[alma-config]multiplication of synthesized beam by primary beam in optimization

[Bryan Butler]

all,

dave woody's (very nice, i might say :) presentation on configuration
design at the NRAO synthesis imaging summer school has re-kindled the
discussion between he and leonia regarding whether the synthesized
beam should be down-weighted by the primary beam when comparing
configurations.  at the risk of mis-representing, i summarize as
follows: dave thinks you *should* downweight by the PB, always; leonia
thinks you *shouldn't*, except in a special case (sources of interest
only near the field center).  dave & leonia, correct me if i'm wrong
here.  i should remind folks that this is *not* in the mosaicing case,
but rather the single-field imaging case.

we went 'round a bit on this just after the configuration CDR in
january (see the thread in the email archives which begins at:
http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/pipermail/alma-config/2002-January/000488.html
[sort the messages by thread, and then just follow them through for
several messages] or:
http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/pipermail/alma-config/2002-January/000497.html
in fact, look at all the messages from january of 2002 - most of them
are related to this discussion).

as far as i was concerned, we never reached consensus on this.  what
are the thoughts of the others in this list on this topic?


	-bryan