A clean antenna lobe pattern is always very important in Radio Astronomy.
Stronger sources can "create" extra ,phantom sources in the recordings.
Antenna lobe patterns can be tested by doing a simple drift scan using the
Sun as a reference source. Below are the solar drift scan graphs for both
antennas.
Both antennas have very similar beam patterns, some small asymmetries, but in all
no prominent side lobe responses. All is only relative however, in the presence of
an exceptionally strong source like the Sun, many sidelobe responses are evident
when doing a scan during the daytime. It is not possible with this system to do
daytime observations of sources < 30....50Jy.
Some of the older recordings were extracted from PICOLOG DOS version and for
that reason have different screen presentation.
Receiver settings for most of the above records :
Detector output ~ 100.....300mV , a.c. gain x3 , differentiator T.C. ~ 10 mins.
Integration T.C. 30 secs. d.c. gain x200......x400
Since July 2003 the data acquisition system was changed to SKY PIPE.
Below are some recent recordings using Sky Pipe :
