Purpose: The Sun is near the peak of its activity cycle, so its radio emission will vary with time as the number of sunspots changes and as flares and other energetic phenomena occur. We will monitor the Sun's brightness for about 4 hours centered on local noon over a number of days. We will also monitor the error in pointing at the Sun to see if we can improve the pointing.
Before the lab period:
Read Section 8.1.3 of the Radio Astronomy Tutorial on the SRT website, which briefly describes the radio emission from the Sun.
Also work out a tentative command file to accomplish the purpose of this lab. We will observe at a frequency of 1415 MHz and uses sets of 10 observations with zero frequency step. Every 15 minutes the telescope should offset 30 degrees in azimuth from the Sun and do a new calibration. Then it should return to the Sun and do a new 25-point raster (the equivalent of the npoint button) and resume observing at the offset of the maximum signal.
Procedure:
You will use the lab period next week to test out your command file and
come up with a final version. Then I or the TA will arrange to have
them run on subsequent days.