A low frequency radio telescope at Mauritius for a southern sky survey.

Abstract

A new, meter-wave radio telescope has been built in the north-east of Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, at a latitude of -20.14°. The Maritius Radio Telescope is a Fourier Synthesis T-shaped array, consisting of a 2048 m long East-West arm and an 800 m long South arm. The primary objective of the telkescope is to produce a sky survey in the declination range -70° to -10° with a point source sensitivity of about 200 mJy. This will be the southern sky equivalent of the Cambridge 6C survey. The authors describe the telescope, discuss the array design and the calibration techniques used, and present a map made using the telescope.