Calculating Observing Parameters for the ALFALFA January 2010 observing
Background Reading
Review your understanding of the equatorial coordinate system (right ascension
and declination). See first bullet in Things to Know for help.
Review the
memo on ALFA beam rotation and ALFALFA Observing Mode
Calculations
Target drifts for the ALFALFA workshop include
+201906 and +194954; the central beam
(designated Beam "0") is the one
that is set to the declination listed.
We will observe the drifts from 0145 -0715, i.e., 1:45
to 7:15 am Arecibo time, on 11 and 12 Jan, 2010.
Visit the
summary of upcoming observing page to find our schedule.
- For the +201906 drift, list the resultant seven declinations covered by
the seven beams, in order, from south to north for the first
drift. What is the resultant
declination range? Visit this page for help.
- What is the range in local sidereal time (LST)? This is
approximately the right ascension range that we will cover.
(Hint: look again at the
summary of upcoming observing page.)
- What is the zenith angle of this drift as observed with ALFA beam
0?
- At what azimuth will we orient the azimuth arm so that ALFA
can observe this declination strip?
- Repeat exercises 1-4 for the second drift.
- Go back and search for targets!
Last modified: Mon Oct 5 12:02:36 EDT 2009 by becky