Weather conditions and proposal status

The array was moved into the new C configuration in mid December and the most extended new A configuration was scheduled from mid January. It is planned to move to the B configuration around mid of February and to the C configuration by mid of March. The switch back to the most compact configuration D is foreseen before mid of April. According to these plans, it will not be possible to complete projects requesting deep integrations and low-resolution mapping before end of April.

The beginning of the winter period saw good observing conditions up to Christmas and excellent atmospheric stability since mid of January. Occasional high winds have somewhat reduced the observing efficiency, but by today (January 24) we have observed 32 out of 43 A-rated and 56 B-rated programs, and already 7 have been classified as being successfully completed.

As far as A-rated projects are concerned, we look forward to bring many of these to completion before the end of the current winter semester. B-rated projects are likely to be observed only if they fall in a favorable LST range. We remind users of the Plateau de Bure interferometer that B-rated proposals which are not started before the end of the winter period have to be resubmitted again.

Global VLBI observations, which include the array in the 3mm phased-array mode, are planned from May 4 to 10, 2006.

Investigators, who wish to check the status of their project, may consult the interferometer schedule on the Web at http://iram.fr/PDBI/ongoing.html. The page is updated daily.

Roberto NERI & Jan Martin WINTERS