Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy Radio Observatory Report

Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy Radio Observatory Report Antonis Polatidis ASTRON is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) 1

Development Work / Issues • 8 new stations ready to integrate in the array (in final stage of validation) - 6 Core stations, 2 Remote. • LOFAR Mo. M being tested. • SAS/MAC related : Ø Work ongoing to kickstart and observe with Tautenburg Ø Test the integration of the 8 new stations (today) ØSetting up stations for pulsar observations OK CEP has to be started separately. Ø combining arbitrary groups of stations for recording Ø stability of SAS/MAC system being tested now. • Problem with CS 002: Blown fuse 2

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Observations • Imaging BW 5: Testing wide-field imaging with LBA in a field with bright point sources (Obs 251) • Test observation of pulsar B 1508+55 to check whether day -to-day variations were due to snow. Under Consideration: • Imaging BW 5: 10 -75 MHz observations of the 3 C 196 field (Obs 243) • Cas A observation with as many HBA stations as possible 5

� “Busy Week” plans Busy Weeks § 25 Jan - 29 Jan: Imaging BW 5 in Leiden § 15 Feb - 19 Feb: “Control & Metadata” BW 1 § 15 Mar - 19 Mar: “Control & Metadata” BW 2 To test the flow of an observation and its metadata from beginning (North. Star/Mo. M) to the end (Archive). 6

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