Progress of the MOST Galactic Survey

Abstract

AbstractThe Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST), operating at a frequency of 843 MHz, is currently surveying the southern galactic plane between 245° <l<360° and −1.5°<b<1.5°. The resolution of the survey is 43″ (HPBW), providing radio continuum maps of unprecedented resolution and sensitivity (1 mJy/beam) in this part of the sky. The survey involves 12-hour synthesis observations of over four hundred fields, each extending over one degree. Eighty of these have been mapped in the past year, bringing the number now completed to three hundred. The survey is revealing many faint structures with intriguing morphology, including filamentary emission associated with the Vela supernova remnant, and a number of very weak (<5 mJy/beam) disc-like objects.