High-sensitivity L-band EVN 512 Mbit/s observations

As part of the standard 2-head, 512 Mbit/sec 18cm NME (session 1/2002), it was possible to assess the performance of the EVN (in terms of image noise achieved).

A faint target source was chosen for this NME, in order to avoid dynamic range limitations. The data were correlated at JIVE in two passes. The source FIRST_051 was observed in a phase-referencing mode, the calibrator was J1159+2914. The calibrator source was imaged prior to phase-referencing, a dynamic range of about 5000:1 was achieved (see image below).

Due to the recently improved positions of the EVN antennas, the phases of the calibrator and the target sources were better aligned than in previous experiments. The faint target (~ 10 mJy) was strong enough to self-calibrate. The noise in the final image (below) is about 20 microJy/beam, around the level expected for a total (on-source) integration time of ~ 150 minutes.