IRAM Newsletter
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• •....... IRAM Newsletter Number 5 September 1, 1992 Contents to different periods of time, different receivers and aper- ture illuminations, with possible adjustments of the sur- 30m Telescope ......................................................... 1 face since the reported measurements. Receivers . 3 Figure 1 shows a plot of nA versus frequency. We will be pleased to receive additional data determined by other Backends . • • • ......... • • 4 observers. VLBI. • . ........... .. 4 Call for Observing Proposals on the 30 m Telescope 5 Call for Observing Proposals on the Plateau de Bure ITALSAT 7mm HOLOGRAPHY Interferometer ...................................................... 9 Scientific Results ...................................................... 11 A successful 7mm holography measurement (7 mm VLBI Schottky receiver of the MPIfR) using the geostationary 13 New Preprints ......................................................... satellite ITALSAT has been made by D. Morris. This measurement shows unexpected systematic surface (wave- front) deformations of unknown origin. The measurement must be verified and the surface errors localized. We are still unable to obtain orbit predictions from Italy; the orbit of the satellite was thus determined by 30m Telescope dedicated observations made at Yebes Observatory, Spain (A. Barcia). EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENTS There have been repeated requests of efficiency data CORRELATORS of the 30-m telescope. Table 1 summarizes relevant data collected from various reports made by various observers. The two IRAM correlators have been used since about The data are not taken in a homogeneous way, and refer two months, without serious problems, in the mode of 20 MHz bandwidth/ 2048 channels each. This configuration is from now on available for regular observations and can be requested for in proposals. Work is in progress (G. Paubert, A. Sievers) to make the other bandwidth / res- 0.6 olution configurations available. Typical results may be a a found in fig. 2. arP a a 0 4 - 3 MM VLBI OBSERVATIONS The first 3mm VLBI observations were successfully made 0.2 on 7-10 July 1992 between the European stations at On- a sala, Effelsberg and Pico Veleta. The observations were made with the 3mm single chan- a o F , nel Schottky receiver (see Newsletter 3, May 1992, for a 100 200 300 400 layout of the system), well known to observers at Pico Frequency (GHz) Veleta as the "pointing receiver". The DSB noise tem- perature was typically 200 K. The receiver was equipped Figure 1: Aperture efficiency data for the 30m telescope with a circulator plate built by the MPIfR. This plate can 2 IRAM Newsletter September 1, 1992 Table 1: Efficiency of the 30m telescope: summary of measurements up to 1992 Freq. Receiver 7713 77F riA Beam Ref. Date Comments (GHz) (II) 43 MPI Sch. 0.57 61 9 07/91 c) 85 0.65 0.90 2 06/90 86 Sch. 0.60 0.53 27 1 88 90 SIS 0.54 0.47 26 1 88 90 Sch. 0.67 0.53 25.3 7 86 90 Sch. 0.58±0.03 27 13 02/92 100? SIS 0.45 - 0.47 4 a), c) 106 Sch. 0.57 0.50 22 1 88 111 Sch. 0.56 0.49 21 1 88 115? SIS 0.89 10 12/91 d) 115 SIS 0.89 11 02/92 115 Sch. 0.59 0.50 21 7 86 140 SIS 0.59 0.50 17 1 88 147 SIS 0.84 11 02/92 150 0.55 0.88 2 06/90 256-----STS-1- 0.74 11 02/92 230 Sch. 0.55 0.27 13.5 1 88 230 Sch. 0.47 0.25 12.3 7 86 230 SIS 0.47 0.27 12.5 1 88 230 SIS 0.27 4 a), c) 230 0.45 0.90 2 06/90 230 SIS 0.79 10 12/91 230.5 SIS 0.90 0.26±0.01 11.6 3 03 91 Planets 0 om. 250 bolom. 11.4 6 08/91 b), c) 250 bolom. 0.44 0.28 11 1 88 elev. 55 265 SIS 0,36 0.21 10.8 1 88 265 SIS 0.36 0.90 2 06/90 345 SIS 0.15 0.09 10 12 02/92 345 bolom. 0.09 7 (?) 7 86 345 Sch. 0.18 0.10 8.5 1 88 elev 45 345 0.20 0.84 2 06/90 345 SIS 0.17 0.095 8.5 5 11/91 350 MPI bolom. 