A&A 527, A90 (2011) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201014407 & c ESO 2011 Astrophysics The WSRT Virgo H I filament survey I. Total power data A. Popping1,2,3 and R. Braun3 1 Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, 38 Rue Frédérique Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille Cedex 13, France e-mail:
[email protected] 2 Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands 3 CSIRO – Astronomy and Space Science, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia Received 11 March 2010 / Accepted 10 December 2010 ABSTRACT Context. Observations of neutral hydrogen can provide a wealth of information about the kinematics of galaxies. To learn more about the large-scale structures and accretion processes, the extended environment of galaxies have to be observed. Numerical simulations predict a cosmic web of extended structures and gaseous filaments. Aims. To observe the direct vicinity of galaxies, column densities have to be achieved that probe the regime of Lyman limit systems. 19 −2 Typically, H i observations are limited to a brightness sensitivity of NHI ∼ 10 cm , but this has to be improved by ∼2ordersof magnitude. Methods. With the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), we mapped the galaxy filament connecting the Virgo Cluster with the Local Group. About 1500 square degrees on the sky was surveyed with Nyquist sampled pointings. By using the WSRT antennas as single-dish telescopes instead of the more conventional interferometer, we were very sensitive to extended emission. The survey consists of a total of 22 000 pointings, and each pointing was observed for two minutes with 14 antennas.