Here are the minutes of our meeting the day before yesterday -- please just reply with or let me know any corrections -- thanks!:
Phoning in: Karun Thanjavur (CFHT/Victoria), Arnold Gaertner (NRC-INMS), Cordell Grant (Toronto SFL), Keith Vanderlinde (McGill) Apologies: Susana was in a hurricane, Elena was a victim of daylight savings time differences
First, an introduction of Karun Thanjavur: Karun will be starting as a postdoctoral fellow at Victoria working on ALTAIR and Pan-STARRS on Feb. 1 of this coming year. Karun is presently an astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, and prior to that (PhD in 2009) he was a grad student at Victoria working with John Willis and David Crampton on gravitational lens assisted spectroscopy. Welcome Karun!!!
Last week, Max and I were able to recover the payload in a New Hampshire forest near Mt. Cardigan. Max will be diagnosing why the ELT failed to transmit and, together with the rest of the Dartmouth group, preparing for the next flight, which will be a night flight to try to get a good observation of the light source in flight, as soon as possible.
We're in the process of determining the precise parameters of, and getting quotes for, the next version of the optical source. We would like several new things from this source: 1) much brighter light from each of the colors, so that it is easily viewable on our small portable telescopes, rather than being barely so, 2) if possible, to get rid of the fiber optics and just have each of the colors shine directly (and the same way) into the integrating sphere, because the present fiber couplings are a bit flaky and the power into the sphere tends to vary a lot when the fibers get bumped, and there is no way to completely avoid bumping our payload (for example, it needs to land via parachute, etc), 3) if possible, to have more colors, as well as other types of sources (LEDs, a small gas discharge line lamp, a little incandescent source or two, things further into the near IR) in addition. We're determining the stability parameters that we'll need to maintain (in order to help trust the photodiode output) and talking with some laser diode module vendors. A little drawing of a possible future multicolour laser diode source is attached -- that is just one possibility, and even if we do it, we might have other sources in addition to it. Arnold is beginning the process of determining a procedure for goniometric calibration of the source as well. For the upcoming microwave payload, Keith has begun identifying vendors for components, and James and his students are very well on their way toward developing a pointing mechanism for it. James and students demonstrated their prototype pointing test payload at McGill yesterday for Matt, Keith, and me -- it was extremely impressive.
On nanosat design status, Cordell is working on adding to his mission and system requirements spreadsheets -- people should send any comments on them so far.
Comments on the website and Hypernews are also especially welcome -- please use them, and send us suggestions for changes and fixes. We are adding a site for photographs -- we will most likely be linking to a Shutterfly site to house our photos -- Nina will be running that ALTAIR Photographs site. We also need to add to the About ALTAIR and the Instrumentation pages -- I'll try to work on those this week.
On upcoming grant opportunities: James, Max, and I had a very productive meeting with ballooning folks from RMCC (Royal Military College of Canada) -- namely Richard Van Der Pryt -- this past Sunday. We'll continue working with them and identifying common projects for which we could apply for funding.
Our project schedule Gantt Chart is attached (as well as the rough sketch of a new laser diode module mentioned above) -- we are making good progress, but we need to keep moving fast in order to keep up with the attached schedule (I'll also attach the schedule to many future posts as well just as a reminder).
That's all I remember -- please send things I forgot.
thanks! justin
On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:32:18 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi, > > Telecon tomorrow (Tuesday Oct. 30) at our (now) regular time of 12:00 > noon Eastern time (9 am Pacific, 18.00 European). > > Discussion items include: plans for the next flight (a night flight in > which we'll hopefully observe the source in real conditions for the > first time), goniometric source calibration, design of the next optical > source -- and microwave plans, nanosat design requirements, the website, > and flights beyond the upcoming flight. > > Here's the dial-in info: If you are calling in from Canada or U.S.: > 1. Dial Toll-Free Number: 866-740-1260 (U.S. & Canada) > 2. Enter 7-digit access code: 5082741 followed by the # > > If you are calling in from elsewhere: > 1. To locate International Toll-Free Numbers go to > http://www.readytalk.com/intl (enter 7-digit access code 5082741) > 2. Dial toll free number from web link > 3. Enter Passcode: Enter 7-digit ACCESS CODE: 5082741 followed by the # > > Here's the tentative agenda: > I) Flights > A) Preparation for next flight (night flight) -- recovery of the payload last week, ELT issues, > weather forecasts > B) New light sources, and goniometric calibrations > C) Mt. Hopkins (& beyond) > II) Nanosat design requirements > III) Computing & website > IV) Upcoming grant opportunities > A) our meeting at RMCC on Sunday > V) AOB > > Talk to you all tomorrow! > justin >
Attachment:
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2012/11/01/09.29-97258-Schedule-20120702_hqp.pdf
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2012/11/01/09.29-57839-aserModule_Multicolor.pdf