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NAIC/AO Newsletter No. 19
The following paragraphs summarize the three different categories of NAIC instrumentation that we expect to see at the Observatory in the years ahead. Most of the effort in the area of user-owned equipment and user-owned-public-access equipment has been in the area of pulsar research, but this need not be entirely the case. For example, there may be people who wish to bring acousto-optic spectrometers for different broad-band spectroscopic projects. In any case, we will be working to develop a suite of facility instruments with which we will try to satisfy the needs of as many users as possible in the areas of spectroscopy, continuum measurements and polarimetry, and also pulsar astronomy. We have already developed a new generation of instruments for atmospheric science around the 430-MHz radar. A system tailored to the S-band solar system radar is currently nearing completion. A powerful 32,768-channel spectral line correlator with four separately tunable inputs per polarization should be available by firs
I am happy to inform you that the Pennsylvania State Pulsar Machine (PSPM) developed by Alex Wolszczan and collaborators has been the first instrument to enter the "user-owned-public-access" category. Also, the Princeton Mk III Timing Machine and Clock Calibrators have been added to this category just as this article goes to press--let's hear it for the Tigers!
Progress has recently been reported by Don Backer on the construction of the Arecibo-Berkeley Pulsar Processor (see http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mpulsar/bpp/bpp.htm). His current plan is to commission this processor by fall here at AO and it will become generally available afterwards. I hope and expect that several other existing and soon-to-be-completed systems will follow. This should be beneficial to all concerned.
It is also appropriate to mention some other instrumentation that have recently arrived at Arecibo thanks to support from a number of other institutions. We have received from JPL a hydrogen maser on long-term loan, which should significantly improve our ability to participate in VLBI experiments (see next article). We are negotiating for a loan of a tape recorder system also to be used for this purpose. Furthermore, we have received components for several key receivers from JPL, ex-SETI program, that have greatly assisted our instrumentation efforts. NRAO has been very helpful in this regard as well. Overall, it is really impressive to me how much support NAIC has received from a wide variety of users and other institutions--and I want to emphasize that in the present financially constricted times this makes a real difference.
In the post-upgrade era, NAIC very much wishes to continue making Arecibo a telescope for which users can develop custom instrumentation. We also feel it is very important that we allow the widest possible variety of users to carry out their scientific projects at Arecibo. A result of this is the necessity to balance facility equipment with that supplied by users. Both for success in science and for training graduate students, we want to make Arecibo available to anyone whose proposals get approved for time on the telescope, but also want to encourage the development of specialized instrumentation.
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