PED Test Radio Telescope

PED is a test radio telescope interferometer currently under construction by the KAT project at  SAAO. PED will comprise 6 x 2.5m diameter steerable satellite TV dishes arranged as an interferometer and 1 x 3.5m diameter satellite TV dish with fixed pointing for drift-scan experiments. PED has a narrow bandwith (4 MHz), centered around the HI radio astronomy line at 1420 MHz.

The main goals of PED are to serve as a test bed in the development of the software systems for KAT/MeerKAT (including RFI mitigation) and also to provide the KAT team with experience of interferometry prior to the Karoo installation.

The first dish on the evening of the first light experiments at SAAO:

News

• 26 March 2007: FIRST LIGHT!! We connected up the receive chain and dish drive electronics for the first time on the first dish and performed a scan across the sun, followed by some (inconclusive) moon scan measurements and then some measurements of (what we think is) HI in the galactic plane.

The first ever data capture and dish scan. Vertical scan up across the sun. A enthusiastic cheer erupted when we saw the plot! The rise in level at the start of the plot is due to seeing the ground. Time domain data (vertical scale incorrect):

A frequency analysis of 60 sec integrations on and off the galactic plane. The on-plane measurements were in the direction of Orion's belt. We think the signal is likely to be HI. Frequency domain data (vertical scale incorrect):