Astronomical Research and Operations of the Haystack Radio Telescope

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ABSTRACT AST-9420454. Salah, Joseph E. The 37m-diameter Haystack radio telescope is the primary astronomical instrument of the Haystack Observatory, a facility owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and operated under agreement with MIT by the Northeast Radio Observatory Corporation (NEROC), a nonprofit consortium of 13 educational and research institutions. The Observatory is a broadly multidisciplinary facility, and includes not only the 37m Haystack Radio Telescope, but atmospheric and satellite tracking radars and research groups, lidars, and geodetic and astronomical VLBI groups. The Haystack radio telescope was built in 1964, primarily for use as a radar antenna in the 8-10 GHz range. At present, more than 80% of telescope time is used for radio astronomy. In the middle 1980's, a series of upgrades to the antenna were carried out which have permitted reasonably efficient operation at 7mm wavelength and limited operation at 115 GHz. Observing time at Haystack is made available to qualified astronomers solely on the basis of scientific merit. This award will support astronomical research and education with the 37m antenna for a period of three years. Graduate and undergraduate research projects will be encouraged in order to provide training opportunities for students in scientific research, experiment design and instrumentation development and usage. Observations with the telescope during this period will exploit the antenna's abilities to make high-resolution 3mm maps of astronomical objects on arcminute scales in the continuum as well as in a number of molecular transitions. This work will help reveal physical conditions within dense molecular cloud cores, thus enhancing understanding of the star formation process, and will probe the structure of radio sources within the Galaxy. A search will also be carried out for highly redshifted emission from quasars in order to investigate the interstellar processes which occur in young galaxies. ***