Watson, Robert A.; Carreira, Pedro; Cleary, Kieran; Davies, Rod D.; Davis, Richard J.; Dickinson, Clive; Grainge, Keith; Gutiérrez, C. M.; Hobson, Michael P.; Jones, Michael E.; Kneissl, Rüdiger; Lasenby, Anthony; Maisinger, Klaus; Pooley, Guy G.; Rebolo, R.; Rubiño-Martin, J. A.; Rusholme, Ben; Saunders, Richard D. E.; Savage, Richard; Scott, Paul F.; Slosar, Anže; Sosa Molina, P. J.; Taylor, Angela C.; Titterington, David; Waldram, Elizabeth; Wilkinson, Althea
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 341, Issue 4, pp. 1057-1065.
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6
2003
Citations
83
Refereed citations
70
Description
The Very Small Array (VSA) is a synthesis telescope designed to image
faint structures in the cosmic microwave background on degree and
sub-degree angular scales. The VSA has key differences from other CMB
interferometers with the result that different systematic errors are
expected. We have tested the operation of the VSA with a variety of
blank-field and calibrator observations, and cross-checked its
calibration scale against independent measurements. We find that
systematic effects can be suppressed below the thermal noise level in
long observations; the overall calibration accuracy of the flux density
scale is 3.5 per cent and is limited by the external absolute
calibration scale.