The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey and interstellar scattering

The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey is a major survey for pulsars lying with in a 10 degrees -wide strip along the southern Galactic plane, using the mu ltibeam receiver on the Parkes 64-m radiotelescope. It is an international collaboration between groups at Jodrell Bank Observatory, Massachusetts Ins titute of Technology, Bologna Astronomical Observatory and the ATNF. The su rvey commenced in 1997 August, and has so far succeeded in finding more tha n 550 previously unknown pulsars. Many of these are distant, with some beyo nd the centre of the Galaxy according to current models of the interstellar electron density distribution. Interstellar scattering affects the pulse p rofile of many of the more distant pulsars even at 1374 MHz, the centre fre quency of the survey. Preliminary results from the survey are presented.