0.06 8.4 6 08/91 350 MPI Sch. 0.106 4,7 87 350 MPE Sch. 0.14 4,8 Comments: a) " from various reports" b) beam map at 350 GHz given c) gain-elevation curve given d) "low sidelobes", 3 measurements to obtain nF References: 1 D. Downes: 1989, in Introductory courses in galaxies evolution, eds I. Appenzeller, H. Habing, P. Lena, Springer Verlag. [data from 1987-1988; no references for the values given in the paper] 2 J. Cemicharo, G. Paubert, G. Butin, S. Sanchez, H. Steppe, S. Liechti and W. Brunswig: 29/06/1990, Report on astronomical tests of the new distribution box for the 30m MI-IT [no references for the values given in the report] 3 C. Thum: 21/03/1991, internal note, Aperture efficiency of the 30-m telescope [Derivation of these values after measurement on Mars and Venus] 4 H. Steppe, A. Greve, R. Mauersberger, D. Morris, C. Thum Axial gain-elevation dependence of the 30-m MRT between 90 and 845 GHz: Aperture efficiency as a function of wavelength (summary of observations between 1986 and 02/91) [Give best fit for Ruze formula] 5 H. Rothermel, A. Greve, H. Hein, B. Lazareff: 11/1991 Tests of a 345 GHz open-structure SIS receiver at the IRAM 30m telescope 6 E. Kreysa et al.: 08/1991, Antenna test measurements at 350 GHz with MPIfR bolometer, MPIIR memo no 72 7 J.W.M. Baars et al. : 1987, A&A 175,, 319 8 W. Wild, Thesis 9 H. Steppe, A. Greve, H. Hein, T. Kaempf, C. Koempe, A. Schmidt: Jul 1991 Tests of the 43 GHz receiver. 10 M. Carter et al..: 1991 Tests Dec. 1991 report. 11 measurements by J. Wink 12 H. Rotherm.el et al.: 1992, internal report, in print. 13 Observations from 09/02/1992; ti A derived form planets, W30H, NGC7027, NGC7538, K3-50A, 3C273. September 1, 1992 IRAM Newsletter 3 be switched "in no time" between LCP and RCP polar- ization — and this facility turned out to be important during the experiment in order to find fringes. To be confident of a success of the VLBI observations we have made a test to check the phase stability of the system: receiver — IF chain — VLBA terminal. The phase 10 0 stability was found to be 10 — 20 with some larger phase drifts during several minutes. We are preparing a similar test for the 3mm and 1.3 mm RS receivers, to be used in future observations. Some results of the recent 3mm VLBI observations are present below (page 4). Albert GREVE —20 0 Receivers RECEIVER UPGRADES AT PICO VELETA A new 3mm RS mixer, built and tested in Grenoble this spring was installed at the telescope. The first IF fre- quency for the 3mm receiver was changed to 1.5 GHz. A cryogenic HEMT amplifier built by Yebes Observatory 501/11s, 591‘112 was installed. The warm IF chain and first downconverter 1 were also replaced. Improvements in mixer design and IF noise temperature result in a significantly better SSB re-. ceiver temperature across the 85-115 GHz range, compa- rable to the best performance available elsewhere on The telescopes. Despite the lower IF frequency, SSB tuning re- mains possible at most frequencies. Figure 3 shows the t , —100 —50 0 50 100 performance of the 3mm receiver prior to the Aug 92 up- grade, as recorded during routine service (a) as well as after the upgrade, as recorded during initial on-site test- ing (b). The IF amplifier for the V-pol 230 GHz receiver was replaced with one having a lower noise temperature; the performance has improved only marginally. For either of these two receivers, the "pseudo-DSB" backshort setting, maximizing IF power, does not always correspond to equal sideband ratios. The initial value of gi = Gi 1G, at the pseudo-DSB setting, derived from lab- oratory measurements or from a specific procedure using astronomical lines, should be taken into account when set- Figure 2: 30 m correlator spectra of the CS (J = 2 — 1) ting the receiver for a desired rejection gi. line in DR 21. Integration time was 2 minutes for each observation A more detailed account of these measurements, and some measurements of focus, error beam, and astigma- tism, can be found in the technical report by Carter et al. Matthew CARTER, Jean-Yves CHENU, Hauke HEIN, Santiago NAVARRO, Michel GUELIN, Bernard LAZAREFF IRAM Newsletter September 1, 1992 Backends We summarize here the status of the new correlators: —30 m Telescope: The software for the new autocorrelators has been written and tested by G.Paubert and A.Sievers a (page 1). Previous 3MM Receiver - On-Site Performance Apr-May 92 —Plateau de Bure Interferometer: 250 _ Four units (160 MHz each) have been installed and connected to the interferometer. The basic phase and : 8 200 delay refreshing time has been reduced from 4 to 1 i second. The software is quite operational and allows G i 0 o 0 004 searching for small system effects. Two units are kept 150 ..... 1 ..g!k..._ : 8 4 $ ' in Grenoble as targets for lab people who check and 0 10 • 0 I oo investigate the problems reported by PdB. A new air •<> 1 .0. 100 • .._.0..._ conditioning system has been installed to cool the G6>cso.