Missing radio source coordinates in G/T measurement technique ITU-R S.733.2

Question

Section 3 ‘Suitable radio stars’ of this recommendation lists the different stars/nebula and their corresponding flux-densities that can be used in the G/T measurement. There is no reference to the coordinates these flux densities were measured at. Some of the Nebula have large angular extension and I’m not sure where to point my antenna.

Is there a list of celestial coordinates of the radio stars used in this recommendation?

http://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/s/R-REC-S.733-2-200001-I!!PDF-E.pdf

Answer 1

The exact center coordinates and the angular sizes of the nebulae are probably largely irrelevant. I'm not sure how large your antenna is, but the angular resolution of individual radio dishes is typically pretty poor (hence the practice of radio interferometry in radio astronomy). For instance, if you are observing at a frequency of 1 GHz with a 3 meter dish, your angular resolution is about 6 degrees on the sky. In general, your resolution is inversely proportional to your dish size, with

$\theta \sim \lambda / D$,

where $\theta$ is your resolution in radians, $\lambda$ is the wavelength, and $D$ is the diameter of your dish. If your source is smaller than your resolution, then the large scale structure does not matter.

If you take any of the best northern hemisphere options, Cas A, Cyg A, or Taurus A, and point to the coordinates you find on wikipedia, you should do just fine for calibrating your antenna.