Symposium - International Astronomical Union, volume 201, pages 512-513

Commissioning the Very Small Array

Ben Rusholme ¹

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Cavendish Astrophysics, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK |

Publication type: Journal Article

Publication date: 2005-01-01

Cambridge University Press

Journal: Symposium - International Astronomical Union

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DOI: 10.1017/s0074180900216914

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Abstract

The Very Small Array (VSA) is a fourteen-element interferometer for sensitive measurement of the CMB anisotropies on scales of three degrees to ten arcminutes. The telescope is now observing on site in Tenerife after a period of commissioning, including the first map of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in the Coma cluster.

A distinguishing feature of the instrument is that each antenna in the array tracks quasi-independently, providing a characteristic fringe rate per baseline which can be used to reject many systematics. This effect has been optimised in the antenna array design.