Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Batty, Michael J..
Arc-second position measurements of the active star HD 36705 (AB Dor) and of the variable radio source found nearby are presented. These measurements show that the radio source is clearly identified with HD 36705 and not with the nearby red-dwarf star Rst 137B.
Redshifts and low-resolution spectral data are presented for 47 objects, most of which are QSOs identified with flat-spectrum radio sources from the Parkes 2.7 GHz survey. These data were taken with the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope using both the IPCS and FORS spectrographs. The total spectral coverage is 3200-9500 A. Three objects are optical counterparts identified with IRAS sources.
A complete sample of about 400 flat-spectrum radio sources from the Parkes 2700 MHz catalog with fluxes of greater than 0.5 is presented. The present sample covers all right ascensions and declinations from +10 deg to -45 deg, but excludes the galactic plane. No significant difference is found in the number-magnitude or number-redshift distributions for the flat spectrum and steep-spectrum radio quasars, in agreement with previous results for stronger sources.
A red CCD image of the galaxy identified with the compact southern radio source 1934-638 shows it to consist of two compact components enclosed within a low-surface-brightness nebulosity. Comparison of accurate radio and optical positions shows that the radio source is coincident with the brighter of the two components and that 1934-638 is unlikely to be a dust-lane galaxy like Centaurus A.
The recent upgrading of the Tidbinbilla two-element interferometer to simultaneous S-band (2.3 GHz) and X-band (8.4 GHz) operation has provided a powerful new astronomical facility for weak radio source measurement in the Southern Hemisphere. The new X-band system has a minimum fringe spacing of 38 arcsec, and about the same positional measurement capability (approximately 2 arcsec) and sensitivity (1 s rms noise of 10 mJy) as the previous S-band system. However, the far lower confusion limit will allow detection and accurate positional measurements for sources as weak as a few millijanskys. This capability will be invaluable for observations of radio stars, X-ray sources and other weak, compact radio sources.