From: <Jim.Lovell_at_email.protected>
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 14:43:29 +1000

Hi Sergei,

Thanks for keeping us all informed on your progress, great stuff!

You wrote:

>This VLBI test was very successful. A 5 Jy source (0537-441) gave a
>very strong fringe (14 sigma with just 1 s integration time). Data was
>cross-correlated with the software correlator developed in Swinburne.
>The test has proved that the NZ system does work in the conditions of
>real VLBI. It is clear now that the 6m RT is marginal in terms of
>sensitivity. Now, with much better understanding of the parameters of
>the NZ system (such as instrumental time delay, system temperature,
>etc.) we are pretty confident that we will get fringes in the next
>Trans-Tasman test, provided we use longer integration time. It is also
>possible that fringes can be found in the data stored from out
>previous VLBI sessions.

I'm a bit surprised that the non-detection from the 6m to Australia
is due to sensitivity. Even in 1 second, a 5 Jy source should be
detectable from a big Australian antenna to the 6m. All else being
equal, the sensitivity of the 14m-ATCA baseline should be better than
the 6m-ATCA baseline by the ratio of the product of the antenna
diameters. So if 1-sigma on the 14m-ATCA baseline is 0.35 Jy, 1-sigma
on the 6m-ATCA baseline should be 0.35 * (14/6) = 0.8 Jy. So 0537-441
should be a 6 sigma detection to NZ in 1 second.

Cheers,
Jim

--
Dr Jim Lovell,                                      Jim.Lovell_at_csiro.<!--nospam-->au
CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility       Ph:    (02) 6125 6715
c/o RSAA, Mt Stromlo Observatory,                 Fax:   (02) 6125 0260
Cotter Road, Weston ACT 2611                      Mobile:   0412 127364
Australia                    http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/Jim.Lovell
At Tidbinbilla Ph (02) 6201 7842 (RA Lab), x7800 (switch), x7940(shift)

Received on 2005-08-31 14:44:06