Information on planets

Given the observing time and frequency, task plplt plots the expected visibility function for a planet. You will most likely want to check this visibility function before observing and discovering that the planet is resolved out! NOTE that mfboot and plplt do not include the effect of the ATCA's primary beam - the planet is implicitly (and silently) assumed to be small compared with the primary beam. This may not be the case at 3-mm. If there is a significant change in the visibility function between baseline lengths of 0 and 22 metres, then primary beam effects are important, and you probably do not want to use the planet (most likely it would be resolved out anyway).

Task planets can give you basic information about a planet, including rise and set times (but note these are quoted at the horizon, not the ATCA's elevation limit), the planet's angular size at a particular time, and its RA and DEC (note that the ephemeris used for RA and DEC is not sufficiently accurate to point or phase track the telescope).

Information on using the ATCA to observe a planet is available on-line