GBT News:  Proposal Deadline Reminder and GBT Status
9 November 2000


Reminder:  the deadline for GBT Early Science Proposals is December 1.  The
Early Science call for proposals is described on the GBT Web pages at

	http://www.nrao.edu/GBT/proposals/index.shtml

Progress at the GBT continues to be good.  The NRAO provisionally accepted the
GBT from the contractor, Lockheed-Martin, on 28 September.  The contractor is
continuing to work through a "punchlist," and most of the items on the list
should be resolved by the end of December.  The provisional acceptance of the
telescope has allowed the NRAO to install its own equipment.  This outfitting
work has gone extremely well and we are essentially ready to begin low frequency
commissioning observations just as soon as the contractor has completed some
remaining tasks.  The specific milestones achieved by the NRAO staff over the
past 6 weeks include: 

o  Installation of 5 Gregorian receivers (L, S, C, X, and Ku bands).

o  Completion and testing of cryogenic lines from the Alidade compressor room
   near ground level to the Receiver Room 450 feet (212 m) above.

o  Cooling of the L-Band Gregorian Receiver.

o  Termination of essentially all 27,000 control and power wires to the active
   surface.

o  Tests of the position-sensor readouts on the active surface.

o  Installation of the Monitor and Control Bus in the Receiver Room, Actuator
   Control Room, and the Servo Room.

o  Connection of fiber optic cables to essential hub locations.

o  Remote monitoring of GBT receivers and cryogenics at the Jansky Lab Control
   Room.


The contractor has been working on three major tasks, alignment of the elevation
bull gear, repair of the actuator motors on the Prime Focus boom and on the
subreflector, and reworking the wear plates on the azimuth track.  We expect
these tasks to be completed over the next few weeks, and are ready to begin
commissioning observations at that time.

Considerable information on the GBT and the proposal submission process is now
on the Web under the Green Bank Home Page (www.gb.nrao.edu).  The page contains
a link to GBT Status reports and recent pictures, which will be updated
frequently. 

For information on the proposal submission process, including the new proposal
submission tool, please contact Carl Bignell (cbignell@nrao.edu).  For questions
regarding observing capabilities of the GBT, please contact Ron Maddalena
(rmaddale@nrao.edu).

							Phil Jewell
							Mark McKinnon