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We present a graphical interface designed to demonstrate the techniques of radio interferometry used by telescopes like ALMA, e-Merlin, the JVLA and SKA, in a manner accessible to the general public. Interferometry is an observational tech- nique used by astronomers to combine the signal from a few to tens to hundreds of individual small antennas to achieve high resolution images at radio and millimetre wavelengths. This graphical interface demonstrates how the number of antenna, their position relative to one another and the rotation of the Earth allow astronomers to create highly detailed images at long wavelengths., Comment: Accepted for Publication in the European Journal of Physics; 13 pages, 6 figures

We present radio observations of the magnetic chemically peculiar Bp star HR Lup (HD 133880) at 647 and 277 MHz with the GMRT. At both frequencies the source is not detected but we are able to determine upper limits to the emission. The 647 MHz limits are particularly useful, with a 5\sigma\ value of 0.45 mJy. Also, no large enhancements of the emission were seen. The non-detections, along with previously published higher frequency detections, provide evidence that an optically thick gyrosynchrotron model is the correct mechanism for the radio emission of HR Lup., Comment: 7 pages, accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India, to appear in the June issue

GALFACTS is a large-area spectro-polarimetric survey on the Arecibo Radio telescope. It uses the seven-beam focal plane feed array receiver system (ALFA) to carry out an imaging survey project of the 12,700 square degrees of sky visible from Arecibo at 1.4 GHz with 8192 spectral channels over a bandwidth of 300 MHz sampled at 1 millisecond. The aggregate data rate is 875 MB/s. GALFACTS observations will create full-Stokes image cubes at an angular resolution of 3.5' with a band-averaged sensitivity of 90 $\mu$Jy, allowing sensitive imaging of polarized radiation and Faraday Rotation Measure from both diffuse emission and extragalactic sources. GALFACTS is a scientific pathfinder to the SKA in the area of cosmic magnetism. Key to magnetism science with the SKA is the technique of RM synthesis. The technique of RM synthesis is introduced and we discuss practical aspects of RM synthesis including efficient computational techniques and detection thresholds in the resulting Faraday spectrum. We illustrate the use of the technique by presenting the current development of the RM synthesis pipeline for GALFACTS and present early results., Comment: 4 page, 2 figures, will appear proceedings of ADASS XXI

In this paper we present follow-up optical observations of Ultra Steep Spectrum sources that were found by matching 150 MHz GMRT sources with either the 74 MHz VLSS or the 1400 MHz NVSS. These sources are possibly high-redshift radio galaxies but optical identification is required for clarification. The follow-up observations were conducted with the Liverpool Telescope; in all cases no sources are detected down to an R magnitude of ~23. By applying models and using the K-z relation we are able to suggest that these sources are possibly at high redshift. We discuss how 2m class telescopes can help with the identification of HzRGs from large-scale, low-frequency surveys., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India

Detection thresholds in polarized intensity and polarization bias correction are investigated for surveys where the polarization information is obtained from RM synthesis. Considering unresolved sources with a single rotation measure, a detection threshold of $8 \sigma_{QU}$ applied to the Faraday spectrum will retrieve the RM with a false detection rate less than $10^{-4}$, but polarized intensity is more strongly biased than Ricean statistics suggest. For a detection threshold of $5 \sigma_{QU}$, the false detection rate increases to ~4%, depending also on $\lambda^2$ coverage and the extent of the Faraday spectrum. Non-Gaussian noise in Stokes Q and U due to imperfect imaging and calibration can be represented by a distribution that is the sum of a Gaussian and an exponential. The non-Gaussian wings of the noise distribution increase the false detection rate in polarized intensity by orders of magnitude. Monte-Carlo simulations assuming non-Gaussian noise in Q and U, give false detection rates at $8 \sigma_{QU}$ similar to Ricean false detection rates at $4.9 \sigma_{QU}$., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia

The field of extrasolar planets is still, in comparison with other astrophysical topics, in its infancy. There have been about 300 or so extrasolar planets detected and their detection has been accomplished by various different techniques. Here we present a simple laboratory experiment to show how planets are detected using the transit technique. Following the simple analysis procedure describe we are able to determine the planetary radius to be 1.27 +/- 0.20 R_{J} which, within errors agrees with the establish value of 1.32 +/- 0.25 R_{J}., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, published in Physics Education

The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory Deep Field polarization study has been matched with the Spitzer Wide-Area Infrared Extragalactic survey of the European Large Area Infrared Space Observatory Survey North 1 field. We have used VLA observations with a total intensity rms of 87 microJy beam^-1 to match SWIRE counterparts to the radio sources. Infrared color analysis of our radio sample shows that the majority of polarized sources are elliptical galaxies with an embedded active galactic nucleus. Using available redshift catalogs, we found 429 radio sources of which 69 are polarized with redshifts in the range of 0.04 < z <3.2. We find no correlation between redshift and percentage polarization for our sample. However, for polarized radio sources, we find a weak correlation between increasing percentage polarization and decreasing luminosity., Comment: 35 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Before the age of modern photographic and CCD observations alpha Cassiopeiae was labelled as a variable star, though this variability has not been seen with modern instrumentation. We present an analysis of 3 years of high precision space-based photometric measurements of the suspected variable star alpha Cassiopeiae, obtained by the broad band Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) instrument on board the Coriolis satellite. Over the 3 years of observations the star appears to not show any significant variability. Also, data from the Hipparcos epoch photometry annex shows no significant variability., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

We present results of a 150 MHz survey of a field centered on Epsilon Eridani, undertaken with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The survey covers an area with a diameter of 2 deg, has a spatial resolution of 30" and a noise level of 3.1 mJy at the pointing centre. These observations provide a deeper and higher resolution view of the 150 MHz radio sky than the 7C survey (although the 7C survey covers a much larger area). A total of 113 sources were detected, most are point-like, but 20 are extended. We present an analysis of these sources, in conjunction with the NVSS (at 1.4 GHz) and VLSS (at 74 MHz). This process allowed us to identify 5 Ultra Steep Spectrum (USS) radio sources that are candidate high redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs). In addition, we have derived the dN/dS distribution for these observations and compare our results with other low frequency radio surveys., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present results from new low frequency observations of two extrasolar planetary systems (Epsilon Eridani and HD128311) taken at 150 MHz with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). We do not detect either system, but are able to place tight upper limits on their low frequency radio emission., Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, From Planets to Dark Energy: the Modern Radio Universe, POS(MRU) 098

Extrasolar planets are expected to emit detectable low frequency radio emission. In this paper we present results from new low frequency observations of two extrasolar planetary systems (Epsilon Eridani and HD 128311) taken at 150 MHz with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). These two systems have been chosen because the stars are young (with ages < 1 Gyr) and are likely to have strong stellar winds, which will increase the expected radio flux. The planets are massive (presumably) gas giant planets in longer period orbits, and hence will not be tidally locked to their host star (as is likely to be the case for short period planets) and we would expect them to have a strong planetary dynamo and magnetic field. We do not detect either system, but are able to place tight upper limits on their low frequency radio emission, at levels comparable to the theoretical predictions for these systems. From these observations we have a 2.5sigma limit of 7.8 mJy for Epsilon Eri and 15.5 mJy for HD 128311. In addition, these upper limits also provide limits on the low frequency radio emission from the stars themselves. These results are discussed and also the prospects for the future detection of radio emission from extrasolar planets., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS