Thursday 3 May at 3pm

Wayne Holland - JAC - "SCUBA : Current performance and future upgrades"

and Tim Jenness - JAC - "SCUBA observing techniques and data reduction pipeline"

ABSTRACTS:

SCUBA : Current performance and future upgrades

"The Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) has now been in regular operation on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) for 2 years. During this time it has made significant contributions to almost all areas of astronomy -- from the imaging of near-Earth comets to measurements of the S-Z effect in galaxy clusters. A brief description of the instrument is presented highlighting some of the unique features; the current performance on the telescope is discussed with particular emphasis on the imaging capabilities (recent science highlights are also presented to illustrate this). An upgrade programme was initiated in Nov 1998, and the first phase of this work should be complete by fall 1999. This programme will concentrate on sensitivity improvements -- particularly in dry, high-frequency weather, reducing the number of noisy pixels, and improving the overall transmission of the instrument. New and novel observing modes are also being developed. With recent advances in bolometer technology, potentially allowing many hundreds (or even thousands) of pixels in the image plane, the prospects of a new, wide-field camera for the JCMT are also briefly discussed. "

SCUBA observing techniques and data reduction pipeline

"The arrival of the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) presented JCMT with data reduction requirements that are very different from our previous experience with continuum observing. A description of the current SCUBA observing modes and data reduction techniques will be presented with particular emphasis on the scan (raster) mapping and imaging polarimetry observing modes, sky-noise removal, and the new data reduction pipeline that was released in March 1999. The data reduction pipeline can automatically reduce an entire night of data including extinction correction, flux calibration and coadding. "