Finding new calibrators or improving our knowledge of existing ones is an on-going process. Please send comments, information, images, etc, on calibrators to the calibrators group (calibrators@atnf.csiro.au).

Searching for a calibrator

You can search for calibrators near a given position using the following form. This searches primarily the ATCA and VLA calibrator manuals (though in the absence of information from these sources, data from a variety of sources is reproduced as a guide). Optionally you can set a lower limit on the flux density at a particular wavelength. Note: Setting a flux limit in the 20cm or 13cm bands while searching the new calibrator database will translate to the same flux limit in the new 16cm band. Setting a flux limit in the 15mm band while searching the old calibrator database will translate to the same flux limit in the old 12mm band (which is exactly the same as the 15mm band, only named differently).

Position: Search radius (deg): Search (New DB) Search (Old DB)
Optional flux limit (Jy): at wavelength 20cm   13cm   6cm   3cm   15mm   7mm   3mm

The RA and Dec portions of the coordinate should be separated by a comma. Coordinates can be in the form hh:mm:ss,dd:mm:ss or in decimal hours and degrees in the J2000 frame. Alternatively the name of a source can be given, and the Sesame name resolver is used to convert this to a position.

Characteristics of a calibrator

Alternatively, you can retrieve what we know about existing calibrators with the following form.

Calibrator Name: Search (New DB) Search (Old DB)

Calibrator names follow a B1950 convention (e.g. use 1934-638 for source PKSB1934-638).

Table of calibrators

The following form can be used to generate a table of all the calibrators within a particular region. Enter the range in RA and Dec in decimal hours and degrees respectively (the default is the entire southern hemisphere).

RA range:    Dec range: Search (New DB) Search (Old DB)
Optional flux limit (Jy): at wavelength 20cm   13cm   6cm   3cm   15mm   7mm   3mm

Also see ...

• The calibrator cycle time calculator.
• A list of recommended calibrators for narrowband bandpass and CACAL use.
• Two memos describing the ATCA flux scale at centimetre (John Reynolds) and 12-mm (Bob Sault) wavelength.
• The VLA calibrator manual is also available on-line.
• The OVRO and SMA web calibrator search engines.
• The SEST SiO pointing sources. Mira variables are point-like.
• The current RA and Dec of the planets.
• Characterisation of some candidates.
• The ATCA calibrator project (C007).

Acknowledgement

Bob Duncan produced the original list of ATCA calibrators, which was further refined by John Reynolds. The information here is derived from work by David McConnell, Bob Sault, Steven Tingay and the C007 group.
The "New" calibrator database is based on both manual reduction of C007 observations and an automatic reduction pipeline that uses all CABB observations of calibrators in the ATCA and VLA lists. It should still be considered experimental. Please send all feedback/suggestions for the new database to Jamie Stevens.

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Original: Bob Sault (13-Jul-2000)
Modified: Michael Dahlem (9-Oct-2007), Phil Edwards (16-Oct-2007), Jamie Stevens (30-Apr-2011)