The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) Survey

UAT08.01 Scavenger Hunt #0: Observing Sunday Afternoon

The purpose of this scavenger hunt is to introduce you to the ALFALFA observing documentation and to get you to think about how ALFA sweeps across the sky. To participate in the scavenger hunt, you need to keep track of how you found and the sources(!) of your answers; Your method is as important as the answers! Certainly you need to be sure your information sources are reliable!

On Sunday afternoon, we have been allocated a short block of telescope time to demonstrate the observing setup from 3:45 to 5 pm AST.
1. What is the ALFALFA observing block designation for this observing period?
2. What is the drift designation and the declination of the planned observation?
3. What does J2000 refer to?
4. What is the UT at 3:45 pm AST?
5. Do we have an issue with the ALFA cover today?
6. What is the LST time at 3:45 pm AST?
  To answer these questions about LST/AST conversions, don't just lift the numbers from Martha's schedule! How did she figure it out?
7. What is the ending LST of our observations?
8. If we start observing at 3:55 pm, how many individual "ALFALFA drifts" will be acquired during this observing period?
9. How does the LST time AT THE MOMENT WE OBSERVE correspond to the Right Ascension in the FINAL dataset we construct?
  The answer isn't as simple as it might appear --- why not?
10. We do not normally observe in the afternoon. Why not?
11. What are the declinations that will correspond to each of the six ALFA beams? Be sure to indicate numerically each beam according to ALFA convention.
Consider how your answers will be different for the observing period scheduled to start at 12:30am Monday morning. What will be different and what will be the same?
Why will some of our code not run on the machine called "remote.naic.edu"? What AO machines should you use? What are the considerations?
Why do you think we ALFALFAeros often begin lists with "0" not "1" (e.g. this is Hunt #0)?

Now you are ready to try out Hunt #1!

This page created by and for the members of the ALFALFA Survey Undergraduate team

Last modified: Fri Jan 11 11:07:23 AST 2008 by Martha