TU002BB - Test observation of PSR B2334+61

Date:2013-06-14 02:58:33

GCN: GCNT28 (test GCN notice generated at NRAO)

VLBA Calibrator:J2339+6010

Check pulsar: J0332+5434

Array: SC,HN,NL,FD,LA,PT,KP,OV,BR

Test Target: PSR B2334+61

$ psrcat B2334+61
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#     NAME                 PSRJ                     P0                                     DM                           S1400
                                                    (s)                                    (cm^-3 pc)                   (mJy)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1     B0329+54  cp68       J0332+5434    cp68       0.714519699726           4  hlk+04     26.833        10  hlk+04     203       57  lylg95 
2     B2334+61  dtws85     J2337+6151    dtws85     0.495369868028           5  ymw+10     58.410        15  hlk+04     1.4        3  lylg95 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The operator was Tony Sowinski. I rang him in advance to warn him an email was about to arrive. The T+5 minute schedule was chosen, but, it was 10 minutes until the antennas arrived on source. The reason for the additional delay was a 4 minute long slew, and about 1 minute delay between the schedule being ready, and the operator issuing the point command.

Observers log

VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG
--------------------------------------
Project:        TU002BB
Observer:       Bannister, K.
Project type:   TEST
Obs filename:   tu002bbcrd.*
Date/Day:       2013JUN14/165
Ants Scheduled: SC HN NL LA PT KP OV BR 

=UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD=
           Operator is A. Sowinski.                                             
           UT1-UTC 0.07, gps delta and vclock okay.                             
           FD not scheduled due to maint visit.                                 
           MK not scheduled due to source below hoziron (?).                    
           Random note: the trigger email still says gogrb.py                   
           instead of gogrb. Obviously not a big deal, but if                   
           easy to fix it might avoid a little confusion.                       
     0258  Begin (this is the starttime in observe.tx).                         
     0308  And this is when all the antenna were on source.                     
           The "current time" in the trigger email was 02:58                    
           and I chose the 5 minutes delay so shouldn't the                     
           files have started at 03:03?                                         
0308-0342 %PT Maser was just replaced and likey the timing       TIME   100   34
           hasn't settled down yet. C133193.                                    
     0308  HN Raining.                                                          
0308-0342 %HN some RFI on channels 10 and 11.                                   
0308-0339 %KP RFI on channels 10-15.                                            
0308-0342 %LA,PT a little RFI on all odd channels.                              
0308-0339 %SC RFI on channels 0-5.                                              
     0339  End at SC,PT,KP.                                                     
     0342  End.                                                                 


Downtime Summary:
   Total downtime : 34 min
   Percentage downtime of observing: 9.7%
   Average downtime per hour : 5.8 min

    Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 352 min (8)

Notes:
    * = Entries where data was affected.
    % = Entries where data may have been affected.
    & = Entries where the site tech was called out.
  WEA = Weather entries.
  MF# = Maintenance form or major downtime category associated with a problem.
  %AD = The percentage of an antenna affected by a problem.
  AMD = Total antenna-minutes downtime for a problem.
 Tsys = System Temperature (TP/SP x Tcal/2)
  ACU = Antenna Control Unit
  FRM = Focus/Rotation Mount
  RFI = Radio Frequency Interference
  VME = Site control computer
   CB = Circuit Breaker
 vclock = Program that compares site clock time to a standard.

Operators Notes

SC: No fringes seen.
RFI in BBCs 1-4 at most stations.
Strong RFI spike in BBC #16 at KP.

Data reduction

This was a subarray observation. Observer chose t+20 schedule

refant = LA

arr1 = BR, PT, HN

arr2 = OV, FD, SC

arr3 = KP, NL

Hopefully Walter will help out with the data reduction.

V-FASTR Results

This from Adam

Excellent! I had a look at the v-fastr log and indeed lots of pulses from B0329+54 were seen.  But V-FASTR reviewers tend to silently ignore that pulsar these days :)

I've tarred up all of the V-FASTR "detections" from this observation (so the 0329 real pulses, plus whatever RFI blips are seen, etc) and put them on ftp://ftp.aoc.nrao.edu/staff/adeller/tu002bb.tar.Z, so you can download and look in all the gory detail.

-- KeithBannister - 2013-07-11