Radio interferometers form part of the new generation of high resolution, high sensitivity instruments. MERLIN and EVN observations which compliment the HST, XMM and other deep fields are revealing hitherto unseen populations of sources. The star formation history of the Universe, the details of protostellar and protoplanetary discs, the processes in an AGN or an X-Ray binary are just some of the outstanding questions in astronomy which radio observations help to answer.

Present instruments have milli-arcsec or even micro-arcsec resolution and spectral lines can be observed with a fractional resolution of one part in 10^6 or 10^7. Demands for observing time are becoming ever more competitive and new techniques are being developed for analysing the increasing volumes of data. Within the next decade, major upgrades and new instruments will become available.

This School is designed to help UK and other astronomers make the best use of radio interferometers, now and in the future.

Topics to be covered include:

• Introduction to synthesis imaging. Applications involving new instruments eg ALMA will be included, as well as exisiting interferometers like MERLIN and VLBI networks - all present and potential users welcome!
• The capabilities of radio telescopes.
• Basic data reduction techniques.
• Interpreting results and error analysis.
• Radio astronomy in the 2000's. Deep fields, the future of the EVN and MERLIN, radio and the rest of the spectrum.
• The nature of radio sources and how to observe them. Choosing an instrument, writing the proposal, what to expect.

These sessions will cover the use of data reduction packages such as AIPS, AIPS++, DIFMAP. There will be a mixture of lectures, demonstrations and hands-on experience and we will provide data and workprograms for you to tackle at your own pace with tutors present.

Fuller details of the agenda are given here. Here is a list of School participants - please notify me of errors/omissions

There is no fee; accomodation and meals will be provided during the School. If you need to stay additional nights please let us know. Vegetarian options will be available at all meals, please contact us if you want this or have any other requirements.
Some information about travel to/from JBO is given here, and links for information about rail and coach transport. Accomodation will be at Hulme Hall ( map) and free coaches will take you between JBO and Manchester each day. If you are arriving on 24 April or earlier, or leaving on Saturday 29 April or later, and have arranged to stay extra nights in Manchester, here are directions for getting to Hulme Hall.

Some people from EC institutes outside The Netherlands may be eligible for help with travel costs. You should have been informed about this in detail but if you have any queries please contact us at once.

Jodrell Bank Observatory is part of the University of Manchester .

If you would like to get more information about the general Manchester area and its sights you might want to try the following webpages:
A1 Tourism Hotel and Guest House Directory - Greater Manchester Area
The Manchester 24 hour city
Cheshire, the area where Jodrell Bank is situated.

How to start AIPS
This link describes starting AIPS on the JBO system, and outlines some basic file management tasks.

The Virtual Radio Interferometer simulates how a radio interferometer works. You need to have Java enabled in your browser.

Here is an overview of simple data processing.

The computing sessions use demonstration runfiles in AIPS. The runfiles and data needed are outlined here.

FLOWCHARTS for DEMO runfiles, including PLOT listings:

BASIC runs through the minimum steps, for start to finish, to make a MERLIN continuum phase referenced map.
GENCAL and its PLOTS show how to calibrate the phase, amplitude and polarisation using calibrator sources.
SELFCAL shows how to self-calibrate a continuum target source.
IMAGE produces plots which illustrate mapping and cleaning in more detail than during a normal mapping process.

LINE1a and LINE1b go through a MERLIN OH maser spectral line calibration and mapping procedure.

VLBDEMO shows how to process VLBI continuum data.

PLOTS from these DEMOS
BASIC BPL.0 BPL.1 BPL.2 BPL.3 BPL.4 BPL.5 BPL.6
GENCAL GPL.0 GPL.1 GPL.2 GPL.3 GPL.4 GPL.5 GPL.6 GPL.7 GPL.8 GPL.9 GPL.10 GPL.11 GPL.12 GPL.13 GPL.14 GPL.15 GPL.16 GPL.17 GPL.18 GPL.19 GPL.20 GPL.21
SELFCAL SPL.0 SPL.1 SPL.2 SPL.3 SPL.4 SPL.5 SPL.6 SPL.7 SPL.8 SPL.9
IMAGE IPL.0 IPL.1 IPL.2 IPL.3 IPL.4 IPL.5 IPL.6 IPL.7 IPL.8 IPL.9 IPL.10 IPL.11 IPL.12 IPL.13 IPL.14 IPL.15
LINE LPL.0 LPL.1 LPL.2 LPL.3 LPL.4 LPL.5 LPL.6 LPL.7 LPL.8 LPL.9 LPL.10 LPL.11 LPL.12 LPL.13 LPL.14 LPL.15 LPL.16 LPL.17 LPL.18 LPL.19 LPL.20 LPL.21

Here is a colour map of the target 3C277.1. For more about the original experiment see Ludke et al. 1998 MNRAS 299, 467.

Here are the MERLIN continuum DEMO RUNFILES BASIC.EHEX GENCAL.EHEX SELFCAL.EHEX IMAGE.EHEX
Here is the MERLIN line DEMO RUNFILE LINE1.EHEX
Here is the VLBI DEMO RUNFILE VLBDEMO.EHEX
NB for the School these are already in /home/school/SCRIPTS

You can get the MERLIN uv data by anonymous ftp:
First email amsr@jb.man.ac.uk fo get the data loaded and then get instructions.
NB for the School the data is already loaded as described in runfiles and data

RUNFILES as described in runfiles and data
3C277.1RUN.tar.Z (also needs 95apr18.d:2.FITS from ftp)
CONTINUUMRUN.tar.Z
LINERUN.tar.Z (also needs 93dec10.d:2.FITS_60 93dec10.d:2.FITS_65 93dec10.d:2.FITS_67)
NB for the School these are already in /home/school/SCRIPTS
and the data is in /home/school/DATA

Thank-you. You can contact us as below.