Monitoring source variability with the Fast All Sky Telescope

Abstract

AbstractThe proposed Fast All Sky Telescope (FAST) is an interferometer which is intended to monitor the northern four-fifths of the celestial sphere every two days at 8.1 GHz and daily at 2.7 GHz. The design goal is to have a rms sensitivity of 10 mJy/beam at both frequencies. The array is planned to comprise 20 3-meter diameter antennas with a maximum baseline of 0.7 km. FAST will provide a valuable database that may be used to study time variability in a sensitivity limited sample of radio sources. This will significantly impact on the understanding of active Galactic and extragalactic radio sources, as well as on the understanding of radio wave scattering in the interstellar medium.