime, we (with my PhD advisor Héctor Arce at Yale, and collaborators) actively applied to use ALMA for our research, and I was successful in publishing data from observations performed in 2014.  We have more data to analyze, and more observations in the queue, and when data are delivered it's like opening up presents on Christmas morning.  In other words, in the meantime, I realized how scientifically beneficial ALMA can be.

Hence my fortune in returning to ALMA with regularity, which I intend to document in this blog.  Now I'm on the "operations" side of delivering fantastic data to the astronomy community.  Just as my own career has developed in the last few years since being at ALMA, ALMA has developed substantially as well.  A few changes, a few "appearances", and a "disappearance" of sorts.   To conclude this post, I'll document these with photos that I took during my January turno.

CHANGES

The tiny little building to the left (that you can't even really see) is the Calama airport I knew back in 2012-13. Now a two story airport, complete with jetways, restaurants, gift shops, and plenty more amenities towers next door.  From the mining town of Calama, we take a bus for about 1.5 hours to ALMA.

The control room (sala de control) has been switched around, so the antenna operators control the telescope from the far right corner, and workspaces are set up to the left of the entrance.

APPEARANCES

Big new project on the site: the residencia (hotel)!  This should include hotel rooms for employees and visitors, dining room, recreation facilities, and a swimming pool.  These already exist on the site (except for the swimming pool), but in the form of temporary modular buildings.

These guys seem to come and go over the years, but I think they have become much more friendly.  Here's one burro (donkey) greeting us at the door to the control building, and inspecting the hand of a co-worker.

DISAPPEARANCES

The camps where the antennas were being assembled by the European, Japanese, and North American teams are now nearly devoid of antennas, because nearly all (66 in total!) are at the "high site" and acting as reliable members of the array.  Here it appears that one lone antenna is being worked on by the Japanese (center).  The rest of the antennas are at 5000 meters elevation, whereas we work and operate the telescope array from 3000 meters.