Beam and Efficiencies

Table  lists the size of the telescope beam for the range of frequencies of interest. Forward and main beam efficiencies are also shown (see also the note by U. Lisenfeld and A. Sievers, IRAM Newsletter No. 47, Feb. 2001). The variation of the coupling efficiency to sources of different sizes can be estimated from plots in Greve et al. [12]. At 1.3 mm (and a fortiori at shorter wavelengths) a large fraction of the power pattern is distributed in an error beam which can be approximated by two Gaussians of FWHP $\simeq 170''$ and $800''$ (see [12] for details). Astronomers should take into account this error beam when converting antenna temperatures into brightness temperatures. A variable and sometimes large contribution to the error beam was known to come from telescope astigmatism[3]. Extensive work during the last years had shown that the astigmatism resulted from temperature differences between the telescope backup structure and the yoke. The recent installation of heaters in the yoke by J. Peñalver has nearly completely removed the astigmatism[15].

Table: Main observational parameters of 30m telescope.

frequency	$\theta_b$ ['']	$\eta_F$	$\eta_{mb}$	$S_\nu$/T$_A^{\ast}$
[GHz]	(1)	(2)	(3)	[Jy/K]
86	29	0.95	0.78	6.0
110	22	0.95	0.75	6.3
145	17	0.93	0.69	6.7
170	14.5	0.93	0.65	7.1
210	12	0.91	0.57	7.9
235	10.5	0.91	0.51	8.7
260	9.5	0.88	0.46	9.5
279	9	0.88	0.42	10.4

(1) beam width (FWHP). A fit to all data gives: $\theta_b$ [''] = 2460 / frequency [GHz]
(2) forward efficiency (coupling efficiency to sky)
(3) main beam efficiency. Based on a fit of measured data to the Ruze formula:
$\eta_{\rm mb}=1.2\epsilon \exp(-(4\pi R \sigma/\lambda)^2)$
with $\epsilon=0.69$ and $R\sigma=0.07$