First Light with the new Mopra Spectrometer (MOPS)

As part of a major upgrade program, a new millimetre receiver system and backend system have just been installed at Mopra. The backend produces two 8-GHz bandwidth IFs from each polarisation, and is capable of observing several spectral lines simultaneously.

The broadband signal channels are transmitted to the Mopra Spectrometer, MOPS, installed in the Mopra equipment room via broad band analogue fibre optic links. Each 8-GHz IF is then split into four 2.2-GHz bandwidth channels and down converted to the base band.

A dual-channel Polyphase Digital Filter Bank spectrometer, capable of processing two 2.2GHz IFs was commissioned at Mopra by ATNF staff from Epping and Narrabri on 14 October 2005.

Added by Jessica Chapman on 2005-10-20