This week, Javier Gonzalez Garcia from the Observatory of Yebes is on his short-term mission at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR). He uses this visit for acquiring experience in correlation techniques using DifX and transferring it later on to his colleagues currently working at the Yebes Observatory and to young colleagues and students to arrive in the future. His mentor is Helge Rottmann (MPIfR), a DifX developer with long experience. The MPIfR is the best place in Europe to learn DifX since it runs the Bonn correlator devoted to astronomy and geodetic observations.
DifX is the most widely used correlation software and has a vibrant and dynamic community. Currently the Observatory of Yebes “has no experience on using DifX for correlation and would like to acquire knowledge and experience on this tool and eventually form part of the developer’s group.
Experience in Yebes may prove beneficial for the EVN since it may be used for debugging the data acquisition and observations during tests. It is quite common in the EVN to test new modes of observation or new firmware releases. A wide spread expertise in correlation in different observatories across the EVN will probably help and speed up tests and improve in the mid-term the quality of observations.
Correlation capacities at the Observatory of Yebes will help scientists at Yebes to study compactness of sources and ease proposals in other interferometers. These capacities will also help in the study of baseline lengths between the RAEGE telescopes (project for an Atlantic Network of Geodynamical and Space Stations) and allow its monitorization along time. Finally, it may also allow to make estimations of DUT1 using the RAEGE radio telescopes”.
Image (C) RadioNet