First results from the Very Small Array -- I. Observational methods
Astrophysics
2009-11-07 v2
Abstract
The Very Small Array (VSA) is a synthesis telescope designed to image faint structures in the cosmic microwave background on degree and sub-degree angular scales. The VSA has key differences from other CMB interferometers with the result that different systematic errors are expected. We have tested the operation of the VSA with a variety of blank-field and calibrator observations and cross-checked its calibration scale against independent measurements. We find that systematic effects can be suppressed below the thermal noise level in long observations; the overall calibration accuracy of the flux density scale is 3.5 percent and is limited by the external absolute calibration scale.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0205378,
title = {First results from the Very Small Array -- I. Observational methods},
author = {Robert A. Watson and Pedro Carreira and Kieran Cleary and Rod D. Davies and Richard J. Davis and Clive Dickinson and Keith Grainge and Carlos M. Gutierrez and Michael P. Hobson and Michael E. Jones and Rudiger Kneissl and Anthony Lasenby and Klaus Maisinger and Guy G. Pooley and Rafael Rebolo and Jose Alberto Rubino-Martin and Ben Rusholme and Richard D. E. Saunders and Richard Savage and Paul F. Scott and Anze Slosar and Pedro J. Sosa Molina and Angela C. Taylor and David Titterington and Elizabeth Waldram and Althea Wilkinson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0205378},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages, 10 figures, MNRAS in press (Minor revisions)