CONDITIONS FOR THE NEXT SUMMER PERIOD

As every year, we plan to carry out extensive technical work during the summer period. Besides the usual maintenance of the antennas we plan to complete the northern track extension, prepare N46 - the new station at the end of the northern track - for the next winter period, and procede with the drilling of the elevator shaft for the new access to the Plateau de Bure Observatory.

Despite these technical activities, we plan to carry out regular scientific observations during the whole period with the five element array. Taking these considerations into account, we are confident to be able to schedule about 20 to 30 projects.

We plan to start the maintenance at the latest by the end of May and to schedule two configurations (C and D) between June and October. For observers interested in high-angular resolution studies, we tentatively plan a switch back to the six element array and move to an extended configuration (B) for the end of October, i.e. before the end of the scheduling period.

We strongly encourage observers to submit proposals that can be executed during summer operating conditions. To keep the procedure as simple as possible, we ask to focus on:

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observations requesting the use of the 3mm receivers

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circumpolar sources or sources transiting at night between June and September,

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observations that qualify for the CD configuration with 5 antennas.

Details on receivers, signal to noise, atmospheric phase compensation, observing modes, data reduction and local contacts have not changed, and can be found in the January 1999 issue of the IRAM Newsletter. For this call for proposals, please note the following specificities: