Refiloe edited subsection_Faint_Images_of_the__.tex  over 8 years ago

Commit id: 45f32a07fca814dbd98de4cc82ed69907a3d8436

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where $T_{sys}$ is the temperature of the interferometer system, $\Deltaν_{RF}$ is the receiver radio-frequency bandwidth, $\tau$ is the duration of the signal received from the interferometers.   The collecting area of circular parabolic radio telescopes is reduced to an effective area because the receiver is on the reflector axis, and together with its supporting legs, the receiver partially blocks the path of radiation falling onto the reflector.One consequence of this blockage is that the effective collecting area is reduced because some of the incoming radiation is blocked.  The effective collecting area Ae (θ, φ) of any antenna averaged over all directions is given by   〈A_e 〉= λ^2/4π  The angular resolution of a diffraction-limited telescope is given by θ ≈λ/D $\theta \approx \frac{\lamba}{D}$  radians (where D is the diameter of the radio telescope dish). dish and $\lambda$ is the wavelength of light).  Large diameters are required to obtain sub-arc second resolution at radio wavelengths. The geometric area of a single dish is(πD^2)/4, while the geometric area of an interferometer with N dishes – (with the basic one as shown in figure 2), given by(NπD^2)/4, can be arbitrarily large. Note that an interferometer can comprise of two or more dishes. This arrangement mitigates many complications associated with single dishes, for example, vulnerability to fluctuations in atmospheric emission and receiver gain, and radio-frequency interference.