SOURCE ANALYSIS ON RADIO MAPS FROM THE CAMBRIDGE LOW-FREQUENCY SYNTHESIS TELESCOPE

An earlier paper by Waldram & McGilchrist has described the use of bea m-sets in the analysis of wide-field maps from the Cambridge Low Frequ ency Synthesis Telescope (CLFST) to produce source catalogues. There t he main emphasis was on the application of the method to unresolved po int sources. This paper contains more details of source analysis on th e CLFST, including the treatment of extended, complex and confused sou rces. We consider the errors - in particular, ionosphere phase errors - which can affect the synthesized beam-shape and hence the accuracy o f the source parameters. Our aim is to make the whole process of reduc tion of maps to source catalogues as automatic and objective as possib le.