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Australia Telescope: Parkes Telescope
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Parkes Schedule File Creator: On-the-Fly (OTF) Map
To refresh the screen using the default entries, press SHIFT and click the 'reload' button simultaneously.
This output should be saved on your local computer (.sch) and then uploaded to the
Parkes observing computers when you arrive.
The project number assigned to your proposal.
Example: P345
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Initials or short name of the observer(s).
Example: ZOZ
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Select a correlator configuration from the menu. Only a few are listed and if yours is not
listed, select NULL and enter it once you arrive at the observatory. A full list of supported
modes is available from the Parkes
Correlator Guide.
DFB3/DFB4 configurations with "tb" indicate time-binning modes. For these, the number of time bins
(set on the TCS GUI) must be at least 4 and at most 32. As an example, if you want 1 second sampling
with sdfb3_tb16_16_8192, you would set the number of time-bins to 16.
Other DFB3/DFB4 configurations are "spectrometer" modes and require a cycle-time more than 4s
and the number of time-bins set to 1.
Example: sdfb3_64_1024
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Select the number of seconds per correlator cycle. If using the Multibeam Correlator, the default
is 5 seconds per integration. If using DFB3 or DFB4, the cycle time depends on the configuration
(especially if you are using a time binning mode), but is usually set to 4 or more.
Example: 4
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The reciever and centre frequency of your observations. If Doppler tracking is enabled, the frequency
here will be interpreted as the rest frequency of the observed line. If Doppler tracking
is disabled the frequency here would be the actual observing frequency (sky frequency).
Make sure your frequency is within these limits (in MHz):
| H-OH | 1090 | 2000 |
| MULTI | 1250 | 1550 |
| GALILEO | 2000 | 3000 |
| 10CM concentric | 2600 | 3600 |
| METHMB | 5800 | 7000 |
| MARS | 7900 | 9100 |
| KU-BAND | 12000 | 15000 |
| 13MM | 16000 | 26000 |
Example: MULTI 1420.405
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Enable frequency switching, with the switched IF separated from the main IF
by some number in MHz (+ and - signs acceptable). Beware not to have an offset
switch out of band.
Example: -4.5
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Enable receiver rotation with Multibeam receivers. For single-beam receivers,
set this to disable. The modes are:
- CONTINUOUS - receiver rotates during data taking
- STEPPED - Multibeam mode; adjusted for a scan mid-point
- BEAMTRK - similar to stepped, but with the scan direction as the reference direction (STEPPED uses the parallactic angle.)
- disable - no rotation or using single-beam receiver only.
In the STEPPED mode, the platform is rotated just before a scan starts, so it is exactly in the right orientation at mid-scan.
BEAMTRK does a position tweak every 5 seconds during a scan, ensuring that the platform stays close to the scan axis all the time
(good for scans near the south pole). BEAMTRK is essentially the same as CONTINUOUS, but with the addition that it does the hard
work of determining the actual track on the sky during a scan, and positioning the platform relative to that axis (rather than
the latitude lines, for example).
Example: disable
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Rotate the receiver by a given angle, in degrees. This is only available with Multibeam
receivers. For single-beam receivers this should be set to "0".
Example: 19.1
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Enable/disable Doppler
tracking. Note that this only adjusts the centre frequency, it does
NOT continuously track the Doppler shift during an observation. For
observing with MOPS it is recommended that Doppler tracking be
disabled.
Example: disabled
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The radial velocity of
your source. Also choose the reference frame, LSR-KINEMATIC,
LSR-DYNAMIC, Barycentric or Topocentric. The radial velocity
information provided here will be ignored if Doppler tracking is
disabled.
Note: If Doppler tracking is disabled and no radio velocity is
specified (also recommended) then you must adjust your sky frequency to account for
the velocity of both the source (LSR or barycentric) and the velocity of the observatory relative
to the rest frame. An online tool is available
Frequency Calculator
to calculate this adjustment.
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Number of seconds to average spectra over before writing to disk. Default is no averaging
(1 s).
The coordinate system of your coordinates. You may choose between
equatorial (J2000 or B1950) or Galactic coordinates.
Example: J2000
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Specify the name of your source here. If left blank the source name defaults to "source".
Example: Orion
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Please provide the source coordinates in the specified coordinate
system here. This determines the centre of the on-the-fly map. Please take care
of the format: Equatorial, RA: hh:mm:ss DEC: dd:mm:ss, Galactic
GLON: ddd.xxxxx GLAT: dd.xxxxx.
Example: RA: 23:41:32
DEC: -82:43:09
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You may choose only absolute positioning for the reference position.
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The position
of the reference integration (2 values separated by a comma). Please take care
of the format: Equatorial, RA: hh:mm:ss DEC: dd:mm:ss, Galactic
GLON: ddd.xxxxx GLAT: dd.xxxxx.
Example 1: 12:33:15.3, -72:54:04.8
Example 2: 366.4988, -54.0000
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The size of the map in arcmin. Only square maps are supported at this stage. The maps always have
an odd number of rows so that one row passes through the map centre. Consequently the final map
width may vary from what you specified here.
Example: 5
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Scanning direction of the map. You may choose to perform your map along RA/GLONG
(i.e. horizontal direction) or along DEC/GLAT (vertical direction). Scanning at arbitrary angles is
currently not supported.
Example: RA/GLON
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Starting point of the map. Values may be the north-eastern, north-western,
south-eastern, or south-western corner.
Example: north-east
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Number of OTF rows before returning to the OFF position. You may choose 1 row for large maps (say more than 2 arcmin in size) and 2 for small maps.
Example: 1
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This frequency value (in MHz) is used to calculate the Nyquist sampling rate for the scanning. Default
is the value given in Observing Frequency.
Example: 88000
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Time spent on OFF scans in seconds. Default is calculated from the time spent on each row. Please
seek advice from support staff if you require no reference scans.
Example: 120
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Spacing in arcsec betwen rows (orthogonal to the scanning direction). Default is calculated from the Nyquist frequency using an extra 0.9
oversampling factor and a 2" guard band to mitigate against tracking errors.
Example: 40
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Beam size in arcsec (FWHM). Default is calculated from the Nyquist/Observing frequency with a
Nyquist sampling rate (lambda/2D, where D=55m or D=64m). This value is then used to determine
the scan rate.
Example: 40
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(Note: This option has not been tested.)Proper motion of the source, in arcsec/hour in the directions of specified coordinate system
(RA/Dec or GLON/GLAT). Two values separated by white space. Default is zero. Note: Proper motion
tracing is inexact and based on an estimate of how time passes during the map. The map centre is
updated at the beginning of each scan. You should give as the map centre the position of the source
at the start of the map. Coordinates and proper motions of the planets are available on JPL's HORIZONS
website.
Example: 10.2 -3.5
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Original: Juergen Ott (11-July-2005)
Modified: Kate Brooks (10-Mar-2009)
Adapted for Parkes: Stacy Mader (17-July-2009)