[evla-sw-discuss] Some thoughts about pointing

[Michael Rupen]

> Basebands and subbands.
>
> I am inclined to think that we should do pointing with a single
> subband.  I think that doing more costs more due to more exposure
> to interference and other problems than is gained by better SNR.


This makes sense for the regular pointing runs, but I am not sure
such a restriction is desirable for referenced pointing.  Here one
may want to use weaker sources which are closer to the target,
especially at high frequencies; in these cases stacking subbands
is a useful exercise.

This will likely become even more of an issue as we try to achieve
higher dynamic range images, requiring better knowledge of the pointing;
admittedly that's more of an issue at the low frequencies, where source
confusion and interference become painful.  I would guess this still
leaves some interesting parameter space, at C and X bands for instance, but
perhaps Sanjay can comment here.

            Michael