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University of Sydney Facilities

University of Sydney Facilities. Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI). Molonglo Radio Telescope (MOST/SKAMP). Used for research in both astronomy/astrophysics and instrumentation. Funded by external competitive grants. Important role in student training. Who’s involved?.

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University of Sydney Facilities

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  1. University of Sydney Facilities Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI) Molonglo Radio Telescope (MOST/SKAMP) Used for research in both astronomy/astrophysics and instrumentation. Funded by external competitive grants. Important role in student training. E.M. Sadler

  2. Who’s involved? SUSI: Peter Tuthill, John Davis, Mike Ireland, Andrew Jacob, Julian North, John O’Byrne, Steve Owens, Gordon Robertson, Bill Tango MOST/SKAMP: Anne Green, Richard Hunstead, Elaine Sadler, Duncan Campbell-Wilson, Tim Adams, John Barry, Adrian Blake, John Bunton, Julia Bryant; David Crawford, Helen Johnston, Mike Kesteven, Greg Kingston, Martin Leung, Daniel Mitchell, Tom Mauch, Barbara Piestrzynska, Tony Turtle, Sergiy Vinogradov Plus Australian and overseas collaborators E.M. Sadler

  3. SUSI: A pictorial introduction E.M. Sadler

  4. SUSI Science Programs New red (500-900 nm) beam-combiner is now fully commissioned and science program underway • Single Stars • Diameters, Effective Temperature scale • Stellar atmosphere studies • Winds, shells, circumstellar matter • Rapid Rotators - Oblateness • Pulsating Stars, Cepheid distance scale • Binary Stars • Double-lined spectroscopic binaries give mass, distance • Ellipsoidal Variables – multiple distortions • Low Mass/Faint companions E.M. Sadler

  5. Angular Diameter:  CMa (F8 Ia) Angular diameter = 3.471 +/- 0.022 mas E.M. Sadler

  6. Cepheid l Car: Diameter Variations E.M. Sadler

  7. Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope • Array of 600 cylinders, each 111 x 15 m (area 1650 m2) 1.6km cylindrical reflector, currently operating at 843 MHz. Largest radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. Prototype: SKAMP (10,000 m2) operating to 1 GHz by 2007 E.M. Sadler

  8. Wide-field images of the radio sky ‘Radio Schmidt’ telescope: 2.7o field of view, excellent surface-brightness sensitivity E.M. Sadler

  9. Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS) • SUMSS:Imaging survey of the entire southern sky, at similar sensitivity and resolution to the northern NVSS. Now 95% complete: FITS images and catalogue released on the web. • Key science: • Local radio source populations to z~0.3 • Angular clustering at z~1 • Radio galaxies at z>3 www.astrop.physics.usyd.edu.au/SUMSS E.M. Sadler

  10. SUMSS and optical redshift surveys Overlap with 2dF/6dF gives spectra of 10,000+ radio AGN and starburst galaxies. Local radio luminosity functions and timescales; local benchmark for high-z studies. 6dFGS spectra E.M. Sadler

  11. Clustering studies with SUMSS (Blake et al. 2004) 3-D clustering studies now in progress using SUMSS/NVSS/6dFGS (Mauch & Rawlings 2005 ) Angular (two-point) correlation function: w(q) = A q -a E.M. Sadler

  12. SKA Molonglo Prototype (SKAMP) A$1.9 million funding from 2001 MNRF grant, ARC Linkage program and University of Sydney: timescale 2002-2007, PI Anne Green • Goal: To equip the Molonglo telescope with new feeds, low-noise amplifiers, digital filterbank and FX correlator with the joint aims of: • developing and testing SKA-relevant technologies and • providing a powerful new facility for low-frequency radio astronomy in Australia International technology demonstrator for the cylindrical reflector SKA concept (one of six SKA designs currently being evaluated) E.M. Sadler

  13. From MOST to SKAMP:A three-stage approach • 2004-5: Narrowband continuum correlator (843MHz, 4MHz bandwidth, 88+2 stations = 4,000 baselines)[In parallel with SUMSS] • 2005-6: Increase bandwidth and add spectral capability (830-860 MHz, 4,000 baselines, 2,000 frequency channels)[Uses existing linefeed] • 2006-7: New linefeed + enhanced correlator (300-1420 MHz, >50MHz bandwidth, 4,000 baselines, 2,000 frequency channels)[New wide-band linefeed for ~10% of collecting area is funded under MNRF; additional ~$1 million would equip full 18,000 m2 collecting area with new line feeds and new mesh] E.M. Sadler

  14. Stage I correlator: high-dynamic range continuum imaging 2004: Stage I correlator will allow use of self-calibration methods on MOST Current MOST imaging dynamic range is 100-200:1 (similar to intrinsic dynamic range of VLA) Use of self-calibration on VLA enabled imaging dynamic ranges of 105-106:1 (MGPS Green et. al.) Current imaging dynamic range of MOST limits imaging of faint sources (eg young supernova remnants) near bright sources (eg Galactic Centre) E.M. Sadler

  15. Stage II: FX correlator, spectral-line capability • 2005-2006: 2,000 spectral channel FX correlator operating at 830-860 MHz enables, eg: • Measurements of HI absorption at z = 0.7 to 0.8 that capitalise on the large collecting area of MOST • OH megamaser emission surveys at z~1 • Observing recombination lines of C and H, which set constraints on physical conditions in the ISM (Anantharamaiah & Kantharia 1999) (Lane 2000) Stage II enables HI absorption-line measurements at z = 0.7 to 0.8, where existing methods work poorly (Lane and Briggs 2001) E.M. Sadler

  16. Stage III Target Specifications E.M. Sadler

  17. SKAMP III science example: HI emission from distant galaxies HIPASS (500s) (12 h) SKAMP III (10x12 h) log10 Mlim (HI) (Msun) Typical bright spiral HI in the nearby Circinus galaxy (Jones et al. 1999) SKAMP should reach HI mass limits typical of bright spiral galaxies at z=0.2 (lookback time ~3 Gyr), allowing a direct measurement of evolution in the HI mass function. E.M. Sadler

  18. Summary • SUSI: Now fully-operational. Unique capabilities as a visible-light interferometer, and science program likely to continue for at least five years. Could also be used as a technology testbed for Antarctic interferometers. • Molonglo:SUMSS survey 95% complete; new science program from 2006 using spectral-line capability. • SKAMP: Vital pathfinder to aspects of SKA technology [cylindrical antennas; software beam-forming; high dynamic-range imaging with fully-sampled uv plane], and hence an important partner to other efforts such as NTD.Modest additional funding (~$1 million) could provide a powerful science instrument with complementary strengths to xNTD. E.M. Sadler

  19. Binary star system:  Cen E.M. Sadler

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