Primary Beam

The ultimate factor limiting the field of view is the diffraction-limited response of the individual antennas. An approximate formula for the full width at half power in arcminutes is: θPB = 45/νGHz. More precise measurements of the primary beam shape have been derived and are incorporated in AIPS (task PBCOR) and CASA (clean task and the imaging toolkit) to allow for correction of the primary beam attenuation in wide-field images. Objects larger than approximately half this angle cannot be directly observed by the array. However, a technique known as "mosaicing," in which many different pointings are taken, can be used to construct images of larger fields. Refer to References 1 and 2 in Documentation for details.

Guidelines for mosaicing with the VLA are given in the Guide to Observing with the VLA

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