C-BASS South Commissioning
A blog following the commissioning of a radio telescope called CBASS South, the southern hemisphere part of the C-Band All Sky Survey at 5 GHz. Follow us as we finish testing in Oxford then get the receiver working and attached to the dish at Hartebeesthoek Radio Observatory, near Johannesburg South Africa.
2nd March 2014 - Road trip!
So far we have been commissioning the telescope from HartRAO, outside Johannesburg. However, this is not C-BASS south's final resting place. In a few months we will be moving the receiver and digital back end from it's current dish to an identical one in the Karoo desert (circa 900km away)... a lovely dry spot with little interference from pesky mobile phone signals or wifi.
21st February 2014 - (Nearly) Final testing of the telescope
Luke, Mike and I have travelled back to South Africa to hopefully do the final testing of the C-BASS antenna. We want to try and test the response of the telescope to something we know - a transmitter on a hillside - so that we can then compare that to what we measure in the sky. It's a fairly tricky experiment to do as you need to transmit a signal that you know the brightness and angle of very accurately. You also want to make sure that you don't pick up reflections from everything around you.
27th November 2013 - The best laid plans...
Angela and Mike took me (Luke – their new Dphil student) to HartRAO in November where we met up with Charles for an intense two weeks of commissioning.
19th March 2013 - Back home, but not for long
So after a busy trip, Jamie and I had to come back to the UK to cover our teaching commitments but most importantly to try and recruit a new research student to work with us on C-BASS.
2nd - 9th March - testing, testing, testing ... hippos and food poisoning
Testing carried on all week and Charlie also got all the electronics in the lab working again too.
1st March 2013 - When it rains, it really rains
I spoke too soon about the weather! It does rain here...
and when it does it is pretty severe. With thunder and lighting and massive raindrops. To be honest, we did know that there were going to be afternoon thunderstorms, but they are pretty exciting when they come through. We had to quickly cover C-BASS up so that it didn't get wet. Until the receiver goes onto the telescope, the feedhorn is open to the elements and could fill up with water if we are not careful.
26th - 28th February 2013 - Unpacking and re-building C-BASS
It been a busy few days as we slowly unpacked all the crates and start to put C-BASS back together again.
25th February 2013 - C-BASS has landed
Jamie and I landed in Johannesberg at 10am this morning and were met by Charles at the airport. We drove over to the observtory and by complete chance arrived at the exact same time as C-BASS was being delivered.
24th February 2013 - The last C-BASS supper
So the C-BASS shipping crates flew over the weekend and arrived in Johannesberg on the 19th February. It took a couple of days for them to get cleared through customs but they made it and are due to be delivered to the observatory on Monday.
Jamie and I are flying out to Johannesberg tomorrow night and will get to HartRAO on Monday. We'll be met by Charles and then its time to start the unpacking and re-commissioning of the receiver. Can't wait to get going - oh, and to finally see the sun again. It's been so cold and grey here in Oxford.
12th February 2013 - time to pack
The day has finally arrived to pack everything up. Charles has already left for South Africa and Mike is away at a meeting in Australia, so it's left to Jamie and I to pack everything up (with a bit of help from the shipping company and our helpful colleagues in the Physics workshop and stores).
The cryostat is being put into a special crate of its own with tip and tilt monitors so that we can check if it incurs any damage on route.
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