Australia Telescope National Facility

Introduction: New Stations for the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the North Spur

A brief summary of the New Stations and North Spur project is presented here. For more details of the project, see the Technical And Scientific Details page.

This project provides additional stations (antenna placement points) for the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The extra stations comprise four built on the existing east-west rail track, and five on a new, short, north spur track which has now been constructed.

The main scientific drivers for the new stations are:

• The need to provide additional VERY compact array configurations. These are especially important for mm-wavelength observations, and will also enhance operations at the cm-wavelengths currently used.
  
  
• The need to utilise several short observing periods of only a few hours each, without impairing the uv-coverage. This is especially important at mm-wavelengths where good weather requirements are more stringent and will often limit observations to less than the 12 hours that are currently preferred.
  
  
• The need to obtain good uv-coverage despite restriction to high antenna elevations (so as to minimise phase distortion effects and attenuation by atmospheric water vapour, which are acute at mm-wavelengths).

The new east-west stations address the first point, especially for objects in the far south, such as the Magellanic Clouds and the southern Milky Way. The north-south track will address the second and third points, and will achieve not only better observing efficiency, but also the ability to make good images at more northerly declinations such as the Galactic Centre, and even further north.

For more details of the project, see the Technical And Scientific Details page.

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Last update by Michelle Storey. 19/11/98