News from the 30m Telescope

Staff News

Albrecht Sievers is now working in the Computer Group of IRAM Granada. He will still be available as a Friend of the Telescope and have some time to pursue his scientific projects.

Pointing of the 30m Telescope

A team from the Spanish National Geographical Institute (IGN) has determined the telescope's deviation from the vertical. These data combined with inclinometer measurements will be used to further improve our pointing model.

Access to the 30m Telescope

Large parts of the Sierra Nevada have been declared a Nature Park. This has the consequence that a special identification is required to access the observatory by car. During night time also a key is required to open a gate to the access road. Visitors who want to go to the telescope by taxi or rental car should contact Javier Lobato (lobato@iram.es) or Esther Franzin (franzin@iram.es) several days in advance.

Pico Veleta photos available

Juan Peñalver has compiled a CD-ROM with photos from the Pico Veleta Observatory and the 30-m telescope. If you are interested in a copy, send him an email (penalver@iram.es).

Sideband rejection measurements

The observer can now determine the rejection of the image sideband (G_i) for any of our heterodyne receivers using the OBS command CALIBRATE /SSB rxname. This command measures the value of G_i using a Martin-Puplett-Interferometer (but does not automatically change G_i in OBS).

Under normal circumstances it is not necessary to use this command since a high rejection is obtained in the automatic tuning process. It might be useful if one is looking for very weak lines in ``crowded'' sources like Orion or SgrB2, for frequencies close to the limits of the tuning range or if an extremely small calibration uncertainty of a few percent is required. For more information use the HELP command in OBS.

Rainer MAUERSBERGER