ATCA/Mopra reportATUC 7 May 2008Phil Edwards

APOD 080310 White & Cozens

Cable damage

CA02 and CA05 taken off-line for several days each for repairs

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/15/2163908.htm

Winged hunters keep cockatoos at bay

A wedge-tailed eagle named 'Zorro' has been tethered to the 163-metre roof spire of the Melbourne Arts Centre after cockatoos took a liking to its thimble-size lights, chewing thousands of dollars worth of bulbs.

CABB

• Interim CABB (5 antennas, 1 IF) in parallel with existing system until shutdown next semester

• Details of interfacing CABB with current software to be determined

• ~25% of 2008APR proposals requested use of CABB• ~45% of 2008APR proposals requested 7mm or 3mm

observations• For 08OCT, propose to continue running interim CABB

system in parallel with existing correlator until ~6 week shutdown in mid-January. (Call for proposals to be released next week)

h75

h168

h214

ew350

750

1.5

6

any 3mm

7mm

12mm

C/X

L/S0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Req

ues

ted

ho

urs

Array configuration

Frequency band

3mm

7mm

12mm

C/X

L/S

N.B. Excludes VLBI

2008 April semester

Seeing monitor

Two 1.8m fixed dishes on 230m E-W baseline operated at 30.48GHz since May2004

Seemon

• Optus B3 satellite being removed from service, has been moved from 152E to 164E

• Plans underway to use 21.2 GHz beacon on Optus C1 at 156E

• Parts arriving for new system, expected to be in place within a month

• Christoph Brem (occupational trainee) playing a big role in this

7mm system• 7mm automatic

translators operational

• ATCA calibrator database contains 7mm C007 data

• UCHII regions being investigated as 7mm and 3mm flux density calibrators

Courtesy: Lovell

NASA tracking

• Learning curve about real-time self-cal on satellite signal at 32 GHz

• Ongoing proficiency test tracks at 8 GHz (Mars) and 32 GHz (Saturn)

• First “real” Cassini tracks in July/August 2008• Possibility of 8 GHz tracking support in the future • CA06 performance being studied• Kepler launch in February 2009 will have impact

on 08OCT semester schedule

WVRs

• Prototype Water Vapour Radiometers have been installed on CA03 and CA04 for a number of years

• ARC LIEF funding received, subject to ATNF PRB approval, to outfit all antennas with improved WVRs

Mopra • UPS replaced over the summer• 7mm receiver added (N.B. can’t centre 8GHz band

between 38 and 44 GHz)• HOPS 12mm observing over summer very successful• Telescope Operator Alerting Device (TOAD) in use• Mopra Training Day held in March, presentations

available on-line• MOPS era data now being added to ATOA• Mopra position now determined with sub-cm accuracy

Mopra in 08OCT

• Call for proposals to be released next week

• Limited 3mm observing over the summer

• Based on our experiences with the HOPS project, large proposals at 12mm (and 7mm?) encouraged

ATCA Science Day

• Wednesday 11 June

• All astronomers are invited to come and give science talks about the important projects they envisage doing with the Australia Telescope Compact Aarray (ATCA) in the next 5 years and beyond.

• See ATNF What’s On pages for more details

Narrabri Open Day --- Saturday July 19th, 2008. All welcome!

Credit: M. Dahlem

8th Synthesis Imaging School to be held 29th Sep – 3rd Oct, 2008

Recent papers 

• The Origin of the Infrared Emission in Radio Galaxies. I. New Mid- to Far-Infrared and Radio Observations of the 2 Jy Sample

• Detection of the H92α recombination line from the starbursts in the Circinus galaxy and NGC 1808 

• The extragalactic radio-source population at 95GHz• Multibeam maser survey of methanol and excited OH in the Magellanic Clouds: new

detections and maser abundance estimates• Bright Giant Pulses from the Crab Nebula Pulsar: Statistical Properties, Pulse

Broadening, and Scattering Due to the Nebula • Deep Australia Telescope Large Area Survey Radio Observations of the European

Large Area ISO Survey S1/SPITZER Wide-Area Infrared Extragalactic Field • Detection of amino acetonitrile in Sgr B2(N)• ATCA 3 mm observations of NGC 6334I and I(N): dense cores, outflows, and an UCH

II region• The radio lighthouse CU Virginis: the spin-down of a single main-sequence star• HI mapping of galaxies in six Group Evolution Multiwavelength Study groups• The sensitivity of the next generation of lunar Cherenkov observations to UHE

neutrinos and cosmic rays• The magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408: radio spectrum, polarimetry, and timing • An Interaction of a Magellanic Leading Arm High-Velocity Cloud with the Milky Way

Disk

The end…