Characterization of the John A. Galt Telescope for radio holography with CHIME

Alex Reda; Tristan Pinsonneault-Marotte; Meiling Deng; Mandana Amiri; Kevin Bandura; Arnab Chakraborty; Simon Foreman; Alex S. Hill; Joseph Kania; Joshua MacEachern; Kiyoshi Masui; Laura Newburgh; Sourabh Paul; Seth R. Siegel; Rick Smegal; Haochen Wang; Dallas Wulf

doi:10.1117/12.2629429

31 August 2022 Characterization of the John A. Galt Telescope for radio holography with CHIME

Alex Reda, Tristan Pinsonneault-Marotte, Meiling Deng, Mandana Amiri, Kevin Bandura, Arnab Chakraborty, Simon Foreman, Alex S. Hill, Joseph Kania, Joshua MacEachern, Kiyoshi Masui, Laura Newburgh, Sourabh Paul, Seth R. Siegel, Rick Smegal, Haochen Wang, Dallas Wulf

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12190, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XI; 121902V (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629429
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Conference Poster

Abstract

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) will measure the 21 cm emission of astrophysical neutral hydrogen to probe large scale structure at redshifts z = 0.8–2.5. However, detecting the 21 cm signal beneath substantially brighter foregrounds remains a key challenge. Due to the high dynamic range between 21 cm and foreground emission, an exquisite calibration of instrument systematics, notably the telescope beam, is required to successfully filter out the foregrounds. One technique being used to achieve a high fidelity measurement of the CHIME beam is radio holography, wherein signals from each of CHIME’s analog inputs are correlated with the signal from a co-located reference antenna, the 26 m John A. Galt telescope, as the 26 m Galt telescope tracks a bright point source transiting over CHIME. In this work we present an analysis of several of the Galt telescope’s properties. We employ drift-scan measurements of several bright sources, along with background estimates derived from the 408 MHz Haslam map, to estimate the Galt system temperature. To determine the Galt telescope’s beam shape, we perform and analyze a raster scan of the bright radio source Cassiopeia A. Finally, we use early holographic measurements to measure the Galt telescope’s geometry with respect to CHIME for the holographic analysis of the CHIME-Galt interferometric data set.

Citation Download Citation

Alex Reda, Tristan Pinsonneault-Marotte, Meiling Deng, Mandana Amiri, Kevin Bandura, Arnab Chakraborty, Simon Foreman, Alex S. Hill, Joseph Kania, Joshua MacEachern, Kiyoshi Masui, Laura Newburgh, Sourabh Paul, Seth R. Siegel, Rick Smegal, Haochen Wang, and Dallas Wulf "Characterization of the John A. Galt Telescope for radio holography with CHIME", Proc. SPIE 12190, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XI, 121902V (31 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629429

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available